1 on 1 with Brandon Beane: Inside the Buffalo Bills GM's master plan

The Stefon Diggs trade. The Keon Coleman pick. Letting Josh Be Josh. His opinion of the head coach. Go Long sits down with the Buffalo Bills' general manager for an hour to get answers on everything.

Illustration by Brave Buffalo

ORCHARD PARK, NY — Brandon Beane can finally relax. This incoming lull on the NFL calendar is a golden opportunity to decompress. For a month, there’s no need for the Buffalo Bills general manager to agonize over an AFC title loss or “13 Seconds” or a blizzardy beatdown to Cincinnati or a 44-yard kick that sails wide right or any of the other razor-thin moments that’ve come between his franchise and a Super Bowl appearance.

Time to exhale.

Maybe… ?

Possibly… ?

No. Hell no.

The breaks of the game are too stupefying. The pursuit of a championship is too all-consuming. Fresh off the most consequential offseason of his career since selecting Josh Allen seventh overall in the 2018 NFL Draft, Beane admits the hunt for a title will inevitably be on his mind. And when training camp commences at St. John Fisher College in late July, he’s back to thinking about that Super Bowl quite literally every single day.  

“It drives you,” Beane says. “It eats at you. You want it so bad.”

Most all GMs and coaches serve up “one bounce away” cliches. Too often, it’s contrived. Snake-oil jargon spewed to convince the masses a team is closer to a championship than it actually is. But here, it’s real. The Bills genuinely have been one bounce from glory. Images of those dynastic Kansas City Chiefs basking in confetti could’ve driven this GM to the point of insanity. So, the backdrop for this conversation is fitting. Beane is seated inside an office at One Bills Drive after his team’s minicamp practice. Over one shoulder, across Abbott Road, the team’s new stadium is under construction. It opens in 2026. Towering cranes are at work, positioning steel beams into the second level of the bowl. A reminder that hard work — shameless work — and day-to-day patience is always required in life.

Over his other shoulder is the current stadium, the site of his team’s latest heartbreak. One look could elicit one memory that spikes urgency and reminds the GM of one cruel NFL reality: You only get so many opportunities.

Beane is the man tasked with balancing the present and the future.

Fresh off another excruciating playoff defeat, the Bills entered salary-cap hell. (Roughly $41 mill in the red.) His star wide receiver wanted out. (More on that later.) His defense fell flat at the worst time. (Again.) All while, the clock ticks. And ticks. This team’s prized possession is undoubtedly at the peak of his powers. These Bills are armed with arguably the best player this side of Patrick Mahomes. Yet, all-time greats will also tell you that title chances did not last forever during the reigns of Michael Jordan, of Tom Brady. These Bills are at risk of vanquishing in the same vortex.

It was time to drastically reinvent the roster around Josh Allen.

Time for Beane to drive this organization a bold new direction.

This week, the GM sat down exclusively with Go Long to detail his vision for the Buffalo Bills.

For an hour, everything is discussed.

• His thinking behind Buffalo’s “transition,” and the search for a new nucleus of leaders.  

• Letting Josh Allen be Josh Allen. Last offseason, the Bills seemed oddly determined to reel in their 1-of-1 QB. The GM sings a different tune in our chat. He knows Allen has the mentality of a “linebacker” and does not want him to change.

• Stefon Diggs is off to the Houston Texans after four years in Buffalo. Why?

• Revamped WR room. Beane had his choice of any receiver amongst that second tier of wide receivers in the draft. Why Keon Coleman? Is speed a concern? The GM details the substance behind the man in the discounted yellow coat purchased at Macy’s. (He expects big things out of Dalton Kincaid, too.)

• Team psychology. Beane sees value in refueling a roster with players who didn’t experience those playoff losses. He also wanted a healthy number of players with a nasty “edge” to their game. Piecing together a roster is not a matter of talent, and talent alone, to the GM. He calls every team “a chemistry experiment.” One bad chemical, he says, and everything can combust.

• To get his ’06 Indianapolis Colts over the hump, Hall of Fame GM Bill Polian told us he started to weigh playoff performance on a critical curve. Beane is doing the same.

• Is Sean McDermott the coach who can deliver a Super Bowl? Our series from December is brought up.  

• He knows time is of the essence: “We can’t waste these opportunities.”

In a profession full of filibustering extraordinaires, Brandon Beane is an outlier. Candid. There’s no need for a high-powered magnifying glass to decode his words.

Our entire conversation is below:

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What a massive offseason. The “transition.” GMs are afraid to even tip-toe around words like that. What does that mean to you when you say that this is a team in “transition?”

Beane: When you look at a team, you’ve got a lot of players. Where do you look? Who’s the quarterback? You start there.

There’s stability there. But beyond that, some of the guys that have worn the “C” in the past for us — that have been a big part of our success — just the timing of it, either due to age, contract, where we are in our build, the various reasons. They all leave for different reasons. Some by their choosing, some by the nature of the business. And so, I think we’re in transition in the sense that we’ve got some new “key figureheads” that will ascend into certain positions. It’s like last year. Our linebacker, the quarterback of the defense, that was going to be a position in transition itself because that’s the guy who’s communicating with the coach. He’s communicating all the checks. And so there was a lot of, “Who’s that going to be?” And while we had options, we felt like Terrel Bernard would step up. He had to go prove it. We weren’t going to go out there and just hand him the keys to the car. He took over and did it. And so, it’s the same thing here. We’ve got some guys — and it’s more than just one position like that last year — that are going to step into roles, whether they wear the “C” or not, we’re going to count on for more leadership on and off the field. Some of that’s by example. Doesn’t mean they’re going to give a speech. But that’s where I’m talking about a team in transition. A lot of the key players that you’ve seen going out for the coin toss, those are usually the guys with the “C” on their chest. A lot of those have changed.

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A lot of it is out of necessity. You’re 41+ million in the red. As a GM, does part of you go, “Holy shit, how are we going to get this right?”

Beane: We were anticipating well in the 50s, but you’re right. We got a good bump in the cap. So it probably was closer to that number. It’s not what you want. There are going to be times. It doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen to us again. We want to be a good team every year. I don’t want to walk into a year and say, “We are so backed up with deals and dead cash and too many things going on that we’re just playing with Josh Allen and guys on rookie deals. You don’t want that.

Like an NBA situation.

Beane: We don’t want to do that. But it doesn’t mean that there’s not times where you say, “Hey, salaries are getting up here. Age is getting up here. You know what? Now we’ve built through the draft, let’s count on some more of these young players that we have in our system that maybe have been key backups or guys we drafted this year.” Let’s just take last year as an example, to have Terrel Bernard. It’s not easy. And it got really complicated when he pulled his hamstring the last day of training camp. So you’re like, “Man, he’s doing well in practice, but now we’re not going to get to play a preseason game with him.” And he ultimately still earned the job. Whether everyone agreed or not, I don’t know. I don’t speak for everyone. It’s easier if you go pluck someone off the street that you’ve seen start at middle linebacker. And so I think that’s what gives people pause. We’re all human. We can’t stand up here — Sean McDermott, myself, whoever — can’t stand up here and say, “He’s going to do X, Y, or Z,” because he’s got to go do it. Whether that’s a rookie or Terrel Bernard or some of those guys. What we’ve tried to do is bring in competition, whether it’s veterans on one-year deals, lower end, to “Hey, fill it in.” Almost like you’re buying insurance. So, if you’ve got a young guy that you’re hoping steps up, and the situation’s too big for him or he’s not ready yet, try to have some guys in the wings that have done it, at least at a level we can live with.  

You’re a two-time executive of the year. But I’m sure you look at that list. A lot of those guys got fired. They didn’t get to the second phase of building a team. So this is a plunge to take, to remake the team around the quarterback. I would imagine Josh is at the forefront of your mind.

Beane: Always.

What goes into that?

Beane: Where are we at in the cycle of his deal? Where is he at cap-wise? We’ve had to restructure some of his deals to push money forward so that we can again be as aggressive in trying to win every year. We’re trying to do everything we can — within reason. We haven’t gone just all renegotiate everyone’s deal and push all this money.

Teams do that.

Beane: Teams do that. And listen, everyone’s got their own way of doing it. I’m not going to sit here and judge. My preference is the way we’re doing it. There are times you have to get aggressive, maybe a little more than others. And there’s times that you have to say, “Hey, let’s not be as aggressive, but let’s make sure we can still go out and challenge.” Starting with the AFC East. The easiest ticket to the postseason is to win your division. And so, we’re always starting by saying, “Do we have a team that we feel can compete for the AFC East?” Because you win that, that’s a free meal ticket to the dance.

Josh has the Midas touch. So that helps as a GM, too, when you’re building through rookies, through vets on these one-year deals. You know, “We’ve got the guy. We can build through that.” When you look back at 2018, what traits did you realize Josh had then — when you’re finding the quarterback, you’re going through all those guys — that you still see today?

Beane: I always start with his God-given things. First, what stands out when we all walk in the arena and look at him. I mean, he’s big. And there’s all sorts of shapes and sizes. But the law of physics says it’s easier to throw it over the line if you’re 6-5 than if you’re 6-foot. So does it mean you’re going to throw out a guy that’s 6-foot or under? No, but you’ve got that and you’ve obviously got the arm talent. And knowing the elements that we play in here. And then the athletic traits. You saw him at Wyoming. There were games that they were playing in some weather. I know they were playing Colorado State in a snow game and it was almost like single wing sometimes. They were running him and he was just trying to will them to victory. If you pulled up his stats and didn’t watch the game, you’re like, “He sucks.” You’ve got to truly watch every play. Sometimes, it was an incomplete pass and it was a hell of a play of he had guys hanging on him, he got off and threw it away. So you start there.

And then as we met him and asked people, you realized how competitive he was. Things you were doing. Quizzing him. He wanted to be right. And then how smart was he, giving him things to prepare for and then his recall. Teaching him new things and some guys are very paint-by-number. Some guys, you do it and everything starts to add up. Things click easier. Some guys, you’ve got to teach ‘em every single little step along the way. Some guys, if you just give ‘em the base package and you start adding something, once you say something, they already know because they understand how it’s all put together.

Have heard the same thing. A photographic memory? Where it’s just like…

Beane: (Snaps fingers) Just like that. And you got a guy that has the God-given ability who’s really smart and you couldn’t find anyone at Wyoming that — either I talked to directly, or the support staff reached out to, or coaches, or whoever — could find anything bad. Nothing. Everyone enjoyed being around Josh. So he’s a good teammate. Guys want to play for him. It’s so important, at quarterback, that the guys around him want to play for him. If they don’t? The receivers aren’t going to run the routes as well if they’re not getting the ball. The line’s not going to hang on and block as well. They’re just, “I’ll do my job and that’s it.” When you’ve got those guys? We had a guy in Carolina that did not have the God-given ability, and I’m not talking about Cam yet. I’m talking about Jake Delhomme. Jake Delhomme was undrafted for a reason, but his teammates would do anything for him. They would hold, grapple, get away, whatever it took. They were not going to let him get hit to the best of their ability. The receivers were going to run through a wall for this guy. And those are some of the things that — as I heard about him, asking questions to various people — what people felt about Josh.

It's not cliché or cartoonish. That stuff matters. It’s a human game. Fourth quarter, you’re on “E,” you’re feeling like shit, tied game. You’ve got to find something within you. If your quarterback in the huddle is somebody that you want to run through a wall for, that stuff adds up. It’s hard to quantify it, but it’s your job (as the GM) to figure that out in a guy.

Beane: It’s hard to quantify. And then, does he want the ball in the big moments? Does it mean he always had success? No. But even through failure, he wanted the ball again. If Michael Jordan missed a game-winner, he didn’t care one bit. He was in the huddle the next game telling Phil Jackson, or whoever the coach was, “No, draw that play up for me again. I’m going to make it this time.” And I think that’s a trait you want for as many key players as you can. Especially your quarterback.

You want Josh Allen in full and that’s the balance. You draft him. He’s your investment. You’re paying him all this money. This time last year, there was a lot of talk about caution — sliding more, stepping out of bounds, not taking the hits. But I know myself, and a lot of other people, criticized that: “Let him go.” You want him maximized because there isn’t anybody else like him in the league. How do you balance this?

Beane: I think it’s a balance. He has to still play football and there’s an instinctual part and the thing with Josh that you saw in college — maybe you don’t know if you can tame it or not, but that we realized here — is that he’s a linebacker playing quarterback. That’s his mentality. You don’t want to strip him completely of that. I think it’s just, “Hey, are there some plays when we look back that truly are unnecessary?” Are you five yards from out of bounds and you go take a hit? You’ve already got the first. When he lowers his shoulder to get the first, no one questions that. It’s more, “You already picked up the first. We can re-huddle. We’re in good shape. There’s no clock issues.” Those are the ones. But where you love it, the first play that comes to my mind is that Miami game down there at the end. It’s third-and-whatever and he drops back to pass. If you freeze the frame, before he got that first down and see how many defenders were in his way, it was just that will: “I’m going to find a way to get that first down and help seal this division.”

You don’t want to put too many thoughts in the quarterback’s head, right?

Beane: It’s a balance. It really is. You do want the longevity — not only for the season but for his career. But some of those things that he does that teeter the line of making you nervous, that’s who he is. That’s his DNA. And if you take too much of that from him, you might not get the full version of him. So, it is a balance. I think he’s more aware than ever. I think he’s understanding all that and I think those are the things that he’ll continue to try to do his best at, but he’s never going to bat a thousand at the end of the game saying he took zero unnecessary hits. You know what I mean? I get it. In the moment, man, he’s a linebacker playing football. He doesn’t enjoy sliding. He doesn’t enjoy running out of bounds when he doesn’t need to save the clock. He does it if it’s a two-minute drive or something like that.

I’ve talked to Favre about that — that’s still a superpower. You want that in him because that is what’s going to get you from division titles to Super Bowls.

Beane: I know even with Cam, and I think Josh is a little bit like this, Cam liked to take some hits once in a while just to feel the flow of the game. Feel the physicality of the game. Like, “Oh yeah, all right, let’s go. You want to tackle me? I’m going to give you a little bit to think about.” That’s one of the things that I think I’ve seen in Cam Newton and Josh Allen.

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The wide receiver position. It’s probably been on your mind every day for a while now. It’s been on the fans’ minds for a long time. That group has just gone through a complete overhaul. But with Stefon Diggs, what changed from four years, $96 million to — two years later — trading him?

Beane: I would say with Stef, we had a lot of great times and he’s a big part of our success. Four years, we win four divisions. And ultimately, we talked about transition. We just decided at this time — for us and for him, where we were in the transition — it all made sense. And we got some young guys that we wanted to step up in various areas. And two, someone made an offer. The team we traded with (Houston) reached out to us well before we did the deal and we thought about it multiple times. We had various conversations. Ultimately, they made it enticing enough for us. The timing was probably it. With where we were with the transition, where we were heading and, again, he’s still a really good player. Zero ill will towards Stef. Thankful for all he brought to our team, but ultimately we’re still trying to get over the top. I know he’s trying to get over the top and you’re constantly looking at the tweaks you need to make. Maybe a year ago we don’t do it. Maybe a year later, we don’t do it. Sometimes, it’s truly the timing of everything. At that point, it made sense.

You did get a second-round pick, so it’s not like you’re just dumping him. But you’re eating a lot — $31 million in dead cap.

Beane: Which we could have divvied that up. We could have figured out a way to either do that later or do some things to try and divvy that up. We decided on the timing to go ahead and do it now and eat it and be done with it, so that next year it’s off the books. You said four years, $96M. Look at where the deals are going. They’re constantly going up and that market is changing again. It made a big change the year that Tyreek Hill and Stef and Davante Adams. But there’s another boom with these guys now heading into the 30 millions and we’ll see who else follows.

If he did want out, if he’s asking for a trade, and that’s what I heard — I doubt you’re just going to break down exactly how it went down behind the scenes here — you could call his bluff and say, “No, you’re a Bill.”

Beane: Yeah, no doubt. We’ve always had good dialogue with (his agent) Adisa (Bakari) and Stef and more was probably always made on the outside than on the inside. I think the timing of when a team reached out to us, multiple internal discussions, let’s discuss it. Like any decision, there’s pros and cons. You weigh ‘em all out and you’re trying to make the best decision. Not for me, not for Sean McDermott, you’re making it for the Buffalo Bills. And that’s probably as plain as I said, trying to evaluate every positive and negative of doing it, knowing that not everyone’s going to agree. But that goes from the very first or second move we made when I got here. Trading Sammy (Watkins). When you do stuff like that…

Drafting Josh Allen. The draft party right here. They weren’t that happy.

Beane: No, no. And so you understand what comes with it and you make the best decision for the team.

Is part of it culture? Is that part of the “transition” — creating a vacuum for new leaders to emerge? Talking to Chad Hall a few years back, when Diggs first got here, he said you want him in your “foxhole.” This guy is going to raise the intensity. There’s a lot of good there. And then you hear the other stuff, the grumblings about him setting a bad example. Does the culture stuff factor into the trade?

Beane: Everything always does in anything, good or bad. There’s a lot of positives with Stef. So you’re not going to hear me say — and I mean it — anything negative about him because we won a lot with him and we obviously made a bold move to get him. At that time, timing, I thought that was definitely the best move for the franchise at that point. We made the decision. Again, some people may have thought we gave up too much because it was an aggressive trade to go get a No. 1 receiver. But like anything, timing comes into play and that was four really strong years that he and our offense had. Overall, I’m not sure we wouldn’t do it again. But the league keeps moving. Teams keep moving. You’re constantly looking for how you’re going to tweak and change your roster. Where do you want to add? Where do you want to take away? And what’s our best moves for 2024? We’re also keeping an eye on ’25 and ’26 and beyond.

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You’ve got your choice at all of those receivers after the first tier: Worthy, Pearsall, Legette, McConkey, Polk, Mitchell, and Keon Coleman is the pick. What does he bring that those other guys do not? What stood out with Keon?

Beane: Yeah, all those guys are a lot of good players. There were so many good ones up there. In the trade-back scenario, you’re saying — in your own way — “Hey, we think a lot of these guys are good. We think you’re picking from a pool here. Let’s not go back too far. Let’s keep it within reason.” We knew we were short of a third-round pick. Where can we add some assets? And that’s why we did two small trade-downs to where we thought we’d still be able, knowing what was on our board for the first trade-down and then again, “Alright, you know what, we’ll go one more down,” and just see what else we can get. That got us from the bottom of the sixth to the top of five. Those were just moves to up our draft equity and, at the same time, feel like there were similar-level players (at WR). We could still get someone that we were very excited about. And from Keon’s standpoint — his size, his hands, young. Twenty years old, just turned 21 now. But a lot of upside with him. Been on a winning program. They went undefeated last year at Florida State. Well-spoken out of there with what he brought to their team. I think there’s still a lot of upside with him and people knocked him for his 40 time. OK. It is what it is. He’s not going to win the Fastest Man in the League competition, but he’s got good play speed. Intelligent. Very good football smarts. And he’s not 100 percent polished, but you’re talking about a young man that we feel is still a ball of clay and that we can develop into something really good with him and Josh going forward.

At the Combine, you weren’t that upset about his 40.

Beane: He’s got play speed. I saw him live at LSU. He caught a skinny post. He makes a guy miss, splits the safeties and takes it in. And you saw his athletic ability returning punts. You don’t see 6-3, 6-4 guys that are able to track and bend and adjust.

We see the fun yellow coat and the cookies. But I imagine there’s something about Keon Coleman that people should know that maybe they don’t know — a seriousness, a competitiveness? What is something fans should know about him?

Beane: I think he loves ball. He’s got a funny side to him. But when it’s time to get on the field, he loves ball. He’s such a competitive dude. Those are the things I know about him. We’re still getting to know him, but when it’s about ball, he’s all in. He’s focused. He’s dialed in. He strikes me as a very competitive young man.

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One thing that’s maybe gone forgotten through all the wide receiver talk is having a Dalton Kincaid, a Dawson Knox — tight ends. The team that you’re trying to get past here, they circulate around Travis Kelce. How great can Dalton really be?

Beane: Yeah, I mean really good Year 1. Hopefully, he’ll just take off where he left off going into Year 2. I think he’s still got a lot of upside in his game and Dawson had a little injury during the middle of the season. Having him healthy, it’s been good seeing him out there at OTAs and he’s been a great influence and teacher for Dalton — just the NFL game and some of the trials and tribulations of being a young guy. I read the rules, it’s legal to throw it to a tight end. We look at it as “weapons,” more than we look at it as “This guy’s in the receiver room, this guy’s in the running back room. This guy’s in the tight end room.” The rules say we can throw it to James Cook. The rules say we can throw it to a Dawson Knox or Dalton Kincaid or Q-Morris. Don’t get too caught up in: “You don’t have a No. 1 wide receiver.” Let’s look at it as a whole and different guys bring different skill-sets and if your best pass catcher ends up being a running back or he ends up being a tight end, in this case, that’s OK, too. Kansas City has proven that very well.

You really sought leaders, captains and gnarly, nasty “dogs.” The term’s overused, but Ray Davis. During the draft, you brought up the pass-protection play (at Kentucky) you saw on film and realized this is a guy who’ll take your head off. Why was that an emphasis to add this kind of player to the roster?

Beane: Listen, we’re always looking for really good guys, guys that we don’t worry about getting in trouble off the field. That’s important. High character. But it doesn’t mean that you’re looking for 53 choir boys, either. You’re looking for a balance of veterans and youth and super-great guys. Guys with edge. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad guy. But some guys play through what I call “the echo of the whistle,” and some guys are “I’m going to block my guy and seal him off and I’m going to check the box.” Some guys want to send him a little message for the next time. And so everyone’s wired differently. There’s nothing wrong with the guy who can get his guy blocked and sealed. But I want a couple guys on the team to be your enforcers and send some messages. Ray, that was definitely one of the things that popped off the film. This guy, in pass pro, he’s going to let you know: “If you come in here, you can try to unload on me. Just know I’m going to try to unload on you, too. It goes both ways. The rules allow me to pop you, too.” Again, you’re not going to have 53 dogs. It’s just trying to find that balance.

Every team that’s built is a chemistry experiment. You can have loads of talent, but if the chemicals don’t mix well, it combusts and bad things can happen. And so, when you build a team, you’re trying to balance everything — personality, play style, demeanor, how do they mesh, all those things. That’s why it’s not always the most talented team that wins. It’s the team that gels and is the best team. Yes, you need to stay healthy and you get some lucky bounces here or there. But I know the teams that I’ve been fond of through my career in Carolina and here, those teams enjoyed being around each other. Yes, they had talent. But I’ve been on teams that had talent that went 7-9. Or can go 7-10 now. I say it all the time: Every team is a new team and it’s a new chemical balance.

I remember being around those Browns in 2019 for a story and thinking, “Look at all this talent! They’re going to win the Super Bowl. Who wants to hear about chemistry?” That stuff matters. You’ve got 22 moving parts, 60 to 70 plays a game, the ball is shaped funny for a reason. It’s a human game. You do need to get to know people and who they are, don’t you?

Beane: You’re going to have adversity. Show me a team that didn’t have adversity. It doesn’t happen. You’re going to face adversity. You may face it early in the year, you may face it middle of the year. We’ve had all sorts of things. You may face it at the end. The teams that enjoy being together and are going to fight through it, those are the teams that find a way. I’ve been a part of teams where you can tell guys are mailing it in and they’re looking for reasons to get on IR and the first sign of trouble? They’re bailing. And that’s not the ideal teammate or player that you’re looking for, or staff member.

Where you guys are right now reminds me of the Colts with Peyton. They’re banging on that Super Bowl door for a while. They’re trying to get past Brady. You guys have to deal with Mahomes. So I talked to Bill Polian this offseason and he said: “You want the guys who are going to play the best in the biggest games.” They started judging playoff performance heavier in their evaluation and took a few more chances. Does that enter your mind when you’re at this transition point — who’s going to step up in the playoffs? Because the margins are obviously so thin, especially with those Chiefs. How do you measure playoff performance versus anything else?

Beane: You do weigh those games. You weigh them heavily. Because those are the biggest moments. And listen, sometimes things can happen just due to circumstances. They’re out of their control. But sometimes guys you saw play well in-season, they got there and it didn’t go so well and maybe it's back-to-back playoffs for that player at that position. You do weigh it. And I think Bill’s spot on. It is true. To win in the playoffs, your best players have to be at their best. Because the margins are so skinny on rosters from team to team. The best players are the ones that won a lot of your games, not all your games, but in those games it’s Good vs. Good. Whose best players are going to rise up?  

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You’ve come so close. How much does it really consume you to know that you’ve got a team and a quarterback that are on the precipice?

Beane: It weighs on you every day. It’s hard to get away. We got some time off coming up the next few weeks. That’s probably the only time that I might not think about it every day. I’ll still think about it a lot. But once that’s over, it’s every day. It drives you. It eats at you. You want it so bad. You want to make sure you aren’t making desperate decisions because you want it so bad. You’re trying to stay logical and know your team and look at it through a clear prism and not have false hope. You’re making sure you’re keeping a clear mind because it can be emotional losing a game like we lost to Kansas City. You’re right there. A bounce here, a play there, a play there. Games can change by one or two plays. And so, it doesn’t mean that you’ve got to strip the roster all the way down just because you lost to a team that won the Super Bowl. If you make a field goal, what happens there? The ball needs to bounce your way. Your best players have to play well. You’ve got to stay healthy. There’s so many things. This team, I know the character of it — it’s not going to give up. It’s not going to give in. It’s not going to say, “Oh well.” There’s a lot of grit in the locker room. We’ve got our work cut out for us. But I don’t think anyone’s afraid of the task.

I don’t how you quantify the residual effects of a “13 Seconds” loss. Any of these playoff losses. You may get back into that moment feeling tight, feeling “Here we go again.” Are there positives to bringing in fresh blood? You don’t know what you don’t know. They weren’t there for that.

Beane: You’re not walking out there with 53 guys with the same scars.

If you play sports long enough, you’ve all had moments of success and you’ve all had moments of failure. You can learn some of your most valuable lessons from failure, too. I know I have from mistakes. So you’ve got to take the positive out of some of these negative situations that you referenced. If you don’t, you’re wasting it. And that starts with us as the people leading this team. We can’t waste these opportunities. You only get so many and every one is a lesson learned — or lessons learned — good and bad. But I know how I’m wired. I’m not patting myself on the back for something that went well. It’s what are the things that we could have done better or that we need to do better to get over the top?

What lesson do you think you really learned from this past season when you and Sean are reflecting on coming close again?

Beane: I don’t know if there’s one thing. Sometimes, it’s the bounce of the ball. Sometimes, you get a little nicked up here. You have to give credit to the other team. That’s a really good team that’s won Super Bowls and you’re a play here, a play there. Could you have executed this a little bit better? There’s so many little things and you’re always looking for that most minute detail to help get your team over the top.

Obviously, I was critical of the coach. Can’t ignore the elephant in the room there. What have you seen in Sean? What gives you the confidence that he’s the coach that can bring a Super Bowl here?

Beane: We have a shared vision for how you build the team and we believe in being strong up front. We obviously know the quarterback we have and, same thing, no one’s perfect. I’m sure he can quickly tell you the mistakes more than he can tell you the things that have gone well. It’s how we’re both wired and we’re both very competitive and we’re always trying to tweak things, whether it’s staff, whether it’s players, whether it’s process, whether it’s scheduling, what are the little things? Using that growth mindset of “What are these teams doing well? Where are they better than us?” Maybe we beat ‘em, but maybe they’re doing some things better than we are. Maybe they blitz better. Maybe they run better screens. Where are some little small areas that we can show improvements in our process, in our people, in things we do every single day. And small things here, here, here, here and there, they can add up to you making one more play or two more plays. Which gets you over the top.

I was just talking to MVS. He made a big play in that game.

Beane: Yes, he did.

Now he’s here. He could tell you a little something about those KC corners — it could be something as small as that.  

Beane: You’re always trying to add guys, too, that have had success and he’s been around winning programs. Obviously, they won it this year and made some big plays in the process.

Have you watched these Super Bowls?

Beane: I do. But I don’t enjoy ‘em. It’s not fun. But you do want to see which team’s style and who’s best players are stepping up. And which styles are winning right now. You’re always looking for what little thing you can tweak.

Then, you think about this period in NFL history: Patrick Mahomes is already one of the greatest ever. He is Michael Jordan in a sense — you’re caught in that era. So, you’ve got to look for those little things nonstop.

Beane: You control what you can control. He’s their player and they’ve got a good team and Andy Reid’s obviously had a lot of success in the league. And a lot like Brady and Belichick, two sharp guys at their craft and won a lot of games and I’m sure they’re doing the same thing. They know they won, but they’re trying to tweak it, too, knowing people are chasing them.

Why not be afraid to trade with them?

Beane: Ultimately, you’ve got to do what’s best for you. That’s what they’re doing and that’s what we do. We’re always trying to make the best decision for the Buffalo Bills. Not for me. Not for this person. Not for that person.

For that Mahomes trade, you weren’t here yet.

Beane: It’s all good. I’m happy with the guy we’ve got.

What does this mean? We take another look with this column:

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Brandon Beane's message to KC is clear: Bring it on.

Smash the Window, Part I: ‘Don’t ever stop’

Smash the Window, Part II: The Super Bowl Plan