Can Williams make the $100 million investment worth it for Buffalo? (US Presswire)

Say what you will about the Bills, but they’re not exactly known for making huge splashes in the free agent market.

That’s not to say they’re not willing to spend money -- what could turn out to be an awful contract extension for quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is one indication and the fact Buffalo re-signed receiver Stevie Johnson to a five-year, $36 million deal is another -- but the biggest free agent acquisition the Bills have made in recent memory was a $49 million deal to sign guard Derrick Dockery in 2007.

But now that Buffalo has signed defensive end Mario Williams to an enormous six-year deal worth $100 million with $50 million in guarantees, you have to wonder what caused the sudden interest in making the biggest free agent deal this side of Peyton Manning.

Easy, owner Ralph Wilson said.

"I'd like to see us make the playoffs and possibly the Super Bowl while I'm around," the 93-year-old Wilson told the Buffalo News. "I don't expect to be around that many years."

While it’s been more than four decades since the Bills won a league title (and that was an AFL championship in 1965), Wilson doesn’t feel his organization is that far away from really competing in the AFC East.

"Yes that's right, I feel like we're not that far away ," Wilson said.

"I didn't give a darn about the money. I can't take the money with me. The money had nothing to do with it. Buddy (Nix, Buffalo’s general manager) figured out how much it would take to get him. He put the price on, and we went from there."

But Williams won’t necessarily transform the Bills defense by himself. As CBSSports.com analyst Andy Benoit, writing for the NY Times, notes, “Easy as it is to get swept up in the hype, let’s acknowledge that the addition of Williams does not suddenly make the Bills’ defense elite. They still have a middling linebacking corps (Kirk Morrison at the Mike? Really?). And even with Williams, their pass rush is closer to mediocre than mesmerizing.”

Soon enough, though, we’ll see what dropping $100 million on one player gets the Bills. And maybe determines how soon they’ll want to return to being big-time players in the free agent market.

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