By Kyle Silagyi / Billswire.usatoday.com
Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane took to the podium for the first time in months Tuesday morning, breaking down his team’s successful season with a 40-minute year-end press conference.
Though disappointed with a Wild-Card round postseason exit, Beane was still pleased with the progress he saw within his team throughout the 2019 campaign.
Here are eight takeaways from Beane’s end-of-season press conference:
Wants overall improvement: ‘We’re not one player away’
Buffalo took a step forward as an organization in the 2019 season, constructing its first double-digit win total of the 21st century.
Despite his team’s 10-6 record, postseason berth, and consistently stout defensive play, Beane does not feel as though his roster is complete.
In fact, he does not see an area that’s not in need of at least some improvement.
“We have to keep our defense strong,” Beane said. “They had a really good year. I would say you have to be strong in all three phases, we want to be better on special teams. Our special teams, I did think improved from a year ago, but we’re not happy with that. Offensively, we did show some improvements statistically, and Josh [Allen] improved and we scored more points. At the end of the day, we didn’t score enough points.
“A lot of times, if you make the playoffs, your last game is kind of emblematic of, if you don’t win at all, whether you go to the championship game or you lose like we did, a lot of times it kind of shows you how your season went, and where you’re good and where you need to get better. I thought we saw that, we just didn’t score enough points.”
With a roster that’s in need of offensive firepower and overall depth, Beane does not feel as though the Bills are one splash signing away from cementing themselves as Super Bowl contenders.
Since taking over as Buffalo’s general manager in the 2017 offseason, Beane’s roster additions have been consistent and concentrated, often making under-the-radar moves that prove to be more impactful than initially thought. With roughly $90 million in cap space to play with in the offseason, Beane again plans to make careful and well thought out moves that may not steal headlines, but will improve the team’s roster.
“I don’t think we’re one player away,” Beane said. “I never think you are, and I definitely don’t think we’re one player away. You lose the first round of the playoffs, that doesn’t say to me [that] the Bills are one player away from being exactly where they want to be.
“We’re a lot of positions away that we’ve got to clean up or answer.”
Pleased with Josh Allen’s development, still wants to see more
In April 2018, Beane placed his future and reputation as an NFL executive into the hands of a 21-year-old.
Beane traded up to select quarterback Josh Allen in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft, identifying the raw, but talented passer out of Wyoming as the future of the Bills’ franchise.
After Allen’s first two professional seasons, it looks as though Beane’s decision was a wise one. Though the quarterback’s game still lacks polish, he’s shown flashes of brilliance, displaying a unique blend of arm strength and athleticism that could help him develop into one of the league’s premier signal-callers.
Allen showed vast improvement in his sophomore season, showcasing more precise decision-making while also making statistical improvements in most passing categories. Beane was pleased with the progress he saw out of his quarterback in year two, but he’s still eager for more.
“I think Josh is a young player, and overall I’m very proud,” Beane said. “The thing about Josh, we had our exit meeting with him, you don’t even have to start going down areas of improvement, he’s got them. He’s very aware of the things he does well, those areas . . . When he walked out of here a year ago to when he came back in the spring . . . he improved in a lot of areas. Is he perfect? Is he where he wants to be? Is he where we want him to be? No. But he’s got the DNA to continue to improve, and I have no doubt he is disgusted, like we all are, that we didn’t finish that [playoff] game and come out with a win.
“Sometimes Josh, he wants it so bad that sometimes he tries to do too much. If we’re not moving the ball at times, I think that’s probably one of the things he has to work on, is still playing within himself. I think he tried to put all 45 other players on his back and do things that he shouldn’t do . . . He’s a fiery competitor, and I would much rather have those errors than check-down-charlie, being timid, all those types of things. I’m very proud of Josh, I have no doubt that he’s going to come back an even better version of himself in April.”
Though he knows that Allen still has room to grow, Beane still feels as though the quarterback was invaluable to Buffalo’s success in 2019, viewing him as an already-solid passer with an incredibly high ceiling.
“We don’t win 10 games without Josh Allen,” Beane said.
“I don’t think there’s a hump that Josh can’t get over. I think he’s so determined. People say you can take coaching and criticism, Josh truly takes it. He wants the feedback, he doesn’t get his feelings hurt . . . At the end of the day, it’s maturity, and it’s me doing a better job of increasing the talent around him, too, so that he can trust, have more players that [he] can trust and make plays for him, where he’s just got to get the ball out, hand it off, do whatever, and not feel like he has to do too much.”
Doesn’t expect an offseason roster overhaul
After constructing a 6-10 record in the 2018 campaign, significant additions to the Bills roster were a necessity.
Beane answered the call, turning over more than 40 percent of the roster in the 2019 offseason.
The changes proved to be beneficial, as Buffalo finished the 2019 campaign with a 10-6 record and playoff berth.
Thus, a change to nearly half of the roster does not appear to be in order. Per Beane, a complete ‘overhaul’ is not in the cards in western New York, with adding valuable free agents to the already-present core appearing to be near the top of his priority list.
“I don’t think we’re looking at an overhaul,” Beane said. “I think last year, offensively, was an overhaul. We are going to look under every rock to find competition and upgrades where we can, but my philosophy has not changed. We have to draft, develop, and sign our guys.
“I do agree with continuity. The more cohesive you are out there, this is the ultimate team sport . . . I would say, we want to keep as many intact as we can, but we wouldn’t do it in spite of a clear upgrade. But if you’re talking about, I’m bringing in a guy with a similar skill set, why would I do that if this guy can do it? If we’re going to change out guys, other than people who leave in free agency that we can’t control, we do believe in continuity and we want to keep as many of this core, these guys that we’ve drafted and spent time developing and learning our system, we do want to keep them. That’s our plan here. Hopefully, we’ll just be able to add some pieces here and there to help us take the next step.”
Feels Buffalo is now an ‘attractive’ free-agent destination
The third-year general manager chuckled when asked about Buffalo’s attractiveness as a free agent destination.
“It’s funny,” he said. “Last time I had to defend Buffalo up here, didn’t I?
Defend Buffalo, he did. After All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Brown reportedly balked at the idea of a trade that would see him land at One Bills Drive in the spring of 2019, long-dated jokes about western New York again circled around social media.
“That pissed me off,” Beane said of Buffalo’s inaccurate national perception in March 2019. “Don’t speak about Buffalo if you don’t know what this city and what this fan base is like.”
Less than one year later, Beane feels as though there’s been a shift in the perception surrounding the team. With a young, developing quarterback, a burgeoning core, and a rock-solid culture, Beane thinks that Buffalo would be an attractive destination to any player looking for a new home this offseason.
“I think that people understand and see what we’re building here,” Beane said. “I think people across the league see that we have a young quarterback that’s developing and growing, I think that those can be attractive pieces.
“I think people see that we play selfless football, and we have guys that are going to fight. Not everything was pretty [in the playoffs], but I thought it was a good show that this team is going to fight 60-plus minutes on Saturday. We’re hopefully considered a young team on the rise and an attractive place. It’s not for me to determine, but that would be the part that I would sell for anyone that was looking at Buffalo.”
Wants Tre’Davious White around ‘for the longterm’
One of the biggest question marks hovering over the Bills’ offseason relates to a player who is under contract for at least another year.
Tre’Davious White, who emerged as one of the best defensive backs in the league with a 2019 campaign in which he allowed zero touchdowns in coverage, may be in line to become the NFL’s highest-paid cornerback sooner rather than later.
Though White has one more year remaining on his rookie deal (with a potential fifth-year option after that), he is eligible to sign an extension this offseason. Though ultimately inking the reigning an All-Pro to a longterm deal is something that Beane wants to do, he would not disclose if such a contract would be drawn up this summer.
“I don’t really get into contracts, but I’m very proud of Tre’Davious,” Beane said. “He’s a guy we want here for the longterm. Tre’s exactly what I just said, draft, develop, and he has developed and is still developing. I think he can be better than he was even this year.
“The thing I was real proud [of] Tre’Davious this year, most of his play has been steady the whole time, this year he took the ball away, which was big for our defense.
Interested in adding an elite pass rusher
Though Buffalo’s defense lacks a glaring weak spot, Beane would be open to the idea of improving the unit through the addition of an elite pass-rusher.
The team’s defensive ends combined for 17 sacks in 2017, with Shaq Lawson leading the position group with 6.5. Though this production certainly isn’t poor, adding an elite pass rusher would perhaps push the Bills’ defense over the edge, giving it an embarrassment of riches that opposing offenses would have extreme difficulty planning for.
Though he knows that premier pass rushers are rare, Beane admitted that he’s always in search of improvements across the defensive line.
“You’d love to have one, you really would,” Beane said. “There’s not even 32 of them, though, one for each team. I promise you, we’re looking for those guys, and would love pressure on the quarterback. If the quarterback’s on his backside, he can’t do too much damage to us.
“We want to be strong upfront, we want to stop the run, things like that, but at the end of the day, there’s only so many Von Miller’s, that type of player.”
Pleased with rookie class
After the conclusion of the 2019 NFL Draft, the vast majority of analysts praised Beane’s haul.
Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver was viewed by many as the best defensive player in the draft, and Beane was able to select him with the ninth overall pick.
He followed that up by selecting Oklahoma offensive lineman Cody Ford, a prospect whom many outlets had a first-round grade on, in the second round. Beane rounded out his draft class with players like Devin Singletary, Dawson Knox, and Darryl Johnson, intriguing athletes with high upside.
Roughly one year later, it’s clear that the praise was warranted.
Buffalo’s rookie class was incredibly impactful throughout the 2019 campaign. Oliver was perhaps the team’s standout first-year players, tallying 43 tackles and 5.0 sacks.
Singletary also showed promise at running back, displaying tremendous athleticism and patience after taking over as the team’s starting running back midway through the year.
Beane praised both Oliver and Singletary at his year-end press conference, also expressing his delight with the rookie class as a whole.
“I thought Ed did a really good job [in his] first year,” Beane said. He came out, I thought he had a really good camp. I think when we got into games, maybe early on, he was swimming a little bit. In fairness to Ed, at Houston he played just over the nose. Playing the three-tech was different . . . I was very impressed, and he picked his game up, and I think he ended the season playing well. I’m hoping this will be a very good offseason for him entering next year.
“Devin was our next pick, and I thought Devin had a really good year. He had the hamstring setback, I think that hurt us a little bit and slowed his development. You saw it as the year went on, he began to get more and more touches in the games, whether it was the pass game or the run game.”
Would like to retain Shaq Lawson, Jordan Phillips
Two of Buffalo’s more impactful defensive linemen are set to hit the open market.
Both Shaq Lawson and Jordan Phillips will become free agents at the start of the new league year should extensions not be worked out. Lawson and Phillips, who recorded 6.5 and 9.5 sacks in 2019, respectively, brought a unique energy to the team’s defensive line, perhaps being as impactful in the locker room as they were on the field.
Beane is open to the idea of bringing the two linemen back, but realizes that the two have earned the right to test their value in free agency.
“I was very proud of both those guys,” Beane said.
“I’ll take Shaq first, we didn’t pick up his option, and that can go one of two ways. He could sulk, and [think] ‘I’m out of here,’ anything like that. Shaq took it in stride, and we challenged him, and told him, ‘Listen Shaq, us not picking up your option has nothing to do with us [not] wanting you here, it’s just where we are at this time. We would love for you to have a great year and sign you to a longterm.’ I was very happy with Shaq, and we’ll obviously talk to his representatives.
“I thought Jordan really stepped his game up this year on the field, but also bringing some young guys along. I thought he was good with Ed and just showing him some different things. I think Jordan’s still got room to grow. Again, he had a career year, sack production, so he’s earned the right to see what his value is on the market. We’ll just have to see where that goes.”