The Buffalo Bills' highest-paid members of the defensive line are making it known they don't agree with how they are being used in coach Rex Ryan's schemes.
On Tuesday, defensive tackle Marcell Dareus backed up recent complaints by defensive end Mario Williams, saying that Ryan calling for the players to drop back in coverage isn't a winning formula.
"Hey, like [Williams] said, they pay us a lot of money. And we want to use our talents the best way we know how. If we're going to be dropping we don't want to get questions about not getting sacks. That's just how it is," Dareus said Tuesday, according to Yahoo! Sports.
Dareus was speaking from the Play 60 event in London to promote Sunday's game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Bills have marketed their quarter-billion-dollar defensive line comprised of defensive end Jerry Hughes (five-year, $45 million contract signed in offseason), Mario Williams (six-year, $96 million contract signed in 2012) and Dareus (six-year, $96.5 million deal signed in offseason) as the "Cold Front," which based on results, is an unintended description for the unit. The Bills have been held to just nine sacks through the first five games.
"We want to make some plays. We don't want fans looking at us crazy," Dareus said, according to Yahoo! "We like making plays. We like getting sacks, just being out there exerting a lot of energy and having fun.
"But when we're dropping, when I'm not out there on third down or just I'm dropping or Kyle [Williams] is dropping or Mario is dropping or Jerry [Hughes] is dropping ... . It's not been a lot of times where there have been all four of us, full tilt, ears pined back and we're going after it. We haven't had a lot of that this year.
"Hopefully Rex is going to implement it. There's nothing we can do."
The Bills failed to register a sack of Andy Dalton on Sunday in a 34-21 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals that dropped the Bills to 3-3 this season. After the game, Williams said, "I think I probably set a record on dropping today."
"When we got four guys rushing, we can do some things. Some of the calls we had today, we just didn't have four guys out there rushing in certain situations, things like that. You just play the call.
"We don't make the calls as players. We've got to go out and execute whatever's called by any means. If it's three guys going, then it's three guys going, and we have to figure out a different way to get there faster on our part," Williams told reports Sunday.
Williams and Dareus aren't alone in questioning how they are being used. Hall of Famer Jim Kelly, who also was at the Play 60 event, agreed with their takes on Tuesday.
"Dropping Mario Williams into coverage a lot? Didn't we pay him a lot of money to hit the quarterback? And if I'm the opposing quarterback and I see him dropping into coverage, oh, that's a big plus. I'd definitely have a smile on my face," Kelly said, according to Yahoo!