The Bills make a VERY interesting decision...

The Bills have made a very interesting decision regarding the state of their defensive line. As with defensive tackle Fedarian Mathis returning from suspension, the Bills were forced to make a choice on who to retain on their 53-man roster. And that's because a lot has changed from the start of preseason until now. So today we will be going over the entire timeline surrounding this Fedarian Mathis suspension and talking about what exactly has changed within the last two months. So welcome everybody to Bills Digest. I'm Ben Volker and here at Bills Digest, we've got you covered with all things related to the Buffalo Bills. Whether it be news, injury updates, rumors, matchup analysis, or reactions, we've got you covered here at Bills Digest. So if you don't want to miss a thing, make sure to go ahead and hit subscribe so that you can stay up to date on all content just like this. And we're going to dive right into things today, talking of course about the main subject of today's video, that being Fedarian Mathis. And Fedarian Mathis is a very interesting player in this entire grand scheme of the Bills. He was drafted by the Washington Commanders back in 2022, expected to be the replacement for Jonathan Allen in their defense, but he most certainly did not pan out in Washington. He was either injured most of the time or severely underperformed while he was playing in Washington. They ended up cutting him in 2024. He made it to the Jets, but did not last long with the Jets before the Jets cut him, and the Bills went ahead and signed him from the Jets. And he did not really do much with the Bills last year in 2025. Let's go ahead and take a look at his 2025 stats here. As you can see, he only appeared in six games. He only logged 13 tackles and recorded zero sacks on the year. Not really a guy that contributed too much to the Bills in 2025, but he did make enough of an impression on this Bills coaching staff for them to go ahead and re-sign him on a one-year deal at the end of the 2025 season. This was back in February, and he was expected to be a guy that would be a solid backup in a role behind Ed Oliver and Deion Walker. Obviously, a lot has changed surrounding Fedarian Mathis since then, and we will get to it. We will get into all of that in just a second. But first, I've got to let you guys know that today's video is sponsored by Calsheen. And on Calsheen, you're trading directly against other users, not the house like traditional sports books. You're buying yes or no contracts on the outcome of events across sports, politics, or even the weather. For example, on Calsheen right now, there is something that I really like, and it goes back to what I was saying yesterday. 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So if you are interested in trying out Calsheen, you can use the link in the description, trade $25 with code DigestNFL, and get $55 added to your account instantly. Thank you once again to Calsheen for sponsoring today's video. Now let's get back to talking about Fedarian Mathis, because I alluded to this earlier. His 2026 season has not quite gone as intended for the Buffalo Bills because back in the middle of August, it was announced that Fedarian Mathis would be suspended for the first three regular season games of the season after violating the NFL's substance abuse policy. It was related to an alcohol-related incident and he was scheduled to miss his first three games. And this was kind of a big blow for the Bills because I think they were expecting a lot out of Fedarian Mathis this year in a backup role behind Deion Walker and Ed Oliver. And the Bills quickly adjusted, went out and signed a veteran defensive tackle in Greg Gaines, who previously played in Tampa Bay and with the Bucks. And Greg Gaines is a Super Bowl champion. He won the Super Bowl back with the Rams in 2021. So this is a veteran guy that has plenty of experience in the NFL and they brought him in, I think, to fill Fedarian Mathis' role in the meantime while Mathis was suspended. So there was one guy that leaped ahead of Fedarian Mathis in the depth chart. Then let's flash forward to Thursday night's matchup against the Detroit Lions where Ed Oliver was a surprise scratch in that game after he injured his hip during pregame warm-ups. And people were starting to say, oh boy, this defensive line is in trouble without Ed Oliver because the guy behind Ed Oliver that was next man up was Dwayne Carter. And a lot of people preseason were very, very low on Dwayne Carter. He was a trade candidate. He was a cut candidate. He was a guy that didn't play well for the Bills in his rookie season in 2024 and missed all of 2025 with an Achilles injury. And he did not have a good 2026 preseason either. So a lot of people were very low on Dwayne Carter, thought he shouldn't even make the 53-man roster. So he had a big prove it moment week two against the Lions and boy did he step up. Dwayne Carter was popping off the screen in the Lions game. And then he did it again in week three against the Chargers with Ed Oliver healthy. He still made an impact. Dwayne Carter has been playing great through his first three games. In fact, let's go ahead and take a look at this. He is number one in the entire NFL in run-stop win rate with 22 wins in 39 plays. That's a 56%, which is crazy to think about, especially considering the fact that the Bills were terrible against the run last year. But when Dwayne Carter got the start against the Lions, the Bills defense held Jameer Gibbs to under 50 rushing yards. And that was due in large part to Dwayne Carter and what he brought to the Bills defensive line. So needless to say, Dwayne Carter had been playing great for the Buffalo Bills through the first three weeks. So you've got Greg Gaines, a veteran leader at that position. You've got Dwayne Carter who has been vastly outperforming his expectations heading into the season. Where does that leave Fedarian Mathis now that he has come back from injury? We got an answer about that yesterday as the Bills announced that they were releasing Fedarian Mathis. Let's go ahead and pull it up here. The Bills released Fedarian Mathis today. This was yesterday, according to the NFL transaction log, as he just returned from a three-game suspension and the Bills needed to make a roster move regarding him. However, the Bills were expected to sign Fedarian Mathis back to the practice squad. Again, this was yesterday. And then today, the Bills announced that they indeed did re-sign Fedarian Mathis to their practice squad. Now, he didn't have to go through the waivers as a vested veteran. So the Bills were able to just go ahead right away, re-sign him to the practice squad, didn't have to worry about another team poaching him. And I think a lot of that was the reason why they were very comfortable in cutting Fedarian Mathis in the first place. That would be my idea on this entire situation. So where we stand right now, the Bills defensive line is staying the same as it was in week three against the Chargers. No changes there, but they do have Fedarian Mathis in their back pocket in case an injury does pop up. Obviously, Ed Oliver has been having hip issues. He did play against the Chargers, but it is still worth monitoring there. So if his hip injury does flare up once again, they do have Fedarian Mathis there to back him up. And Joe Brady said as much today. He said that he still very much so believes in Fedarian Mathis and his talents as an NFL player. He said it's unfortunate what happened. He did what he had to do and wasn't able to stay in shape. He's back in the building and he's excited to see him. And there's a reason that they signed him. So obviously, they still have plans for Fedarian Mathis. Maybe not what they expected preseason when he was slated to be one of the top backups behind Ed Oliver and Deion Walker. But maybe we do see Fedarian Mathis later this season. But for now, I want to hear from you guys. What do you think on this? Who should the Bills have cut from the 53-man roster? Do you think they made the right decision in cutting Fedarian Mathis? Do you think they should have cut Greg Gaines? He hasn't done all that much, but as I said, he is a veteran and he does bring that leadership to the position. Or I don't think anyone's going to say this, but just in case, Dwayne Carter there at the bottom, do you think they should have cut him? I don't think anyone realistically would say that, but I decided to throw that one in there just in case somebody had a crazy take. Let me know down in the comments what you guys think. I do think the Bills made the right call here. I think they have been quietly building one of the sneakiest, quietest defensive lines in the league. And I'm excited to see what they have in store week four against Drake May in the Patriots. We will have a ton of more Bills content coming your way ahead of that game. So if you don't want to miss a thing, once again, make sure to go ahead and hit subscribe. Thanks for keeping it right here on Bills Digest. And as always, thanks for watching. And of course, Go Bills!