After failing his conditioning test Sunday, Bills defensive tackle Marcell Dareus was placed on the Non-Football Injury list, meaning he can't practice with the team until he's moved to the active roster.
It might be a while.
Bills coach Doug Marrone told reporters Monday that he excused Dareus from camp because "he's taking care of some personal stuff." That personal stuff entailed Dareus agreeing to enter a pretrial intervention program in Alabama that should allow him to get felony drug charges dismissed.
His attorney, Rod Giddens, told the Associated Press that Dareus was allowed to enter the program during a court hearing in Cleburne County, Alabama. Dareus also will enter the NFL's substance abuse program.
Dareus was expected to return to the Rochester, N.Y. training camp later Monday.
Marrone, meanwhile, also said Dareus will be on the sideline training and getting ready to pass his physical. As for when he'll get his next chance to pass the running test that would allow him to extract himself from the NFI list, Marrone said, "When our weight coaches feel he's ready."
Said Marrone: "We’re not just going to put him out there every day. We’ll wait until our weight coaches say, ‘Hey, you know what, we’re ready to go and let’s go.’"
As we've chronicled, it has not been a great offseason for Dareus, who's coming off his first Pro Bowl season. In May, he was arrested for drug charges, and in June, he was charged with three crimes in relation to alleged drag racing.
