Dareus contract situation simmering in Buffalo

At the end of the day, running a football team is a business.

And sometimes the business decisions behind the scenes can impact a player’s mind off-the-field.

A few days after telling the Buffalo News, that his current contract negotiations with the team was making him “unhappy”, and that he was getting the feeling that “they don’t really want me here”, Pro Bowl defensive tackle Marcell Dareus got a chance to clarify his statements.

“I mean we all know how I feel,” Dareus said. “I mean we all know how the team feels. I want to be apart of the Buffalo Bills. I want to be apart of the history that we are going to make here, but at the same time it is a business and we all have to go through negations just anybody else in any other career. So we just try to do what we can and try to move forward and we will get over that hill when we get there.”

“Like I was saying. I want to be here but at the same time it is a business. People feel someway and at the same time we are going to get over that hill and we are going to make something happen and try and get a deal done.”

Dareus, 25, is coming off his rookie contract and has developed into one of the best defensive tackles in all of football. The Bills reportly offered more than $90 million over six years but with Miami Dolphins defensive tackle just inking a six-year, $116 million contract in the off-season, the price-tag for the All-Pro will be sky high.

“Well I made of it that he’s probably in pretty good position,” Bills coach Rex Ryan said when asked what he made about Dareus’s contract comments. “I mean when you see what the numbers were and all that stuff. I might settle for those numbers but I’m not sure, I don’t play defensive tackle though. But you know what’s in that, obviously that’s his business and that’s his agents and our team and things like that. I stay out of the negotiating type stuff honestly.”

While Suh’s contract became the benchmark, it isn’t necessarily what Dareus is expecting.

“I am not necessarily looking at Suh’s numbers,” Dareus said. “I just wanted to be treated right just like everyone else.”

And the thing is, he has a point.

Dareus has watched as the team has rewarded big-name players like Jerry Hughes and LeSean McCoy with expensive, long-term deals.

And you could argue Dareus is one of, if not the most important player on the entire team with what he can do on the football field. NFL stars, let alone free-agents, with his ability to not only take on blockers and cause chaos in running lanes, but also have his athleticism to attack the quarterback the way he can is almost never scene from a defensive tackle who is listed at 331 lbs.

Defensive tackles that take over games are not just found out there everyday, and it’s why the Bills need to trend lightly right now.

This is a situation that they cannot afford to mess up.

The only other option the team could go with other than a long-term extension is using the franchise-tag, similar to what they did with Jairus Byrd in 2013 if the two-sides cannot reach a long-term agreement.

It would have cost a team $11.2 million to franchise-tag a defensive tackle this past off-season, but that number is going to climb with the Suh contract.

The contract number for a tag is determined by either 120 percent of the player’s salary from the season before or an average of the top five salaries at the player’s position, whichever is larger.

Dareus would receive the latter.

“I’ll sign the paper,” Dareus said when asked about the tag. “…If that’s something they consider. There’s not really much I can do.”

No matter what way you look at it, I see little chance that Dareus is not on the team for next season, whether it be with a new deal or a tag.

It makes more sense for the Bills to pay him now, not just to make him happy but also to allow them to create a more cap-friendly deal for a team that is expected to be right at the salary cap limit for the next couple seasons.

Why create a headache over ten or so million when you know what the player you have in front of you is worth, and you know that you are most likely going to owe him a ton of money if the tag is used next year anyways?

For now, Dareus is just going to focus on what he can do on the field.

“I am here. I am already paid up for a year,” Dareus said. “I am a Buffalo Bill, I am a Buffalo Bill and I am going to be one until they tell me my time is up.”