Mario Williams Visiting Dolphins, Also Has Interest From Giants

Update:

Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News, citing a league source, reports that the Giants reached out to the agent for Mario Williams and expressed some interest signing him.

• However, Vacchiano adds that the Giants’ level of interest obviously wasn’t enough to prevent him from taking his first visit to meet with the Dolphins on Saturday.
• ESPN’s Josina Anderson received a text from Williams saying: “I’d like to visit 4-5 (teams) quickly, if possible.”
• Adam Beasley spoke to a league source who believes Williams will likely command a contract with an annually salary of around $6 million.

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Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that the Dolphins are hosting veteran DE Mario Williams for a visit on Saturday.

• Mike Garafolo confirms the report and adds that Williams has interest from a “handful of teams.”
• Garafolo adds that the Giants are among the interested teams in Williams, but to what degree remains to be seen.

This is the first reported interest in Williams since he became available a few days ago.

While the Dolphins did use their transition tag on Olivier Vernon, it makes plenty of sense for them to line up contingency options in the event he ends up signing elsewhere.

The benefit of signing Williams to a contract is that he won’t factor into a team’s 2017 compensatory picks since he was a roster cut.

Williams, 30, was in the fourth year of his six-year, $96 million contract when he was released earlier in the week in a move that freed up $12.9 million in cap space for the Bills.

In 2015, Williams appeared in 14 games and recorded 17 tackles and four sacks for the Bills. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 47 defensive end in a 4-3 defense out of 51 qualifying players.

We have him featured in our Top 100 – 2016 Free Agents list.