Mark Anderson was actually one of the league’s better pass rushers last season, accumulating 15 sacks and 36 pressures over 19 games as a part time player on the Patriots run to the Super Bowl. Even though he only played 640 snaps in those 19 games (419 were rushing the passer), he made the most of them. In the regular season, he was ProFootballFocus’ 13^th ranked defensive end.

For the Bills, he is expected to see more playing time, though he could still be taken out on obvious running downs for Chris Kelsay. The Bills now theoretically have one of the best defensive lines in the league with Mario Williams, Anderson, Kyle Williams, and Marcell Dareus. Anderson could have trouble transitioning to a bigger role, but that’s not my main concern with him.

Anderson is no sure thing. He’s been very inconsistent in his career. He had 12 sacks as a rookie in 2006 in Chicago, before managing just 13.5 sacks over the next 4 years in Chicago and Houston, before a resurrection season last year. How will he do outside of Belichick’s scheme? Was he just trying hard for the money last season? Besides, the fact that Belichick and the Patriots made little to no effort to resign him is a bad sign.

However, if Anderson repeats what he did last season or even comes close, he’ll well worth the 7 million per year he’ll be paid (4 years, 27.5 million) and if he doesn’t (strong possibility), there’s only 8 million guaranteed so the Bills have an out after every season. He might not pan out, but for so little guaranteed money, he was worth the risk.

Update: This deal is actually 19.5 million max so now I love this deal. 

Grade: A