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Back in January, in Part 4 of a season-ending report card on the Buffalo Bills, I wrote a post naming New Orleans receiver Marques Colston and Colts’ defensive end Robert Mathis as the top “fits” for the team to pursue in free agency as it looked to improve next season. One comment that I added was that if the Bills signed a player of the stature of either of these two, it would be big news since they haven’t historically made any big splashes when it comes to signing free agents. As it turns out, Colston re-signed with the Saints, and the Colts placed a “franchise” tag on Mathis, retaining his rights. I never even mentioned Houston’s Mario Williams as an option, since he was basically the top player available, and the possibility of Buffalo signing, or even bothering to pursue him, was unfathomable. Yet the Bills pulled off the impossible dream for their fan base last week when they inked the big defensive end to a six year contract.

To me, this signing sends more positive vibes about the franchise than just the fact that they’ve now shown they’re willing to spend money to put a winner on the field. It also tells me that the management team recognizes that the biggest obstacle to winning games in 2011 was a porous, inexperienced defense, and is taking steps to fix that. The first step was elevating Dave Wannstedt to coordinate the unit, and the signing of Williams is a huge move. He will be the closest thing the Bills have had to Bruce Smith, and like Smith, was the top overall pick of the NFL draft when he was chosen by the Texans in 2006. The Bills already have a pair of dominating defensive tackles in Marcell Dareus and Kyle Williams (who helped recruit Mario) and the addition of the biggest free agent player available to that line gives the team a chance to develop a dominating front four. Their pass rush, a major weakness for years, will certainly be better, and I’ll predict here and now something that I’ve felt was always the case – just watch how much better the team’s linebacking and secondary turn out to be when they have a competent D-line in front of them. In earlier posts, I’ve mentioned that with the NFL evolving into a passing league lately, dominated by record-setting quarterbacks orchestrating spread offenses, that the next big trend will be teams attempting to build dominating defenses to control those attacks. It is a huge positive for Buffalo fans to see their team on the leading edge of that trend, rather than following the pack a couple of years later. There will actually be excitement, rather than moans and groans, when the defense takes the field this year.

A couple of other points about the Williams signing – those being Mario’s character and the role Hall of Famer Jim Kelly had in helping to recruit him to sign here. Williams’ press conference was impressive. He is obviously a team guy who should be a good fit with the current roster. Coach Chan Gailey mentioned that he knew they had the right guy when the first thing he said was “I’ll do whatever I need to do to help the team win championships.” Also, this story didn’t get much mention, but Williams’ sister’s husband was killed fighting in the war in Iraq, and he paid off the mortgage on her house after that tragedy occurred. That doesn’t bring back her husband but is a big step to relieving some stress in her life, and is an example of the guy having his priorities in order.

As for Kelly, how great is it to have an ambassador like him for the franchise? Remember, this is a guy who balked at playing here in his younger days, and now describes himself as a “Southtowns guy”. After the Williams’ signing, some Miami fans were lamenting on their team’s web site that it was great for Buffalo to have Kelly helping the franchise, and that the Dolphins should use Dan Marino in a similar role to help woo Peyton Manning to South Beach. Sorry, but I just don’t picture Marino being much of a “team” guy who’d be interested in doing that.