One year after Karlos Williams put together a promising rookie season with the Buffalo Bills, the team announced it waived the second-year running back on Saturday.
Bills cut ties with RB Karlos Williams after rocky offseason
Karlos Williams was dealt a 4-game suspension in July and struggled with his weight all summer.
Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images
Williams picked up 517 rushing yards, 96 receiving yards and nine total touchdowns in 2015, a promising start to the career of a rookie selected in the fifth round. But when the Bills returned for some offseason work in June, Williams was overweight, and Rex Ryan wasn’t happy about it.
The 23-year-old running back explained that his weight gain was due to poor eating habits during his fiancée’s pregnancy.
“Her being pregnant gave me an excuse to eat, so eating anything and everything,” Williams told reporters, via Mike Rodak of ESPN. “She’d wake up, one or two o’clock, ‘I want a snack.’ Well I’m not going to sit here and watch you eat because I don’t want you to feel bad.”
The hits kept coming for Williams when he was hit with a four-game suspension in July for violation of the NFL’s substance abuse policy.
When training camp rolled around in August, Williams still hadn’t shed the extra pounds. Unable to pass a conditioning test, Williams started training camp on the Non-Football Illness list until he finally passed the test and was cleared to practice on Monday.
The decision to waive Williams is a change of heart for Ryan, who was asked earlier in August if the running back’s roster spot was in jeopardy.
"We're not going to give up on Karlos Williams. I can tell you that," Ryan assured reporters, via Chris Brown of BuffaloBills.com.
Williams played safety at Florida State before moving to running back for the Seminoles as a junior in 2013. He bulldozed his way to 11 touchdowns in each of his junior and senior seasons.
See More:
