Buffalo Bills and DT DeShawn Williams finally reach agreement

The Buffalo Bills were interested in signing the veteran defensive end during the 2023 offseason, he said recently in an interview with The Buffalo News, but the two sides were unable to complete the deal.

Williams instead signed a one-year contract with the Carolina Panthers, with whom he appeared in 16 games, making 10 starts and finishing with 33 tackles, one sack and one pass defensed.

When he became a free agent again in March, the Bills and Williams were able to make it happen this time around, agreeing to a one-year contract worth up to $1.155 million.

“I made sure, in talking to (general manager Brandon) Beane and (head coach Sean) McDermott, that I didn’t screw up the second attempt,” Williams said. “I told them when I first came in for Phase 1 (of offseason workouts), ‘I see why you all win.’”

“There’s 31 other teams. You’re on one team, you have tunnel vision for that team and that goal, but when I came for my visit, I saw the coaching staff, the cafeteria, the meeting rooms, all the coaches, all the energy they had. You can feel the sense of urgency here. It’s time to get something done. It’s unbelievable here, man. A team of this caliber, winning games, dominating, for a team like that to want you, I give myself a little pat on the back because the hard work paid off. But now it’s just getting started. It’s time to show them why they brought me here.”

Williams, 31, stands 6-foot-1, 280 pounds and will compete for a defensive tackle role behind projected starters Ed Oliver and DaQuan Jones. Given how often McDermott prefers to rotate players along the defensive line, that could mean decent playing time for Williams if he can earn a spot on the 53-man roster.

“It’s a new system that allows me to use the skills that God gave me,” he said. “You see, they like guys that are wiry, that have a lot of leverage, that have strong hands and can move. Now I can just put it all together and do what I have to do. Coming from a 3-4 system, with a two-gapped, you know, you look at me and you’re like, ‘Are you a two-gapped?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I must have played out of position.’ Now it’s like, ‘Put your hand in the dirt and let’s go.’”

Williams had a good scouting report on the Bills before coming to Buffalo. He is the cousin of Shaq Lawson, a former Bills first-round pick who spent six seasons with the team during two tours. Williams and Lawson grew up together in Central, South Carolina, and lived so close that Williams said you could throw a rock from his backyard and hit Lawson’s house. They both attended the same school, from elementary school through college at Clemson.

Lawson remains an unsigned free agent after spending the last two years with the Bills.

“Yeah, he’s my buddy, man. I wish he was here,” Williams said. “He’s family. He’s my guy. … I’m going to put on a show for him. He gave me a lot of insights into what they were looking for when I got here, so it’s been a good transition.”

Williams went undrafted out of Clemson before signing with the Cincinnati Bengals as a rookie in 2015. He spent one year on the practice squad before making the Bengals’ active roster in 2016. From there, he lived a transient life in the NFL, spending time with Denver, Miami, Indianapolis, Carolina and Calgary in the Canadian Football League. He had three different stints with the Broncos alone, appearing in 46 regular-season games from 2020-22, when he firmly established himself as an NFL player.

“DeShawn Williams is a veteran of the league. He knows how to play football,” Bills defensive line coach Marcus West said. “He knows the game. He has the wisdom, he has the instincts to not only survive, but to make plays and understand when those opportunities present themselves.”

Having progressed a lot, Williams admired the Bills’ success from afar. So when the team expressed interest in a two-year deal, he didn’t want to pass up the opportunity.

“If the Bills want you, it says a lot about your caliber as a player, but also your talent as a person,” he said. “I come from a lot of other programs and I came here to see that the level is that high. Knowing that they wanted me two years in a row as a free agent, I’m grateful and I want to show them with my play how grateful I am for that.”