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The next big event in the NFL calendar is the Draft. Quietly, though, there are still roster considerations being made with respect to the free agent market. In addition, there are still players who could find themselves as free agents depending on how the fortunes of their team changes over the next few weeks.
Bleacher Report explored some of the biggest names who could still get cut loose by their clubs later in the offseason. B/R puts the Bills’ Mario Addison on this list.
Addison, who was signed to a three-year, $30.45 million contract last offseason, was expected to be a hell-raising pass rusher opposite Jerry Hughes. While Addison did supplant Trent Murphy as a starting defensive end last year, he did not put up the big sack numbers that the Bills hoped. Addison registered five sacks last year. During the previous four seasons in Carolina, Addison registered no fewer than nine sacks in a season.
B/R sees Addison’s age, usage, and production as reasons that could land the veteran as a cut candidate:
He’ll [Addison] be 34 next season and only played 57 percent of the defense’s snaps last year, a number that could only decrease.
Cutting Addison would save about $3.4 million for the Bills, so it’s a logical move for the team to make at some point, especially with the draft offering plenty of cheap prospects who could reinforce the pass rush on roughly half of the unit’s overall snaps.
While Addison could fit into the definition of a cut candidate at this point, the Bills don’t have a plethora of players who can step in right away if they were to move on from the veteran. Free agent signee Efe Obada could fill the void, but the team would probably need more help at that spot. Second-year pro AJ Epenesa will need to make a big step forward in his sophomore campaign if this move is to work. In addition, Darryl Johnson Jr., Mike Love, and Bryan Cox Jr. are all fringe players at best at this point in their careers.
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