(This is the second of a two-part series on Bills general manager Brandon Beane’s season-summarizing press conference.)
By CHUCK POLLOCK, Sun Senior Sports Columnist
How do the Bills stand with the saary cap after last year’s $50 million deficit?
“Last year we were staring at a larger crater with the cap. We don’t know what the new cap is going to be, it’s one of the nuances of the league I wish I could change … I wish I knew right now. This year it’s $255 (million), tell me today, is it going to be $275, $280. We work off estimates the best we can … last year we got that number Friday before the Combine, so you still have to save some decisions until you get that final number, but we won’t be in as deep of a cap hole. But we also have guys that are coming up on extensions so I don’t expect us to be big spenders in free agency. We still have to manage this cap because we’re not trying to set this up where we’ve got to strip it all down while we’ve got No. 17 (quarterback Josh Allen). We want to give him a chance every single year to see if that team in ’25, ’26 … as many years as he can play can contend for a title.”
“What about the controversial officiating calls in the AFC Championship Games?
“There’s only so much I can say. That fourth-down play (Allen short on 4-and-1 after ‘tush push’) I feel like he got that … I felt that in the moment and nothing has changed my mind. And the play that we challenged (Chiefs wideout Xavier Worthy and Bills safety Cole Bishop seemed to have dual possession) and when they went down, the ball seemed to hit the ground but the officials ruled the KC receiver made the catch, but I’m not sure either player had possession when the ball touched the ground. What’s possession? Somebody has to have possession when the ball hits the ground. But there are plays we didn’t make in the game too, so by no means are we saying that’s why we lost the game.”
What about the seeming unusual camaraderie of this year’s Bills?
“We’ve had a lot of close units and a lot of good strong teams (but) this team was as close as you could ask for. It reminded me of some of the strong teams we had in Carolina … guys wanting to hang out here and play chess in the locker rool, or whatever games they would play … guys going over to Josh’s house or somebody else’s house to hang out or showeing up at other guys community events, I don’t recall that happening in other years. That’s the hard part, when you walk in the locker room at that abrupt end (after a loss) and you see tears in the eyes of guys you had no idea that it meant that much to therm. I’m not sure we’ve had a group as tight as this one. That’s what’s so painful because there’s no easy ending unless you’re holding that trophy. It’s a kick in the face when it ends like that.”
What about coach Sean McDermott and quarterback Josh Allen getting blamed for failing to win “The Big One?”
“It’s unfair to pin that on one person. A lot of people say Josh Allen can’t beat Patrick Mahomes because I can give you reasons why he can (four times in the regular season). I think it’s unfair to pin that on Sean McDermott or Josh Allen. The Buffalo Bills lost to the Kansas City Chiefs (this year) and last year and the year before to the Cincinnati Bengals and we as an organization (lost), … blame me, there are things I could have done better to help Josh Allen more to to help Sean McDermott more. Maybe if I would have signed a different person, drafted a different person, traded a different person … I think you’ve got to ignore that noise. If we’d have lost to the Ravens, if Mark Andrews catches that ball and it gets to overtime and somehow they win, that game that would be, ‘We got out-coached in that game.’ If you don’t win the game, they’re going to say, ‘They out-executed you,’ and ‘out-coached’ you. We won (the Baltimore game) by two points and nobody’s saying ‘We got out-anythinged.’ We won 13 games, we could have won 14 but we sat (starters against New England) in the last game. Since 2020, we’ve won a lot of games. I don’t think there’s any magic pixie dust that you’re going to pour on a coach and change that (for the better).
“If we don’t win the championship, if you come up short like we did and we have (in the past) that’s what people are going to say, ‘Can you win the Big One?’ We just have to keep kicking the door down.”
When do you expect to start making personnel decisions?
“Right now I have emotion (about the season’s end), you can hear it in my voice a little bit. It would be unfair for me to make any big-time decisions right now. You’ve asked about players, free agents, who’s coming back … it’s still too raw and emotional. We’re going to work through it with the staff, but I don’t think it would be responsible for me right now, this week, to do that, but (those decisions) are coming, we have a window of time, but I’ve got to get through the emotion of it (first).”
COMING NEXT: A two-part series on Sean McDermott; A story on the crazy betting around the Super Bowl and more)
(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun and Olean Star senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
