Bills Grant WR Mike Williams Permission To Seek Trade

Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network is reporting that the Buffalo Bills have granted WR Mike Williams‘ agent, Hadley Engelhard, permission to gauge trade interest in his client.

• According to Rapoport, the decision to sit Williams was because they needed special teams help and the Bills still like his skill set.

Bills GM Doug Whaley mentioned that Williams’ agent called to request a trade out of Buffalo and added that they are not currently shopping him, per Mike Rodak.

“No teams have contacted us [about Mike Williams],” Whaley said on Monday, per Rodak. “We have not contacted any teams.”

“If he gets me comp worthy of a No. 1 WR which he claimed he is, then we would entertain it,” Whaley said of trading Williams, per Joe Buscaglia.

This comes just a day after the Williams was a healthy inactive for Sunday’s game against the Patriots.

Interestingly enough, HC Doug Marrone told reporters after Sunday’s game that it was a tough call to scratch Williams this past weekend.

“I brought Mike in on Saturday and I told him I needed him to do this for the team,” Marrone said via Pro Football Talk. “I said, ‘It’s not a great situation, but it’s due to the special teams and everything that we needed to cover.’

“We talked to him and he handled it like a pro and he’ll be ready to go next week.”

Buffalo sent a sixth-round pick to the Buccaneers in return for Williams back in April, so this is at least somewhat surprising news given that he has only been with the team for around six months.

The Bills may not even be able to get a late-round draft pick in return for Williams, but it can’t hurt to allow him to see if there’s any interest from other NFL teams.

The trade deadline is 15 days away.

Williams, 27, is in the second year of his six-year, $40.25 million contract that includes $9.4 million guaranteed. His base salary for the 2014 season is $1.2 million, but it will increase to $5.2 million in 2015. The deal includes a $1 million roster bonus, so it appears unlikely that he would be around with the Bills long enough to receive his 2015 salary.

This season Williams has appeared in five games and caught eight passes for 142 yards receiving and a touchdown.