The Bills played without wide receiver Mike Williams against the Chiefs on Sunday, the second time this year that they’ve made Williams a healthy scratch on game day.
A spot on the inactive list is not really what you’d expect after trading a sixth-round pick to acquire Williams in the offseason and the decision is one that Williams thinks is the incorrect one for the team to make.
“Because I know for a fact that it is. I know my abilities, I know my talents, I know how I can help,” Williams said, via ESPN.com. “That’s why I think it’s the wrong decision. But from the team aspect, that’s the coach’s decision to make that. I know what I want is -- a lot of people want another thing. People want contracts... you can’t get what you want. But that’s just something I couldn’t get.”
Bills coach Doug Marrone was asked Monday if Williams might be a useful player for the Bills to deploy in the red zone, where they went 0-for-4 while blowing a 10-point lead against the Chiefs. Marrone said it was something the team talked about, but that they ultimately went with other players who could help on special teams.
“A lot of it is matchups and what we want to get accomplished, but I’m not going to sit here and deny that it’s not something we talk about quite a bit,” Marrone said, via the team’s website. “There are challenges within this roster where if we have injuries you have to back yourself up. Special teams-wise, we have those challenges which probably affect the offensive side of the ball more because of some of the lack of special teams play that we get at certain positions. That’s something that I’ve talked to Doug Whaley about trying to improve to make it better for us as far as numbers in what we’re doing.”
Williams has caught eight passes all year and none since Week Five, so it’s not likely that he would have made too much of an impact on the game if he had been in the lineup. He could work his way back into the mix against Miami on Thursday night, but the solution to red zone woes probably isn’t going to be a bigger dose of Williams.
