The Buffalo Bills relied on free agency to build the initial versions of the roster under general manager Brandon Beane, and that approach (alongside Josh Allen) brought them four AFC East titles and the ability to contend every year. But the 2024 offseason has been eventful, and there have been clear indications of a significant change of direction.

The sequence of events included trading star wide receiver Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans, releasing players like Mitch Morse, Jordan Poyer, and Tre'Davious White, and letting pieces like Micah Hyde, Gabe Davis, Leonard Floyd, and Shaq Lawson walk in free agency.

And the way of reconstructing it was also different. Instead of going back to adding veterans, the Bills went through a route similar to what the Kansas City Chiefs, Green Bay Packers, and the Los Angeles Rams to a certain degree went last year. Brandon Beane made 10 draft picks, while also adding a future 2nd with the Diggs trade and a future fourth with a draft trade — moving this year's fifth, a pick acquired when they dealt Ryan Bates to the Chicago Bears, back to the Bears for next year's fourth.

"I don't think you want to go all-in (pushing money to the future), you've seen teams doing it. You don't want to max the credit card, that's really what it does," Beane said during an illuminating interview with Robert Mays on The Athletic Football Show. "If you max your card, at some point the payment is coming due and that's not gonna be pretty. Try not to lock into a year or be in a two-year run where you just have to eat medicine, and we can't afford anything. I don't want to be Josh Allen and all guys on rookie deals or one-year minimum type of deals. We want to be able to have flexibility to fill in and add."

Long-term view

Josh Allen is 28 years old. There was a natural inclination trying to maximize his early window, especially during his rookie contract, but the reality now is that Allen himself is the window.

With that in mind, Beane decided to take a measured approach. It's possible to build around Allen without excessive spending, which would only affect the team's window in the long run.

"I don't want everyone going into a year saying 'we're gonna have to strip it down, hit the reset button'. That's not the goal. Things happen along the way, and you can never 100% say that you wouldn't walk into that situation. But we want to compete, this team is built to go out and compete. We've won the division four years in a row. We want to fight and win that thing again because that's the easiest path to the playoffs, and you're guaranteed at least one home game. It gives you the best chance to get to the big game, which we're still trying to get to. So we want to compete this year, our goals have not changed. There's just some different players at different positions," Beane added. "We did make a lot of draft picks this year. We drafted ten guys and we're gonna need some of those guys to play right away. Whether they start, whether they are a key backup, or help us on special teams. There are some guys we believe we found each day of the draft that can get a jersey."

As many picks as possible

The Bills had ten picks this year and added extra picks for 2025. That's part of a big-picture, analytically-inclined plan trying to maximize the draft itself. Knowing how uncertain the process is, it's important to get as many tries as possible.

For the nature of the draft or because of how reliant the Bills have been on veterans, Beane's draft track is up and down — and that's the norm for every GM in the NFL. But having more picks increases the Bills' chances of adding impactful pieces and generating surplus value.

"What's the most cost-controlled (pieces for building a roster)? It's drafted players. We're going into next year with a one, two twos, a three, two fours, a couple of sixes, and hopefully one to two comp picks in the mid rounds. We also want to be ready for next year to continue to get some more youth in here," Beane mentioned. "The college draft is super important for us to maintain relevance and continue to compete for AFC East titles and everything we want to get to."

Maybe the 2024 version of the Bills is not as strong as it could have been. But it's the start of a new process to keep the roster as strong as possible year after year, and looking around the NFL, the track record of teams who chose that path makes this approach exciting.

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