The Sports Xchange

Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Marcell Dareus would sign the franchise tag contract next year if he doesn’t get a long-term agreement.

Dareus softened his comments Saturday after earlier expressing displeasure about the Bills’ latest contract offer.

“I’m not necessarily looking at Suh numbers,” Dareus told reporters after practice in Pittsford, N.Y., on Saturday, referring to Ndamukong Suh’s $114 million contract with the Miami Dolphins. “I just want to be treated right, just like every one of us.”

Dareus told the Buffalo News after the Bills’ preseason win Thursday night in Cleveland that the team was “making it hard” in negotiations “and it’s just really making me unhappy. I feel like they don’t really want me here.”

The 25-year-old Dareus enters the final year of his rookie contract and was offered a six-year extension worth more than $90 million, according to the Buffalo News. Dareus will earn $8.06 million this season.

The two-time Pro Bowler and the third overall selection in the 2011 draft said he would sign the franchise tag next year if needed.

“If that’s something they consider, there’s not really much I could do,” Dareus said Saturday. “I’ll sign the papers.”

In four seasons with the Bills, Dareus has started 60 of 63 games and has 202 career tackles and 28 1/2 sacks. Last year, Dareus finished with 49 tackles and a career-best 10 sacks in 15 games.

“I made of it that he’s probably in good position, I mean when you see what the numbers were and all that stuff,” Bills coach Rex Ryan said Saturday’s practice. “I might settle for those numbers, but I’m not sure. I don’t play defensive tackle. But obviously that’s his business and his agents and our team and things like that. I stay out of the negotiating-type stuff, obviously.”

The NFL suspended Dareus without pay for the first game of the regular season for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.

In April, Dareus appeared pleaded guilty in a Hamburg, N.Y., court to two traffic violations as part of a plea deal after a street racing incident last year. As part of the plea agreement, all other charges were dropped. Dareus had been facing charges of reckless endangerment, reckless driving, unlawful speed and leaving the scene of an accident.