Buffalo Bills defensive end Mario Williams returns to Houston on Sunday to face the Texans butsays he never wanted to go elsewhere.
Williams, the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft by the Texans in 2006, accepted a six-year, $100 million contract offer from the Bills during the offseason when he became a free agent. The Texans refused to use a franchise tag that would have cost them $20 million for one season to keep him.
“I didn’t want to enter free agency in the first place, but it was a one-way door given to me to leave Houston,” Williams told KRIV-TV. “I want the fans there to know entering free agency was not my decision.”
Williams hasn’t performed up to expectations so far this season for the Bills (3-4). He has 3 1/2 sacks in seven games.
The Texans are 6-1 without Williams.
“I’m definitely excited about coming back to the place where it all began,” said Williams, who has 56 1/2 career sacks. “The way things ended, I definitely feel like it was kind of a rough and all-of-the-sudden goodbye. There’s some things that I’m definitely uneasy about, the final decision-making that happened there. It was just the way it was handled.”