Bills GM Brandon Beane confronted with blunt reality after insider calls out one of the team’s biggest issues
Brandon Beane is responsible for this mess.
General manager Brandon Beane is a good general manager, but it’s hard to ignore some of the mishaps that he’s been a part of along the way. Buffalo finds themselves once again in a dire cap situation, though the sky isn’t falling; a lot of it rests on his shoulders.
The team made some bad deals with some mid-level players that ultimately have Buffalo in the negative in terms of cap space. That, and they don’t even have the production to show for the exorbitant spending to bring the guys in.
Mike Catalana, 13WHAM and Buffalo Plus Sports Director, hit the nail on the head with his analysis of where the team currently sits, thanks to Beane.
The excuse that quarterback Josh Allen just makes too much money is one that Beane has thrown around a lot when asked about the cap space and why the team isn’t bringing in more guys, which is a lame duck argument perfectly dismantled by Catalana.
“I know people are going to say, well, they have issues with the cap,” Catalana said. “And I’m gonna use my line again here, Bills will talk about it, and Brandon Beane will say it a lot of times that, ‘well, we got our quarterback and you got to pay our quarterback and that makes it tough.’ The Bills’ issue with the salary cap are more Josh Palmer than they are Josh Allen. You sign players, Josh Palmer was hurt, maybe he wasn’t as effective, but when you sign players in positions like that and pay them a substantial amount of money and do not get the return, that’s what hurts your cap.”
It’s not about Allen’s contract being so big that the team just can’t bring in marquee players. Buffalo is paying a huge sum of money for a wide receiving room that’s left much to be desired. It would be one of, if not the, worst units in the league if Allen weren’t the quarterback.
Wide receivers have struggled even after cashing in on big paydays
Buffalo is paying Josh Palmer $15m in guaranteed money over his contract, Curtis Samuel is sitting at $14m over his contract, and even Keon Coleman is raking in over $9m with the Bills. It’s bad spending if you ask me, and that’s exactly why Beane won’t like the message; he’s failed in this area big time.
“Not as much paying your phenomenal quarterback that you can keep kicking it down the road every year, which is what they’ve done, it’s the guys who let you down who make too much money,” Catalana said. “Curtis Samuel, it’s a lot of the wide receivers, that has been the problem.”
It’s not just the receiving room that’s been an issue, though.
It’s not just on the receivers who didn’t perform for Buffalo
Buffalo spent valuable draft capital and serious cash to bring in players like Joey Bosa, who were invisible in the playoffs. Bosa made over $12m on a one-year deal to join Buffalo, but fell short in the biggest moments of the season. He started his season shining, but when the bright lights of the postseason began, he was nowhere to be found.
Not to harp on Bosa too much, but it was another example of huge spending on a player that just didn’t come through when the team needed him the most, much like the receiving room.
“D-line, like Joey Bosa not coming through for you in the playoff games,” Catalana said. “All of those type of things hurt you more than paying your superstar quarterback who keeps you in every game.”
That’s the uncomfortable truth Buffalo has to wrestle with and work around this offseason.
It’s easy to point to Allen’s contract and shrug your shoulders. It’s harder to admit that the real damage has come from the middle tier, the “win now” signings that didn’t win, the splash moves that didn’t splash when it mattered the most.
Beane deserves credit for building a roster capable of competing every year. But if the Bills are going to finally get over the hump, the margin for error has to shrink, especially when it comes to handing out guaranteed money and draft capital. Allen’s deal isn’t the problem. Missing on the players around him is.
And until that changes, Buffalo will keep paying premium prices for postseason exits, which is both heartbreaking and super lame.
Buffalo Bills News
Bills could make a huge splash when free agency begins, but it’ll cost them a king’s ransom to do so
Brandon Beane, do your thing.
