A 2025 incident catches up with him
The NFL suspended Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Phidarian Mathis for three games on Friday, citing a violation of its substances of abuse policy.
ESPN reported the ban stems from an alcohol-related incident in the spring of 2025, back when Mathis was on the New York Jets roster. The Jets cut him that summer. Buffalo picked him up in the fall. The discipline arrives more than a year after the fact, which is how these cases often move once the league office works through them.
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Bad timing for a roster hopeful
Mathis, 28, can keep playing through the preseason. The suspension starts on Aug. 30, days before Buffalo opens the regular season at the Houston Texans on Sept. 13. He returns in time for the fourth week of the campaign.
That calendar matters. Mathis has been scrapping for a place on the 53-man roster all summer, and a defensive tackle who cannot be on the field for the first three weeks becomes a harder case to make for a coaching staff counting bodies along the interior. He appeared in six games off the bench last season and finished with 13 tackles.
A second-round pick still waiting
Washington took Mathis in the second round of the 2022 draft out of Alabama. Four years on, he has played 29 NFL games and started none of them, splitting that time between the Commanders from 2022 to 2024 and the Bills in 2025. His career line reads 38 tackles, two of them for loss, one pass defensed and one fumble recovery.
Buffalo now waits to see whether he does enough over the remaining exhibition snaps to survive the cut.
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