Bills tried to move Marcell Dareus before the season, remain open to it now – CBSSports.com

The Bills‘ efforts to reshape their roster around players they expect to be there for the long haul — which includes trading recent top picks like Sammy Watkins and Ronald Darby — also included attempts to move highly-paid defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, league sources said, to no avail.

Dareus, who drew the ire (rightfully so) of the new regime of coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane for arriving late to a preseason game at Baltimore after years of previous transgressions, was on the trading block prior to roster cutdowns in September, other NFL executives said, but interest was muted. Dareus, who has performed at an elite level at times in his career but has also worn out his welcome in Buffalo with suspensions and lackluster play, was seen as un-tradebable by other team’s given his off-field woes and his massive contract.

The Bills remain quite open to moving the former first-round pick if at all possible, sources said, though that will be a struggle. The rest of the league knows he is available ahead of the trade deadline — which comes a week from Tuesday — but the contract and his spotty effort remain a primary concern. Despite carrying a big salary ($10M) and unwieldy cap numbers (over $16M each of the next two years), the Bills could absorb the cap penalties from dealing him now, though they don’t anticipate much interest in him. At this point, barring a complete turnaround in his play and attitude, the Bills will be moving on from him in 2018 and spreading the cap hit over two seasons as a post-June 1 designee, and they were highly motivated to deal him this summer, but constrained by a lack of demand.