1 on 1 with Brandon Beane: Inside the Buffalo Bills GM's Master Plan (Dunne article, paywall)

[BADOLBILZ]

4 hours ago, Logic said:

I know, I know...the mere MENTION of the name Tyler Dunne makes some Bills fans' blood boil.

Still, this one does not appear to be a hit piece, but rather a pretty long and thorough interview with Brandon Beane. Alas, it is behind a paywall, and I am not a subscriber. For those that are, it seems well worth a read.


https://www.golongtd.com/p/1-on-1-with-brandon-beane-inside

 

ORCHARD PARK, NY — Brandon Beane can finally relax. This incoming lull on the NFL calendar is a golden opportunity to decompress. For a month, there’s no need for the Buffalo Bills general manager to agonize over an AFC title loss or “13 Seconds” or a blizzardy beatdown to Cincinnati or a 44-yard kick that sails wide right or any of the other razor-thin moments that’ve come between his franchise and a Super Bowl appearance.

Time to exhale.

Maybe… ?

Possibly… ?

No. Hell no.

The breaks of the game are too stupefying. The pursuit of a championship is too all-consuming. Fresh off the most consequential offseason of his career since selecting Josh Allen seventh overall in the 2018 NFL Draft, Beane admits the hunt for a title will inevitably be on his mind. And when training camp commences at St. John Fisher College in late July, he’s back to thinking about that Super Bowl quite literally every single day.  

“It drives you,” Beane says. “It eats at you. You want it so bad.”

Most all GMs and coaches serve up “one bounce away” cliches. Too often, it’s contrived. Snake-oil jargon spewed to convince the masses a team is closer to a championship than it actually is. But here, it’s real. The Bills genuinely have been one bounce from glory. Images of those dynastic Kansas City Chiefs basking in confetti could’ve driven this GM to the point of insanity.

So, the backdrop for this conversation is fitting. Beane is seated inside an office at One Bills Drive after his team’s minicamp practice. Over one shoulder, across Abbott Road, the team’s new stadium is under construction. It opens in 2026. Towering cranes are at work, positioning steel beams into the second level of the bowl. A reminder that hard work — shameless work — and day-to-day patience is always required in life.

Over his other shoulder is the current stadium, the site of his team’s latest heartbreak. One look could elicit one memory that spikes urgency and reminds the GM of one cruel NFL reality: You only get so many opportunities.

Beane is the man tasked with balancing the present and the future.

Fresh off another excruciating playoff defeat, the Bills entered salary-cap hell. (Roughly $41 mill in the red.) His star wide receiver wanted out. (More on that later.) His defense fell flat at the worst time. (Again.) All while, the clock ticks. And ticks. This team’s prized possession is undoubtedly at the peak of his powers. These Bills are armed with arguably the best player this side of Patrick Mahomes. Yet, all-time greats will also tell you that title chances did not last forever during the reigns of Michael Jordan, of Tom Brady. These Bills are at risk of vanquishing in the same vortex.

It was time to drastically reinvent the roster around Josh Allen.

Time for Beane to drive this organization a bold new direction.

This week, the GM sat down exclusively with Go Long to detail his vision for the Buffalo Bills.

For an hour, everything is discussed.

- His thinking behind Buffalo’s “transition,” and the search for a new nucleus of leaders.  

- Letting Josh Allen be Josh Allen. Last offseason, the Bills seemed oddly determined to reel in their 1-of-1 QB. The GM sings a different tune in our chat. He knows Allen has the mentality of a “linebacker” and does not want him to change.

- Stefon Diggs is off to the Houston Texans after four years in Buffalo. Why?

- Revamped WR room. Beane had his choice of any receiver amongst that second tier of wide receivers in the draft. Why Keon Coleman? Is speed a concern? The GM details the substance behind the man in the discounted yellow coat purchased at Macy’s. (He expects big things out of Dalton Kincaid, too.)

-Team psychology. Beane sees value in refueling a roster with players who didn’t experience those playoff losses. He also wanted a healthy number of players with a nasty “edge” to their game. Piecing together a roster is not a matter of talent, and talent alone, to the GM. He calls every team “a chemistry experiment.” One bad chemical, he says, and everything can combust.

-To get his ’06 Indianapolis Colts over the hump, Hall of Fame GM Bill Polian told us he started to weigh playoff performance on a critical curve. Beane is doing the same.

-Is Sean McDermott the coach who can deliver a Super Bowl? Our series from December is brought up.  

- He knows time is of the essence: “We can’t waste these opportunities.”

In a profession full of filibustering extraordinaires, Brandon Beane is an outlier. Candid. There’s no need for a high-powered magnifying glass to decode his words.

Our entire conversation is below:

 

 

 

 

So the Bills are back to 2022 rules with Josh Allen?   

 

Run all you want Josh!   Use that LB mentality!

 

Then next year they will return to 2021 and 2023 "we want you to play smarter" rules that lead to roughly .500 starts thru 2/3 of the season.

 

Just get the guy some f#cking weapons so he can do it from the pocket, Beane.

[Mr. WEO]

now there's "a vision"??

[wppete]

A Dunne article??? No thanks, don’t want to read nonsense and gossip. 

[Logic]

2 minutes ago, wppete said:

A Dunne article??? No thanks, don’t want to read nonsense and gossip. 

It's an interview with Brandon Beane, presented AS an interview, in question and answer format.

I understand people are still salty about the McDermott thing, but I don't think this piece is the same.

To each their own, though. 

[Alphadawg7]

4 hours ago, Logic said:

In a profession full of filibustering extraordinaires, Brandon Beane is an outlier. Candid. There’s no need for a high-powered magnifying glass to decode his words.

 

@PBF81as I was telling you...Beane is known and seen as probably the most candid GM in the NFL.  

[FireChans]

47 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

So the Bills are back to 2022 rules with Josh Allen?   

 

Run all you want Josh!   Use that LB mentality!

 

Then next year they will return to 2021 and 2023 "we want you to play smarter" rules that lead to roughly .500 starts thru 2/3 of the season.

 

Just get the guy some f#cking weapons so he can do it from the pocket, Beane.

Josh: “I had to rework my mechanics this off-season because my injuries had me compensating incorrectly and making me a worse player”

 

Beane: “I want Josh to keep that LB mentality and never change”

 

2024 off-season in a nutshell. 

[Logic]

5 minutes ago, FireChans said:

Josh: “I had to rework my mechanics this off-season because my injuries had me compensating incorrectly and making me a worse player”

 

Beane: “I want Josh to keep that LB mentality and never change”

 

2024 off-season in a nutshell. 

I swear, some of you will never be happy.

They rein in Josh's aggressiveness, he starts passing up scrambling opportunities and plays from the pocket more? "They're taking the dawg out of Josh Allen! You've gotta just let Josh be Josh".

They take the leash off and let him play the way he wants to play and he has a career high 15 rushing TDs? "psshh no wonder he's injured, what are Beane and McDermott thinking?".

Cannot -- absolutely CANNOT -- win with some of ya.

[Buffalo_Stampede]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

 

You don't understand how tight Beane and McDermott are.

Then he shouldn’t be helping the guy that clowns him make money.

[FireChans]

1 minute ago, Logic said:

I swear, some of you will never be happy.

They rein in Josh's aggressiveness, he starts passing up scrambling opportunities and plays from the pocket more? "They're taking the dawg out of Josh Allen! You've gotta just let Josh be Josh".

They take the leash off and let him play the way he wants to play and he has a career high 15 rushing TDs? "psshh no wonder he's injured, what are Beane and McDermott thinking?".

Cannot -- absolutely CANNOT -- win with some of ya.

You can win with me.

 

Surround Josh with enough weapons that he doesn’t feel like he has to run through linebackers to win games in November a la 2020.

 

Then, when it’s do or die in the ACTUAL playoffs, he can be as close to peak physical health as possible.

 

Instead, they have limited his weapons so that our offense is weaker than it should be with a QB of his caliber, arbitrarily tell him not to scramble and not to play hero up ball so we lose games in October and end 6-6 mid season, then let the reins off because we have to win out to make the playoffs and it becomes a 9 game playoff run starting in December.

 

Sign me up for the first strategy over the second and I’ll be the first to hold hands and sing kumbaya 

[Logic]

8 minutes ago, FireChans said:

 

Sign me up for the first strategy over the second and I’ll be the first to hold hands and sing kumbaya 

Respectfully, if I ever see you hold hands and sing kumbaya, I'll eat my hat and livestream it.

I don't believe it's possible.

[Beck Water]

24 minutes ago, FireChans said:

Josh: “I had to rework my mechanics this off-season because my injuries had me compensating incorrectly and making me a worse player”

 

Beane: “I want Josh to keep that LB mentality and never change”

 

2024 off-season in a nutshell. 

 

You do realize that Josh injured his UCL in 2022 vs the Jets on a passing play where he stayed behind the LOS and was looking to throw, right?
And he injured his shoulder in 2023, again hitting the ground shoulder first after throwing a pass?

 

I'm not Team All-Josh's-Injuries-Are-In-The-Pocket 'cuz it's not true, and also 'cuz bangs and dings and bumps accumulate and your body hands you the bill in your 30s and 40s.  

 

But let's not pretend that being a QB who stays behind the LOS precludes injury, because it doesn't.

 

[Doc Brown]

18 minutes ago, Logic said:

I swear, some of you will never be happy.

They rein in Josh's aggressiveness, he starts passing up scrambling opportunities and plays from the pocket more? "They're taking the dawg out of Josh Allen! You've gotta just let Josh be Josh".

They take the leash off and let him play the way he wants to play and he has a career high 15 rushing TDs? "psshh no wonder he's injured, what are Beane and McDermott thinking?".

Cannot -- absolutely CANNOT -- win with some of ya.

Just do away with the designed runs.  You do that by surrounding him with weapons and building up the trenches.

[BADOLBILZ]

20 minutes ago, Logic said:

I swear, some of you will never be happy.

They rein in Josh's aggressiveness, he starts passing up scrambling opportunities and plays from the pocket more? "They're taking the dawg out of Josh Allen! You've gotta just let Josh be Josh".

They take the leash off and let him play the way he wants to play and he has a career high 15 rushing TDs? "psshh no wonder he's injured, what are Beane and McDermott thinking?".

Cannot -- absolutely CANNOT -- win with some of ya.

 

 

You are conflating two different kinds of people.

 

When have you heard @FireChans or me saying that they gotta' let Josh smash people in the run game?

 

Some of us want Allen to be using his unique arm talent to give the Bills 15+ chances at winning a SB during his career.

 

Others are just worried about this season.

 

The Bills seem to be caught in the middle of long term planning and short term planning..........that's why they half-step at WR.

 

The bottom line is that the #1 priority should always be making your elite QB look as good as possible for as long as possible.

 

It's the key to sustained organizational success on and off the field.  

5 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

And he injured his shoulder in 2023, again hitting the ground shoulder first after throwing a pass?

 

 

 

 

Incorrect.

 

Allen injured the shoulder in 2023 getting into a shoving match with Leonard Williams after Williams knocked Spencer Brown to the ground in the end zone.

 

Gotta' be smarter than that protecting his body.

 

Which is the point.

 

 

[Logic]

29 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

You are conflating two different kinds of people.

 

When have you heard @FireChans or me saying that they gotta' let Josh smash people in the run game?

 

Some of us want Allen to be using his unique arm talent to give the Bills 15+ chances at winning a SB during his career.

 

Others are just worried about this season.

 

The Bills seem to be caught in the middle of long term planning and short term planning..........that's why they half-step at WR.

 

The bottom line is that the #1 priority should always be making your elite QB look as good as possible for as long as possible.

 

It's the key to sustained organizational success on and off the field.  

 

 

I agree with the notion that the Bills need to do a better job of surrounding Josh with offensive talent and making his life easier, as I have stated here many times and in many ways this offseason.

But I think that even IF they do that, he's still always gonna take off and run through a linebacker sometimes. He likes it. It loosens him up and gets him out of his own head and gets his competitive juices flowing. I'm not saying I think that's smart or good long term planning on his part or anything like that -- and it's not really for me to say. I'm just saying that even in a hypothetical world where the Bills surround Josh Allen with the best offensive cast imaginable, I don't think he's ever gonna stop doing the Superman/tank hurdle-and-smash routine sometimes. It's just who he is. It's just how he's wired.

[BillsVet]

11 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

The Bills seem to be caught in the middle of long term planning and short term planning..........that's why they half-step at WR.

 

The bottom line is that the #1 priority should always be making your elite QB look as good as possible for as long as possible.

 

It's the key to sustained organizational success on and off the field.  

 

OBD didn't adjust their roster philosophy/strategy when Josh's extension kicked in for 2022.  It was as if they continued what they were doing, only with a huge QB contract on the books.  Still using high picks on defense and UFA dollars to maintain their DL depth.    

 

I also see a LOT of people here talk about how drafting RB's is supporting Josh.  Their offense didn't get remarkably better with James Cook running for 1k yards and being a 10.1 yards per catch.  Even if Cook performs like this and Ray Davis adds to the running game, their passing game is not as good.    

 

Can't get around that they didn't reserve room to improve the passing game, Josh was used to run it more down the stretch, and their receiving talent at best is a notch below last year with Diggs gone.

[Logic]

So um...

Has anyone cracked this thing yet?

I want to hear what ol' Beaner has to say.

[Beck Water]

13 minutes ago, Logic said:

Respectfully, if I ever see you hold hands and sing kumbaya, I'll eat my hat and livestream it.

I don't believe it's possible.

 

What size and style of hat?

 

Enquiring minds wish to know.

 

 

[Logic]

 

7 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

What size and style of hat?

 

Enquiring minds wish to know.

 

 

[Augie]

16 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

What size and style of hat?

 

Enquiring minds wish to know.

 

 

 

I saw that as an opportunity, as well. 

11 minutes ago, Logic said:

 

 

@FireChans Come on, this will be fun!!! Just once?   😂 

[FireChans]

1 hour ago, Logic said:

Respectfully, if I ever see you hold hands and sing kumbaya, I'll eat my hat and livestream it.

I don't believe it's possible.

I promise the day after the Super Bowl, you will see a whole new FC.

1 hour ago, Beck Water said:

 

You do realize that Josh injured his UCL in 2022 vs the Jets on a passing play where he stayed behind the LOS and was looking to throw, right?
And he injured his shoulder in 2023, again hitting the ground shoulder first after throwing a pass?

 

I'm not Team All-Josh's-Injuries-Are-In-The-Pocket 'cuz it's not true, and also 'cuz bangs and dings and bumps accumulate and your body hands you the bill in your 30s and 40s.  

 

But let's not pretend that being a QB who stays behind the LOS precludes injury, because it doesn't.

 

Yes, Josh can get hurt in the pocket. Every QB can get hurt in the pocket. Every player who steps on the field can get hurt. Some can get hurt in warm ups or in training camp.

 

Does any of that mean that it’s a bad idea to protect your franchise QB’s body and avoid as many hits as possible? Of course not. 
 

This is the silliest point ever on TBD. 
 

“why protect Josh from having to run so much when he could get hurt in a car accident on the way to the stadium” type logic.