Buffalo Bills GM Should Be Blaming Himself For Team’s Failures After Comment About ‘Sucking Bad Enough To Get Ja’Marr Chase’

Buffalo Bills GM Brandon Beane

Getty Image / Joshua Bessex


This weekend, the Buffalo Bills’ Super Bowl hopes came to an end as they fell at home to the Cincinnati Bengals.

It’s the second year in a row that they haven’t made it out of the AFC Divisional Round.

Yesterday, their general manager discussed their disappointing playoff exit.

During his press conference, Brandon Beane made a comment that got some attention.

While discussing the loss to the Bengals, he pointed out the Bengals’ cap-friendly rookie deals that they have benefited from over the past couple of years.

Beane said that he didn’t want the Bills to “suck bad enough to get Ja’Marr Chase”.

The biggest problem is that the Bills didn’t actually need to suck all that much to get a wide receiver like Ja’Marr Chase on a rookie deal. The Bills could have had Justin Jefferson. They had the 22nd pick in the 2020 draft, which was a draft that was loaded with wide receiver talent.

Instead, they decided to trade that pick for the more proven Stefon Diggs, which eventually led to them signing Diggs to a massive contract extension.

If Beane was so concerned about how a big wide receiver contract would impact his team’s cap situation, he easily could have drafted Jefferson, Tee Higgins, Michael Pittman, or Brandon Aiyuk to help deal with the cap.

His statement also appears to neglect the fact that Josh Allen has had a pretty low cap hit for a star quarterback throughout his career. Even this season, his cap hit was only $16.4 million. Joe Burrow’s this season was just under $10 million.

The biggest issue for the Bills hasn’t been that they aren’t drafting high enough, it’s that they aren’t making their picks count.

Their last top 10 pick came in 2019. They spent it on a defensive tackle. Their 2nd round pick in that draft has bounced around the offensive line and isn’t a starter on their team right now.

They’ve spent 2 3rd round picks and a 2nd round pick on running backs since 2019, none have had a major impact for them, and they still felt the need to trade for a running back at this year’s deadline.

Last year, they spent a 2nd round pick on a defensive end that had 2 sacks in the regular season this year and didn’t play 50% of defensive snaps in either of the Bills’ playoff games this year.

Having stars on rookie deals is absolutely an advantage for the Bengals right now, but the Buffalo Bills haven’t done themselves many favors in the draft and have already missed out on their window to capitalize on Josh Allen’s rookie deal.