By Nick Wojton / Billswire.usatoday.com
Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane last gave his “state of the Union” address at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Boy, can things change over one week of free agency.
The Bills’ front office leader was busy this week. He’s on nine free agent signings and counting. In some cases like center Mitch Morse, he dished out some dough. Others, cost efficient.
Regardless, the “process” still rang loud and clear when he spoke from Orchard Park on Thursday.
“I think we have some guys who are going to come in here and compete. We told every single one of them that nothing is guaranteed,” Beane said.
While sticking to his process guns, Beane said plenty more as well.
With that, here’s nine takeaways from Beane’s free agency presser:
Giddy over Gore
Of all Beane’s moves, none shocked more than Frank Gore. The soon-to-be 36-year-old running back was one of the team’s first free agents brought in. At that point, positions of need were not addressed, so folks weren’t too happy about it. Since then, observers of the team have warmed up to him.
But from the moment it was announced, speaking of the “process,” it was written all over Gore. With Kyle Williams retiring, Beane wanted to inject a leader in the locker room. That’s going to be Gore’s job.
“I’ve got to be candid here, I’m a big fan of Frank Gore,” Beane said. “I’ve always admired this guy and you watch him and he’s always a pro’s pro.”
“He’s not going to be a big, vocal leader, but he’s going to be a guy off the field that players can model themselves after. There’s a reason this guy is still playing at his age at a position where, historically, these guys, 31, 32, these guys start dropping out of the league,” Beane added. “I look forward to him being an influence in our locker room.”
It sounds like anything Gore can provide on the field will be an added bonus. Which, truthfully, he’ll probably do some damage there, too.
Fresh-faced O-Line
Beane, working alongside head coach Sean McDermott, kept to their trademark ways along the offensive line with their signings. The Bills do not want specialists in their trenches. They want versatility.
“We looked for some guys with position flex and experience. Some guys have started a lot of games, some guys have been backups. It’ll be fun to roll this O-line. I know we probably turned that (position group) over the most. It’ll be fun to see these guys get going in the spring,” Beane said.
All of Buffalo’s recent additions along the line, Mitch Morse, Ty Nsekhe, and Jon Feliciano, can all play multiple positions on the line. Add Spencer Long in there, too. Aside from Morse, everyone else will have to earn their stripes.
But with that in mind, think ahead to the NFL draft. The Bills had money to blow on free agency. They spent a lot, but despite having a bunch, they still did not go after specialists. All versatile players. When you’re scouting linemen for the 2019 NFL Draft in April, keep that in mind. You can bet if a guy isn’t versatile, he’s not going to be on the Bills’ board. That’s a big factor for them, as these signing told.
More specifically, here’s what Beane said about Nsekhe: “I would think his starting spot would be at tackle.”…”He’s a big man to get around and he can move pretty good.”… “I like the edge, you see a little bit of nasty in him and that was part of what was attractive there.”
On Feliciano: “Super tough, very nasty. When he gets his hands on you, school’s out,”…. “He likes to get guys and just dump em.’ Sometimes he’ll try too hard to dump em’. His strength is probably his weakness, too. But I’ll take those misses from a guy who’s being over-aggressive.”
Mo’ money, Mo’ Mitch
One thing cannot be denied after the free agency period, Beane will spend. He wanted Mitch Morse, and he got him. It wasn’t cheap, though. Morse will make over $44 million over four years, averaging just over $11 million per season. He’s now the NFL’s highest-paid center.
Beane explained this move was made because of Josh Allen. In Beane’s mind, a good center is vital.
“(Morse) just fits what we do. We thought it was very important to shore up that area and keep the pocket firm for Josh and also in the run game,” Beane said.
“It’s very important to have a good center. Not only one that can physically play, but one that’s a very good communicator,” the GM added. “A good center takes a little bit of pressure off of the quarterback… I was in Carolina for awhile and we had Ryan Khalil and he took a lot of pressure off of Cam Newton and if you go back awhile here, the first guy I extended was Eric Wood, just trying to do that.”
Beane explained this move was made because of Josh Allen. In Beane’s mind, a good center is vital.
“(Morse) just fits what we do. We thought it was very important to shore up that area and keep the pocket firm for Josh and also in the run game,” Beane said.
“It’s very important to have a good center. Not only one that can physically play, but one that’s a very good communicator,” the GM added. “A good center takes a little bit of pressure off of the quarterback… I was in Carolina for awhile and we had Ryan Khalil and he took a lot of pressure off of Cam Newton and if you go back awhile here, the first guy I extended was Eric Wood, just trying to do that.”
Shady very much in the picture
Beane or McDermott themselves have never said or done anything to suggest they’d want to move on from LeSean McCoy. Speculation just insists they do. Once again, Beane showed he’s sticking to the 30-year-old back.
In a brief mentioning of Shady while discussing Gore, Beane essentially said Gore was also brought in for McCoy.
“I think these guys will motivate each other,” Beane said.
This isn’t a shocker. McCoy and Gore are good friends and even workout together in the offseason. Now it stands to be seem what happens with Chris Ivory, who’s also 30 and similar type of runner to Gore.
Tricked the new wideouts
Here’s a fun one. As pointed out by Staff Writer Bradley Gelber, the Bills pulled a fast one on new wide receivers Cole Bealsey and John Brown. If fans can recall, the two signings were announced almost at the same time earlier this week. Beane admitted that was on purpose. He wanted to get them both to agree to terms at nearly the same time so they wouldn’t worry about how their role would be on the team if they knew another guy was just added.
Per Beane, Senior VP of Football Administration Jim Overdorf was working out a deal on the phone with one of the two, while Kevin Meganck, Director of Football Administration, was doing the same on another phone line. Beane’s plan worked, he got both his guys.
“Jim Overdorf was on the phone with one in his office and Kevin was trying to close with the other one and I didn’t really want them closing before the other one just to try and not sway somebody else from saying, ‘wait, you just signed one?’ Because they’re truly different. types of receivers,” Beane explained.
Beane also discussed his thoughts on both of them:
On Beasley: “You see a guy that’s quicker than fast. Gets off the line and he does a great job with his routes of not selling them. He doesn’t give away to the defender which way he’s going,”
On Brown: “He caused us some headaches in that first game. His tape was good, he’ll be the speed element.”
Don’t smack talk Buffalo
“Candid” was a key word for Beane during his pressers. The first time he used it didn’t seem candid at all. He was being a fan boy about Gore. The second time? That was absoutely candid. Beane discussed that Sports Illustrated story from this week that essentially said free agents don’t want to come to Buffalo. He stuck it to SI, and anyone else who says similar comments:
“That pissed me off,” Beane said “It was an ignorant comment.”
“If you live in Buffalo or you know anything about Buffalo, don’t speak about Buffalo, if you don’t know what this city or what this fan base was like. It really pissed me off. Because it’s not true,” Beane added. “How many guys flowed through here today?”
Long-term goals & cap space left
With the truckload of new players that arrived in Buffalo on Thursday to sign on the dotted line, Beane said he didn’t want to go too crazy. According to the GM, he wanted to keep long-term goals in mind and not destroy the salary cap years down the road.
“We definitely are trying to structure things so we’re not having to do crazy cap moves or anything like that. Not to say that you never get there, but you try to stay as flexible as you can.” Beane said. “I believe it’s helpful when you can stay cap-strong.”
Strong concept from Beane. Moving into the free agency period, his team had the NFL’s fourth-most cap space. They previously had the most moving into the 2020 offseason, too. All that spending has changed that, but the Bills still have wiggle room in both years after all that spending.
Per OverTheCap, the Bills have the fifth-most cap space left this year near $44.8 million. Their 2020 number has dropped to 10th, but there’s still a lot with $89.1 million.
Addressing AB
When Beane defended Buffalo, he was actually answering a question about Antonio Brown. But it did not appear those harsh comments were directed at the wideout. but when he did address that topic directly, Beane said things actually went well.
“Obviously it was a marriage that went bad so we were looking into it. At the end of the day, it was very positive all around, but at the end of the day, we just decided to withdraw,” Beane said.
Perhaps the heat of the news breaking then un-breaking got to the Bills.
The Mc-Beane way
Let’s finish this off on the positive note. Beane indirectly describes the Bills organization as a class act in the NFL. Explaining how he works his way through things like free agency with players, he simply said he wants to be respectful. Here’s how Beane gave some insight into who things at One Bills Drive work:
“It is a business,” Beane said. “This is a tough business, sometimes you have to make difficult decisions. I have found, in the long run, if you treat people with respect, and you shoot em’ straight, even if it’s an answer they don’t want, being released, being traded, eventually if you treat people right, word will get around that you do care about them because I’ve talked to many players who’ve come in here, and, you know, maybe the GM didn’t even tell em’ they were cut. Maybe somebody else told them they were released or a coach wouldn’t talk to them on the way out. Sean and I believe if people are going to fight for us, that they deserve to have a visit with us when they leave.
“They’re not high-fiving and thanking us for it, it’s down the line when it settles in, I’ve found that players, when you see them again, they say ‘Listen, I was really pissed when you let me go, but I appreciate how you treated me.”
Brown could be an example of this working out. The Bills offered him a contract last offseason, he declined, and came back around. There also might be plenty of other times that we’ll never hear about where this philosophy comes into the fold. If anything, Bills fans should highly-appreciate this is the way a massive organization representing them displays themselves.
Class acts.