After two years of interest, Bills and DeShawn Williams strike a deal
Defensive Tackle DeShawn Williams played in 16 games with the Carolina Panthers in 2023, making 10 starts and finishing with 33 tackles, one sack and one pass defended.
DeShawn Williams wasn’t going to let his second chance pass him by.
The Buffalo Bills were interested in signing the veteran defensive tackle during the 2023 offseason, he said recently during an interview with The Buffalo News, but the two sides couldn’t close the deal.
Tennessee quarterback Will Levis throws in a November game as he is pressured by Carolina defensive tackle DeShawn Williams, now with the Bills. George Walker IV, Associated Press
Williams instead signed a one-year deal with the Carolina Panthers, with whom he appeared in 16 games, making 10 starts and finishing with 33 tackles, one sack and one pass defended.
When he hit free agency again in March, the Bills and Williams were able to get it done this time, agreeing to a one-year contract worth up to $1.155 million.
“I made sure, talking to (general manager Brandon) Beane and (head coach Sean) McDermott, I couldn’t miss the second go-around,” Williams said. “I told them when I first came in for Phase 1 (of offseason workouts), ‘I see why y’all win.’
“There are 31 other teams. You’re on that one team, you’ve got tunnel vision for that one team and that one goal, but when I came in on my visit, I saw the training staff, the cafeteria, the meeting rooms, all the coaches, how much energy they had. You can feel the sense of urgency here. It’s time to get some stuff done. It’s amazing here, man. A team of this caliber, winning games, dominating teams, for a team like this to want you, I pat myself on the back a little bit because hard work has paid off. But now, it’s just getting started. Now it’s time to show them why they got me here.”
Bills defensive tackle DeShawn Williams, right, got a good scouting report on Buffalo from his cousin, Shaq Lawson. Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
Williams, 31, is a 6-foot-1, 295-pounder who will compete for a depth role at defensive tackle behind projected starters Ed Oliver and DaQuan Jones. With how much McDermott prefers to rotate along the defensive line, that could mean a decent chunk of playing time for Williams, if he can earn a spot on the 53-man roster.
“It’s a new scheme that I can use my God-gifted talents,” he said. “You see they like guys who are twitchy, a lot of leverage, strong hands, be able to move. Now I can just put all that in a straight line and do what I’ve got to do. Coming from a 3-4 (scheme), two-gapping, you know, you look at me, you’re like, ‘You’re a two gap?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I had to play 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 a cousin of Shaq Lawson, the Bills’ former first-round pick who has spent six seasons with the team over two tours of duty. Williams and Lawson grew up together in Central, S.C., and they lived so close to each other that Williams said you could throw a rock from his front yard and hit Lawson’s house. They both attended the same school, from elementary all the way through college at Clemson.
Lawson remains an unsigned free agent after spending the last two years with the Bills.
“Yeah, that’s my dawg, man. I wish he could be here,” Williams said. “That’s family. That’s my guy. … I’m going to rock out for him. He gave me a lot of keys in what they were looking for when I came here, so the transition was good.”
Williams went undrafted out of Clemson before signing with the Cincinnati Bengals as a rookie in 2015. He spent a year on the practice squad before making the Bengals’ active roster in 2016. From there, he has lived a transient NFL life, 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 in the league. He understands 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 just survive, but make plays and understand when those opportunities are coming.”
Having bounced around as much as he has, Williams admired the Bills’ success from afar. So when the team expressed interest in consecutive years, it was an opportunity he didn’t want to miss out on.
“If the Bills want you, that means it speaks highly to the caliber of player that you are, but also as a man,” he said. “Just coming from a lot of other programs and coming here and seeing the standard is at such a high level. Knowing that they wanted me two years in a row in free agency, man, I’m thankful and want to show them in my play how thankful I am for it.”
