'I know it can be done:' Our 1 on 1 with Buffalo Bills GM Brandon Beane

His vision is clear. He knows exactly what he wants this roster to look like and, no, he's not shy. As another title expedition begins, the Bills boss sits down with Go Long to get into everything.

Illustration by Brave Buffalo

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — He enters the room with vigor in his gait, a cup of Chobani yogurt in his right hand and a welcoming smile. Brandon Beane is fresh off his eighth draft as the Buffalo Bills’ general manager and, honestly, I had no clue what mood to expect. Exactly 24 hours prior, the entire country heard this man go nuclear. With one rant, Beane became the No. 1 story in sports — a remarkable feat on the heels of an NFL Draft with the NBA and NHL playoffs also raging.

His call into WGR 550 went viral. His cell phone lit up with texts. He’s not exactly ready to move on from the topic… not even close.

Because while he did not enter in WWE-fashion, Beane will gladly discuss how he handles the wide receiver position. Passionately.

After all, it was right here inside Bills HQ that the architect of this roster declared he’d keep “kicking” and “kicking” and “kicking” that Super Bowl door until it topples over. Frankly, there wasn’t any time for sorrow after his team’s crushing 32-29 AFC Championship loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. When a season concludes, a GM’s work truly begins. Exit interviews. Free agency planning. College film. NFL Combine. Free agency decisions. Top 30 prospect visits. Pro Days. The next three months, it was on Beane to do the lion’s share of kicking before, again, handing the roster back to Sean McDermott.

Drafting a weapon for an MVP quarterback is not an outlandish suggestion. The offense was exceptional last season but innovation is a good thing. At one point during this conversation with the Bills GM, I listed off the grisly defensive statistics in these elimination games and suggested Beane could’ve abandoned all hope that the Bills will ever outright stop Patrick Mahomes and simply try to blow-torch opponents with a juggernaut offense.

Say what you want about Beane — he’s steadfast. This spring, he made it crystal clear how he intends to finally reach that Super Bowl dais. There’s zero ambiguity clouding his philosophy. And everybody should know one fact: Brandon Beane is in charge. He’s the one making the final call on these draft picks.

One year ago, I sat down with Beane to explore the franchise’s transition. Back then, he understood why anyone would question the offense’s direction. Now? He doesn’t get it and he’s got a lot to say on the matter.

We chatted for an hour.

Topics discussed…

• Roster-building philosophy. Other contenders load up at WR? Fine by him. Beane dissects the formula he believes in, one with roots in two of his Super Bowl teams past: the 2003 and 2015 Carolina Panthers. He worked in personnel for both. A ferocious defensive line — the GM argues — is paramount. Standing pat, to him, is not an option. As much the sport appears to change, he believes a few truths endure.

• New players, same coach. Of course, the Bills have reconstructed the front seven before. A surge of additions up front isn’t particularly new. Why should anybody expect a different result in January? (Icymi: We sat down with McDermott last January.)

• One Hall of Fame GM regrets not surrounding his Hall of Fame QB with more wide receivers. Will Beane? He believes the best way to maximize Josh Allen is to build powerhouse lines on both sides of the ball. (And to make life hell for the other team’s passer.)

• Joshua Palmer. The GM pushes back on the idea that he did nothing at the position this spring. When it comes to the passing game’s evolution — sprucing up a unit that broke records in 2024 — Beane expects this $11 million investment at wide receiver to play a pivotal role.

• Joey Bosa’s impact. The five-time Pro Bowler isn’t even 30 years old yet, but he has also battled injuries the last three seasons. What is Buffalo’s plan to keep him healthy?

• Hey, rookie. Why were Maxwell Hairston, T.J. Sanders and Landon Jackson chosen to spearhead an “infusion of youth” on defense? Beane explains what specifically drew him to the team’s top three draft picks and how they help create a nasty unit. Defense let Buffalo down vs. the Chiefs, not the offense. His goal? For all of this newfound speed and athleticism to finally overwhelm any elite QB they face.

• You’re up, Keon Coleman & Dalton Kincaid. The 25th and 33rd overall picks in back-to-back years enter a critical season. Beane details how they responded to the team’s challenge and his vision for both.

• James Cook. When does Beane expect him back? What does the running back need to do to warrant a top-market deal? We get Beane’s theory on paying running backs.

No use ignoring the headline on everyone’s phone. I make a crack about the wide receiver position and inform the GM that, hey, WGR was not alone. We’ve also posited on feeding Allen weapons, and… we’re off.

Beane doesn’t tip-toe into the subject.

Beane is in no rush to leave, either. At one point, he pushes a 10 o’clock meeting back, so we can keep going.

This general manager is quite convicted in what it takes to deliver this city a Lombardi Trophy.

Go Long subscribers can access our wide-ranging 1 on 1 below.

Beane: Ever since we traded Diggs, it was “You don’t have enough receivers, don’t have this,” and I understood it last year. I thought they were fair questions, and my stance on it last year was, “You’re right, this is different. We believe in what we’re building here but we have to go prove it.” Where my frustration is…

… the season ends and we weren’t coming up short because of lack of wide receiver and that’s where I’m like, alright, you came out of this draft and you spent however many hours Monday morning before I went on there and that’s what your takeaway was. You’re spending a majority of this time banging on us for a wide receiver when where have we come up short in the playoffs because of lack of wide receiver play? I can’t tell you where that happened. Cincinnati Bengals game, maybe, when we lost 27-10. We didn’t protect as well. Offensively, we were out of sync. If you wanted to argue that game that the receivers didn’t play well, OK, I’m not going to argue. We scored 10 points. We have to get the other team’s passer down — those elite quarterbacks. How many guys in this draft were going to be better than our Top 4 guys anyway? It wasn’t a deep wide receiver class. So, I’m not saying there weren’t any. I’m just saying how many were there that are truly breaking your top four?

Unless you want to move up for a Matthew Golden?

Beane: Well, yeah. But I’m saying, how many? Let’s say you move up for a guy like that, you’re going to lose a lot. This is a draft with a lot of defensive depth in it at positions of need. How much money do you spend every year trying to bring in D-Lineman? Most of these guys don’t even get to free agency. The really good ones don’t. They’d had to have had… Bosa’s had a couple injuries. They have to be an aging player. Rarely do these guys on the D-Line get to free agency. When you have a D-Line class that’s this deep, why not take advantage of it? Because if we trade up for a Matt Golden or whoever you think we should, look what you’re going to lose. Did you see any team trading up for receiver in this draft?

I can’t think of any.

Beane: That’s what I’m saying. Because the depth was in the D-Line and some of the defensive positions. Why not take advantage of that? And we believe we’ve added players — not only on the D-Line, but other defensive players — that can all help. Rush and coverage work together. If we didn’t score the points we scored, it doesn’t matter how many receivers. … You’ve got to be balanced so you’ve got to be able to run the ball, too. There’s only so many dollars that can go around. We’re paying Josh Allen No. 1 and it’s been written that, well, “I guess Josh Allen has to be the MVP again, they didn’t do anything at receiver.” Josh Allen’s been playing to that level for years. How many sexy receiver groups did Tom Brady have for all those Super Bowls? How many did he have?

The year they did, they lost to a ball stuck to a helmet.

Beane: That’s what I’m saying. My point of this is we have not not won championships because of receiver.

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I agree. And I even see where you have a right to be pissed off when we bring it up. Eight 30-point games in a row, 30 rushing touchdowns, 30 passing touchdowns. Josh is the MVP. Best offensive line in football. James Cook blows up. Part of me thinks like, OK, you and Sean talk often about “We’re going to build through the defensive line…”

Beane: …and both lines. Our O-Line is set. We feel good about it. I’ve been in this league 20-something years, 27, 28 years. Nothing has changed from what I’ve learned as I was growing up through this business. You’ve got to have a good quarterback. You’ve got to protect him. And you’ve got to get after the other team’s quarterback. However, the game changes with more passing, less running, and now it’s going back to a little more balance. That stuff’s going to evolve. The evolution. People are going to come up with new things.

Devil’s advocate: I was in Santa Clara for that Super Bowl (Denver’s 24-10 win over his Carolina Panthers). The Panthers receivers did not get it done in that game.

Beane: But it wasn’t the receivers. It wasn’t the receivers for either team. Who turned the ball over? The only way we could lose that game was turning the ball over. If we just punt the ball there… our defense was going to go down as one of the great defenses. They didn’t do anything. We gave them a touchdown in the end zone and we gave ‘em a very short field for a touchdown. They never drove the length of the field to score a touchdown. We did. We did the thing you cannot do. You cannot turn the ball over. Look at all the points we scored that year with Ted Ginn, Jerricho Cotchery, Philly Brown and a rookie Devin Funchess. (Carolina scored 500 points, the most in the NFL at 31.2 per game.)

Benjamin was injured, too.

Beane: Kelvin Benjamin was out the whole year. Those four guys were the main four guys. And look at how many points we scored. Cam Newton was the MVP, but we had a good O-Line. We had a good quarterback. We had Jonathan Stewart and Mike Tolbert in the backfield. We had Greg Olsen at tight end. And we did exactly what we needed to do. We had a good D-Line, good linebacking core, average secondary other than Josh Norman.

As I’ve said 100 times, I would love to add Matthew Golden or one of these guys, but not at the expense of things that help you win from a more important standpoint. And the point that we haven’t “invested” in receivers, that’s not true. We paid Stefon Diggs. First, I gave up a first and whatever else I gave up for him. When I got here, I traded for Kelvin Benjamin. I was trying to get a guy to see if he would get in and help a rookie quarterback. That didn’t work, but it wasn’t for lack of effort. We basically took a guy in the first — we took him at the top of two — last year in Keon Coleman. Dalton Kincaid, you have to count that as a receiving tight end. So to say we haven’t invested in that position to put weapons around Josh is crazy to me. And when Josh was being paid lower, we had Stefon Diggs, Cole Beasley, John Brown, Emmanuel Sanders, Gabe Davis. I was putting everything we could around him. A young Dawson Knox. But as his salary increases, I’ve got to take from somewhere. People don’t want to understand the cap matters. Could I draft somebody and trade all these assets? Yes. But now we’ve got to score more points a game and we’ve got to drop back because we can’t stop people. That’s the long answer.

I get all of that. In eight years, you’ve also taken one wide receiver in the Top 100 and eight defensive linemen in the Top 100. Maybe there’s a missed opportunity to add cost-controlled players who can grow with Josh Allen.

Beane: Cost-controlled is both sides, though. Cost-controlled is defense. Everybody.

For sure. But the receivers, those salaries are frickin’ exploding right now.

Beane: All of them are.

I’ve gotten to know Ron Wolf well. Your careers are similar. He took his big swing at quarterback early with Brett Favre. He nailed second, third, fourth round a lot. But sometimes he looks back and wishes he got more weapons for Brett. There’s no part of you that that thinks, “Shit, should we just draft guys every year?” It doesn’t have to be the first round. Any concerns that you might look back and think, “I just should’ve drafted more receivers” given your quarterback? It doesn’t have to be crazy. It doesn’t have to be first round, trading up, doing anything like that. Does that thought cross your mind?

Beane: No. If we have a need like, “Hey man…” Last year, when we traded Diggs, I went into that draft going, “We need to get somebody in the first few rounds here that can help us.” The year we took Khalil Shakir (in the fifth round), he was the best player on the board. We had traded our fourth. He would’ve been our fourth-round pick. He was the best player on the board as soon as we turned the pick in for Terrel Bernard (in the third). I was like, “Damn, I’d love to have my fourth right now and go get him but I don’t have it.” And once he got to the fifth, I was like, “We’re going to get him.” I’m just telling you, you start reaching for positions, you’re going to regret it. You’re going to regret it. Don’t pass on good football players. Just take good players. And there’ll be plenty of years it works out at receiver. Again, we paid Josh Palmer. And Josh Palmer’s a good player.

We got Keon Coleman going into Year 2 who was really trending hard before he broke his wrist and we said, “Hey, didn’t finish the way we wanted.” Got it. Khalil Shakir is a stud. Absolute stud. We just invested money in him to keep him here for the long term. Curtis Samuel, we paid two years. Curtis Samuel’s been a No. 2 receiver. Unfortunately, he got nicked up last year and was battling that. New year, new system. Came on late. We got him back. And then we pay Josh Palmer. I mean, we paid him 11 million bucks a year. We’ll find out if I’m wrong, but I’m not paying him 11 million bucks because I think he’s an average player. I think he’s a good player. No one’s talking about that. So what if I hadn’t have paid Josh Palmer and I drafted a guy in the draft at that value? Would everybody have been happy then? (Note: The Bills also signed Elijah Moore the day after this conversation.)

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You know you’re not going to make everybody happy, but need to stick with what you think is best.

Beane: I don’t worry about it. I’ll go back to what I said. I had no issue with the wide receiver question all year. But after the season — and I added Josh Palmer — I thought everybody should have just moved on from wide receiver. Let’s get after Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson. If you want to break down where our road has come to an end? We haven’t gotten those quarterbacks on the ground.

Points on 31 of 40 non-kneeldown down drives, a TD rate of 55 percent, forcing only two turnovers in the last four playoff losses.

Beane: That’s it.

OK, so you talked about investing in the D-Line but you’ve also done this before. Back to Star Lotulelei, Trent Murphy and Mario Addison. All the way through Von Miller. All those draft picks. I’m not going to sit here and say it’s been bad. There’s been really good results. But like you just said, it gets to a point and the season ends the same exact way. What’s going to change? With this collection of talent? What gives you the confidence it’s going to be any different when it seems like investing into the D-Line gets to a point and there’s Mahomes, Burrow the one year, and the season ends the same way?

Beane: I like our secondary. I like what we’ve added. And if you put where our secondary is now with the D-Line that we’ve added, I feel like that gives us a good chance. There’s going to be excellent competition. Competition brings out the best in everyone and we’ve got a combination of veterans and an infusion of youth. And that’s how I see it. It’s kind of like what we did last year. We made a big move moving on from Stefon, going with this “Everybody Eats” approach. We had to prove that could work. And for one year, it did. Yeah, we have to prove it again. If it doesn’t, then we have to re-evaluate if it’s sustainable or not. But you can get too cute. There’s chemistry. There’s timing. There’s one football. This infusion of youth with the veterans we currently have with Ed Oliver, Greg Rousseau, DaQuan Jones. We’ve added some free agent pieces. And then you add these guys? We feel that could be the difference. But we have to go prove it.

After that AFC Championship Game, I remember thinking, Brandon should just say, “Fuck it. We can’t stop anybody this time of year. Let’s load up on weapons. Let’s try to win 45-38.” And then, I’m down there in New Orleans and you see the Eagles punk Mahomes and the Chiefs. You’ve got Jalen Carter smacking him in the head and they just physically beat him up. Tampa Bay did the same thing a few years prior — so it can be done. Did that game — and the way the Eagles took it to him — factor into this offseason?

Beane: I know it can be done. I’ve seen it. I’ve witnessed it. All of 2003, we had Jake Delhomme at quarterback, Muhsin Muhammad, a young Steve Smith, Ricky Proehl at wide receiver. We weren’t scaring people with our offense. We were pretty good, but not elite. We weren’t “The Greatest Show on Turf.” But we had a D-Line. We had Julius Peppers, Kris Jenkins, Brentson Buckner, Mike Rucker, and our fifth guy was Al Wallace, who we traded from the Eagles for as a rotational rusher. And then our defense was nasty. Like it was salty. We ran the ball. And our D-Line stopped the run and then they were affecting the quarterback. Go to the 2015 team, yes, Cam was the MVP and had a great year. Our D-Line set the tone, and it was really our front. Charles Johnson, Kawann Short, Star Lotulelei and Kony Ealy. Mario Addison. It was the same thing. Both of those teams had a very good front six, front seven. We had Dan Morgan and Will Witherspoon (in 2003). And then in ’15, we had Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis.

And he’s playing in that Super Bowl with one arm.

Beane: Exactly. Yes, the Super Bowl (this past year) reaffirmed that, but that wasn’t a revelation. If that game didn’t happen, I already knew what we needed to do.

What gives you the confidence in Sean, his defensive staff, that they’re going to take these pieces and give you different results?

Beane: Yeah, I mean that’s what we have to do. Everyone’s on board and that’s how we’re attacking it.

If Joey Bosa pans out, he’s the best that $12 million can buy in the NFL. But that’s a big if. What’s your plan for him? What are you hoping to get out of him?

Beane: You can see when he’s healthy, he can still rush. He played 41 percent of the snaps last year, played 14 games. So that’s not bad. What we need to make sure is that we have him here for enough games to help us get to where we need to get and then have him fresh and ready to go for the postseason. We’ll use this spring to get to know him and his body and what works, where he needs more care, and it’s our job to armor him up between now and September and be ready. No one has a crystal ball. But to be able to add a guy of his value, there’s no guarantees. It’s about managing risk. And the only reason you’re going to have a shot at a guy of his caliber is because he has had a couple of seasons where he had some injuries show up.

He’s not even 30 years old yet. He’s 29.

Beane: When he’s healthy, and he’s right, he can still rush. He’s going to affect the quarterback and obviously Rousseau is back. Adding a T.J. Sanders in there, who’s a rushing guy, you pair him with Ed Oliver? One guy is getting the double team, one guy’s getting the single. The guy with the single has got to a win.

I didn’t think of it that way until you said it over the weekend. That is an element that could be something new, a specific way to get after these quarterbacks.

Beane: A lot of times, the protection turns to Ed. He’s doubled. Did we have enough 1-on-1 wins over here? We’ve got to grow T.J. Sanders. He’s a rookie. He’s not going to walk in and go right to the Hall of Fame. And as the season goes along — until he proves himself, when he’s in there with Ed — the protection’s going to turn to Ed. They’re going to make him prove himself. But if he proves himself, then people will say that was a good pick. If he doesn’t, then that’s back on me.

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Onto the draft. Max Hairston is a different kind of corner than you’ve had around here. The jump balls, he might lose one of those. But you can see him sticking with those crossers against Kansas City. Making a play here and there. He’s got some spunk to him. So what went into identifying him, valuing him and Hairston becoming your first-round pick?

Beane: The first thing is, you feel his speed, his instincts and his ball skills on tape. Those are the three things if I was writing him up. His speed is what I would categorize as rare. Because it’s not just track speed, it’s game speed. Playing with it. And a lot of times, those speed guys aren’t willing to mix it up. And in this league, the coordinators will do their best that — if you’ve got corners that won’t tackle — to make ‘em crack-replace, come inside and mix it up.

I remember Kyle Shanahan doing that against Green Bay a few years ago (to win in the playoffs). Jaire Alexander had a bad shoulder. It was third and seven and they just ran right at him with Deebo.

Beane: And so, he’s a willing tackler. He’s a willing tackler. He’s not the strongest dude. His play strength is not one of his top qualities at this time. We’ve got to grow that. But again, young player, we’ll grow him in our system. We will get him a little sturdier, but he is a willing player and he was playing with a shoulder injury until it got infected from an injection.

From his own medic.

Beane: It can happen. It’s a rare thing. Anyway, he’s a tough kid. Sometimes, whether it’s receivers or not that we call “track guys,” they’ve got to be 100 percent to get out there. He’s not wired that way. He’s wired as a football player.

What goes into realizing he’s wired like a “football player?”

Beane: You start right there. He was not 100 percent. He’s going to be a high draft pick and he’s still in there taking injections to be able to play in games. Some guys are like, “Yeah, I’ll come back in three weeks. Especially if I’m going to be going potentially in the first round.” I went down to see him play Ole Miss this year, and it was the first game he missed. I busted his balls about it. I flew all the way down there. Now, I saw Deone (Walker) and some other guys and I needed to see the Ole Miss guys, but I wanted to see Max Hairston probably as much or more than anybody. I had seen Deone the year before. I knew about him. He was having a good year. I had not paid attention to Max the year before — live. I had seen him on tape. So I go down there and it was unknown. Everyone thought he was playing, the scouts that were there until that morning. The word was starting to travel that he had an infection in his shoulder and was out.

That’s a temperament. I feel like an old curmudgeon, middle-aged man at this point, looking at the 21-year-old college athlete, NIL portal, it’s probably a little harder to find somebody who loves football — who will do everything to play. That’s got to make all GMs’ jobs tougher: Who really loves this violent sport and is in it for the right reason? You’re going to be a grown man playing professionally and you’re going to face adversity. He faced it.

Beane: No doubt.

Landon Jackson. Loved that call. He said to you: “You got to fucking dog.” Where did you see that part of his game?

Beane: Landon came on my radar the year before. I was actually at a game, at Michigan. Michigan was playing Indiana (in 2023) when I was there. At halftime of the game, I’ve got my iPad up. I’m flipping over and Alabama’s playing Arkansas. And Alabama had a highly touted freshman who will come out in next year’s draft: Kadyn Proctor. And I’m going, “Who’s this guy beating him?” I think he beat him for three sacks that game. I know I saw two back-to-back close together. And so, I didn’t know who Landon was and I came back here. I made a little note. I came back here and pulled up some of his film and I went, “Hmm. This guy’s going to be interesting to track.” So that’s when he came on my radar — just random, beating Kadyn Proctor, a highly touted guy at Alabama. And you go fast forward to this year, you’re into the season, and you’re like, “Alright, he’s going to be coming out this year.” And you start watching a little more of his film and you see a relentless motor. This guy plays from the snap to what I call “the echo of the whistle.” His ears are pinned back and he loves every play. He loves the violence. He loves every bit of playing defensive end. And he surprised me in a good way the way he tested. I didn’t know that he would test the way he did with a 40 ½-inch vertical.

Because scouts said he was a little too rigid.

Beane: Yeah, he’s got a little bit of stiffness to him. If he didn’t have any stiffness, he’d have gone in the first round. There’s a reason (he fell). But there’s a reason he was being mocked in the first round at one point. Because of all the positive I’ve talked about.

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I know it’s always, “everybody’s on-board” and you’re “following the board” and you’re talking about these players for weeks. It’s not like you’re having this big debate the day of the draft. But are you making the final call as the GM?

Beane: Yeah.

So what did Sean think about these draft picks?

Beane: Yeah, I mean, I think we both were in agreement that — back to the offseason — we wanted to kind of put our eggs in the basket of D-Line. Not that we’re just going to do one thing. Like I said, we pay Josh Palmer 11 million bucks a year. But if there’s one area that we’re going to try to bring in some vet competition and then add some youth, my phrase has been “an infusion of youth” down there. I think that can be good. A good blend of old and young and old’s not a fair word to call those guys, but you know what I’m saying: the vets. That can be a good thing for a room. And so, that started with Ogunjobi, Hoecht and Bosa. And then again, as we’re going through this thing — I really realized it in February — barring a bunch of these guys being medically ruled out, we were going to have some good options at D-Tackle and D-End early in this draft.

Detroit took one right in front of you. (Ohio State DT Tyleik Williams suggested Buffalo would’ve drafted him.)

Beane: With Tyleik? Yeah. But again, we didn’t stress because we knew how our board was stacked. There’s going to be more guys available. We really weren’t worried if we didn’t get one in Round 1, which we didn’t, because of the way the board was stacked. We’re going to have some opportunities. Even if we had stayed there (in second), we’d have some opportunities, but we felt that T.J. had the most rush of any inside player left after we left here Thursday night. And so that’s why we went up and got him. Guys with inside rush are only going to last so long. And in most drafts, you’re not getting some of these guys where we got them.

The honesty is what so many appreciate. I was around Ted Thompson for five years, so I’m used to GM saying absolutely nothing. There was one time Ted said something like, “I could be Opposite George in Seinfeld and be completely transparent, but I’m not going to do it.” On Keon Coleman and Dalton Kincaid, you were blunt and said exactly how you view both players — and where they have to get better. Keon, with the physicality returning back from an injury as a pro. Dalton, strengthening up. It’s been three months since then. What have you seen out of both of them?

Beane: Dalton was here a lot this offseason. He’s so competitive and, candidly, I probably didn’t state it well enough for Dalton with a sense of, yes, I was talking more of when he’s getting jammed. Play strength, things to do. Armoring himself up for that. Because I think some people played him a little different in Year 2 than Year 1. The thing that I unfairly left out of Dalton — in my response for him — was he played through a knee deal with his PCL. Some people might’ve shut that down. And he played through it. So how much should we bang on a guy? And my thing with Dalton, where I’m a little miffed is — a year ago now, and even in training camp with all the plays he was making, the way he finished his rookie year — people had no doubts. People were fired up. Because he played nicked up this year and didn’t have the same production. All of a sudden, people say we missed on him or he’s not worth the first-round pick. How does that change so fast? None of that was a lack of confidence in him. I was being asked how can he take the next step? I’m more talking about as a player: “Hey you’re getting pressed some. Working on your play strength. People are grabbing you a little bit.” Getting off that.

You’re not saying he’s got to turn into a Mark Bruener/90s tight end who plays in line.

Beane: No, and I didn’t give him enough credit for playing through the injury that he was playing through. He was nowhere near 100 percent. And I think sometimes myself giving it to the media, for the media to explain it to the fans, I didn’t do a good enough job of “Yes, he needs to improve his play strength and all that, but man what a warrior he was to play through that.” And he’ll get back going. No one’s confidence should be down on him. It should be where it was coming out of “Man, we’re going to get him back to when he was healthy and rolling like he was in his rookie year.”

What about mentally? That fourth and 5 was not an easy play by any means. But you can go one of two ways after a moment like that. A lot of scrutiny. How has he handled that?

Beane: He’s a competitor. He’s not worried about that. No one’s going to be more critical of himself than Dalton. Just like Josh Allen. Early on, people were questioning Josh and they’re pointing out the two negative plays or three negative plays vs. the 15 great plays he made. And the same thing for Dalton. Dalton made a lot of plays for us and has made a lot of plays for us. Don’t dwell on it. It’s like golf. You missed a three-footer, you missed a three-footer. You come back the next hole. Reset. And he’s a competitive dude. The last thing he’s worried about is that. He's more mad at himself, and it was not an easy play. Let’s be fair to him. It wasn’t a routine catch, but he’s going to make that more times than not.

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And when it comes to Keon — when we talked a year ago — you had just gotten around him. It was early on. You wanted to see more, how he’s wired. So, what did you see? You guys wanted him to bounce back from that wrist stronger.

Beane: Sometimes guys haven’t faced a major injury. He’s a rookie. He’s 21. This is his first time. To your point, you said, “Ted Thompson doesn’t say anything.” We could stand up here and just give you coachspeak. We try to be transparent. But let’s be realistic. The guy’s again, 21 years old. It’s his first season. He was trending well. He battled an injury. He wasn’t 100 percent. He was clear to play, but he wasn’t 100. Let’s defend him, too. You know what I mean? He is one competitive dude. He loves to compete. He, more than anybody, wanted to have more opportunities, more action in games down the stretch. It didn’t happen. And I know he trained a bunch in Dallas this offseason. He’s back here working his butt off. I’ve got no doubt.

Because Keon is a guy who can grow with Josh — from Day 1. Best-case scenario, Keon Coleman, what do you see this year and beyond?

Beane: A starting X receiver. I don’t want to put stats on him because we don’t really worry about that. Doing what it takes for us to win the game: If that’s blocking his ass off. If that’s catching a 50-50 ball in the end zone. If that’s third and five, he’s running a slant and we’ve got to have it. It might be three catches, but they might all be three big catches. It might be in the red zone, a third down to end it. He might make a block to free James Cook for a long run. A complete receiver — X.

That Seattle game, you saw it all there. I’m guessing you’re not worried about the 2.0 yards of separation that tied for last in the league on Next Gen Stats?

Beane: If he had all stuff, he would’ve gone way higher. Again, our NFL world, our media world, everyone’s got a microphone now. Everyone’s got a podcast. Everyone’s got a keyboard. And we spend too much time talking about what players can’t do vs. what can they do. And that’s coaching and how we do things. It’s our job to work on and improve the areas that they’re not as strong in and put them in positions where they are strong. And that’s our job as an organization to do that. If they all ran 4.4, all had great separation ability, they’d all be these top receivers. You’re not getting those guys at Pick 33 in the draft if they can do all that.

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One guy who does give you explosion is James Cook and he’s not here. You’ve said repeatedly that you’re not concerned about it. You’ve professed your love for him multiple times. Do you think he’ll be here for OTAs? Minicamp? Training camp?

Beane: I don’t know. We’re just getting going. It’s Phase 1. He’s not the only person that’s not here. There’s a few. It’s a voluntary deal and I don’t get too hung up in it. I really don’t. You’d love for everyone to be here. Who wouldn’t? You’d love them to be around and start forming that bond. But James is working. I know he’s down there training in South Florida. He’s working. First of all, he’s competitive. And sure, everyone wants to get paid and he knows he’s got to still show he’s James Cook — the guy we saw — if he wants to get that pay day. Either from us or someone else. That’s any player that doesn’t currently have their contract extensions yet.

What’s your philosophy on the running back position? Your buddy Joe Schoen caught a lot of shit, but they weren’t in position to pay Saquon all that money like the Eagles, or the Ravens with Henry, even the Packers with Jacobs. If you’re a contender, you believe you can go for it — I’d argue you can justify paying a running back. But what’s your philosophy?

Beane: It’s really, what is their value to your team? What do they bring? Are they a two-down player? Are they a three-down player? Are they just average in the passing game? Are they a mismatch? Can you line ‘em up over here like Christian McCaffrey or you mentioned Barkley, like MVP-type? What tier are they on? And there’s very few that are on the tier of McCaffrey, Barkley, those types of players. The Derrick Henrys of the world. There’s very few. But we still put a value on (Cook) as is well-known. We made an effort to make an extension for him. We weren’t on the same page. But we still love him and welcome him. And we’ve done that with other players. We’ve made attempts.

So you have tried?

Beane: We’ve made attempts with other players in the past that didn’t happen then, but they happened later. And so, we’re not opposed to paying a running back, per se. I’m in for paying good football players and knowing what value they bring and getting them to the value they are.

If you don’t have a quarterback as a GM, you’re forced to play a warped game of Tetris. When you took over as GM — and you know you need a quarterback — what traits did you prioritize? You know you’ve got to find The Guy to have a chance. For years, everybody was thrilled if the Bills went 7-9 and there was a little hope in December out of a JP Losman. The expectations have changed. What traits were you searching for?

Beane: Physically, we play in Buffalo. We play outside. So we needed size, athleticism, arm talent. You’ve got to have an arm to throw. You don’t have to have Josh’s arm, but you’ve got to have a strong arm to throw in these conditions. Not only here, but in the Meadowlands, New England, we’re going to play a lot of outdoor football. And so, you’ve got to have all those things. But there’s many guys that have come through that have those things. To really find that guy, he’s got to be highly intelligent. He needs to be a fast processor. He needs to be a great leader. A leader of men. He needs to set the standard for the organization. Those are the things that you really have to investigate and some of you got to grow it out of ‘em. They’re still young, but it’s in there. You just got to grow it out of ‘em. They don’t walk out. It’d be like a mother having a baby that’s seven years old. That doesn’t happen. They still need to go through certain stages of infancy. But those are the qualities that you believe they either currently have or that you can develop within your program. I think it was Minnesota’s coach who said it’s important the environment that you put them in. And you see some guys and you’re like, “Man, I thought that guy would be good, but he might’ve got put into a bad environment.” Constant changes up top of the organization. Constant changes to the coordinator. And they never get a firm footing. We had an organizational plan for Josh from the top-down of how we were going to do things — the stability we were going to put around him on the field and off the field. And I think all that plays into whether a guy makes it to be a franchise quarterback.

You just explained it over this whole hour, but the other school of thought in roster-building could be, “Alright, we got a defensive coach, we can get by a little cheaper there because he’s going to coach him up. Let’s build a juggernaut that’s going to be historic.” I imagine you’ve got to stay disciplined in what you believe.

Beane: A coach is a coach. People get caught up in the “offensive” and “defensive,” all that stuff. A coach is a CEO. And so our job is to put the best players around him, whether it’s on offense or defense. We’re not going in and saying, “We have a defensive coach, so we’ve got to have a defensive draft” or “we’ve got a defensive coach, he can coach them up. We’re going all offense.” We’ve got to build the team with the foundation and principles that we believe in.

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