By Nick Wojton / Billswire.usatoday.com
Everyone in western New York is curious what’s on the mind of Brandon Beane this week.
The NFL’s trade deadline is fast approaching. In-season trades between teams end on Tuesday at 4 p.m. What is the Buffalo Bills general manager thinking? Will he buy? Could he actually sell?
Speaking with 1270: The Fan radio on Wednesday, Beane answered that exact question on The Tim Graham Show. Are the Bills buyers or sellers as the deadline approaches?
“I wouldn’t call us either one,” Beane said. “Again, I know it’s a deadline, but we constantly looked around for guys, and as well people have called us on our guys. We’re definitely not shopping anybody. But if someone calls and makes you just… or they’re desperate for a certain position that you have some depth at and they make you an offer that’s just… wow… then you have to listen.
“I don’t expect that [to happen], but yeah, last year we got calls on several guys, and we didn’t think any of them were what I would say are ‘wow offers’ enough to pry them away from us.”
Beane also referenced his past trade deadline activity, specifically the type many fans would hope to see the team do this upcoming week.
One year the Bills sold off defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, more are expecting the Kelvin Benjamin type of move, where the Bills brought in talent, not shipped it out.
The GM said even a trade like that came out of left field.
“It was 1:00 or 1:30 (on trade deadline day), I didn’t anticipate anything. Carolina called back (about Benjamin) around 2:30, 2:45, from a conversation that happened a couple of days earlier. And they were more open to doing something at that point. I didn’t anticipate it, I didn’t call them, I thought we were done so… that can happen.
“I can go all the way up until next week at three o’clock and next expect anything and the phone rings and you get something together in the last hour.”
With Beane’s latest comments, he sounds much more likely to not pursue options at the deadline. But don’t exactly rule a move out. Buffalo has the fourth-most cap space in the NFL ($24.7M) currently and will still have some of the most after the year, $89.8M, also the fourth-most in the league, per Spotrac.
Plus… grain of salt. LeSean McCoy, per Beane this summer, was in Bills’ plans for the 2019 season. Things can change.