'My chip is deeper:' Our 1 on 1 with Bills GM Brandon Beane
What an offseason it's been. DJ Moore, Bradley Chubb, the 2026 draft. The Buffalo Bills boss details his thinking behind all roster construction. And, yes. He knows there's pressure to win it all.
ORCHARD PARK, NY — Emotions have been spiking to histrionic extremes. From the moment one football shifted from the hands of a Buffalo Bills wide receiver into the hands of a Denver Broncos defensive back, and this team lost in OT, it’s been loud. Very loud. Right through the firing of one longtime head coach and the hiring of a new one. But it’s those emotions that also make pro football unlike any sport in the country.
Especially in title-starved Western New York.
Because here’s the funny thing.
On the most important point, Brandon Beane is one of you. Beane agrees with his constituents 100 percent. The president of football operations central to everything inside this building views a trip to the Super Bowl as the full expectation this 2026 NFL season. It’s all he thinks about. The last time we sat in this room, Beane used knifing language to drive this point home. He had just hired Joe Brady as head coach. I brought up the fan reaction. “If I’m wrong, the moving company will be at my house,” he said then. He knew he’d regret choosing anyone else to appease the outside. It wasn’t about winning a press conference. “It’s about winning games over there,” he said, pointing toward the new stadium.
Win, and fans will cheer.
Winning is all that matters for a team that’s been in the playoffs eight of the last nine years.
Then, it was time for Beane to work on this roster.
It’s been three months. Now that free agency and the draft have passed, Go Long sat down with Beane again to discuss all changes to personnel. Among topics discussed:
DJ Moore. A year ago, the GM strongly defended the WR room as constructed. This offseason, he wasted no time chasing a new No. 1. What changed? What made Moore the target?
Draft philosophy. As suggested ‘round here, the Bills could’ve hunted down a premium talent at the top of the draft. Instead, they traded down. Why?
2026 draftees. Insight into what made T.J. Parker, Davison Igbinosun, Jude Bowry and Skyler Bell the Bills’ top four selections. Clemson pass rushers haven’t exactly panned out in the pros — what makes Parker different?
Cornerback. It was always more of a need than we thought and Igbinosun was the pick. One trait particularly stood out. (“If he walked in and Deion Sanders was at corner, and he was behind him, he would have the mindset: ‘I’m going to beat him out.’”)
Hits and misses. What are the draft lessons learned through both? (Hint: Finding the correct DNA is not easy.)
New vets on D. One specific game last year told Beane everything he needed to know about Bradley Chubb. (“Character is revealed not when things are going well. True character is revealed when things aren’t.”) The Bills welcome CJ Gardner-Johnson’s energy and hope its contagious. Dee Alford’s rise in the sport is unique.
Keon Coleman. Turns out, Beane wasn’t BS’ing when he (repeatedly) backed the former 33rd overall pick. Teams reached out on the receiver’s availability and the Bills shut those talks down. Who’s the Keon Coleman that Beane sees others may not?
Most of all, we get a peek inside the GM’s mind. This marks his 10th year at the helm. Such a year… to year… to year climb takes a toll. But more than ever, he’s refusing to shut it off at home. He’s still the Dad who refused to let his kids win in sports.
Nor is Beane oblivious to criticism outside of these walls.
You’ll want to stick around for his perspective on it all.
One objective stays at the forefront of mind.
Go Long subscribers can access our hourlong Q&A conversation below.
We are fueled completely by you.
You’re able to take a deep breath now. It’s been nonstop. I was going to say since the season ended, but it really has been since training camp.
Beane: They call this the “offseason.” It’s really not. There’s a lot of names for it. I just call it the “roster-building season” once the season’s over. That always starts with staff changes. If you change a coordinator or whatever. Obviously this year we had a change of head coach, which meant a full staff change. But it’s nonstop when the season ends. Definitely through the draft. At this point, other than rookie camp, you get your weekends back, which is nice. So you’re at least back to Monday through Friday life for a little bit. We try to really get this team — while they’re here training, plus making sure if we need to swap anybody out and we feel like somebody’s not working or they’re not what we thought they were — let’s make sure we get this 90-man roster as deep and competitive as we can.
I was trying to put myself in your shoes. It’s been a decade. These have been heartbreaking playoff losses. I know the schedule keeps rolling, one thing into the next, but that can’t be easy. The other day, I’m sitting in my living room and we’ve got this robin that keeps bashing its head on our window. We’ve tried everything and it’s still bashing. I’m thinking, “I wonder if Brandon feels like that.” You’ve been right on the doorstep. How do you handle that emotion through all this?
Beane: Listen, as a competitor, you always want to win. And if I shoot a bad round of golf, it’s like, “Alright, what did I do wrong? What could I do better? Where do we need to focus on? What do we need to practice? What do we need to do?” The only way to go is be honest about it and then keep moving and try to find ways. You’ve got to be better, so you’re hopefully helping to make your group better. And that’s the challenge to all of our staffs — whether it’s the trainers, equipment guys, the scouts. All of us. To win a title, everyone’s got to be on accord. Yeah, you’ve got to get a bounce of a ball here or there. And sometimes maybe it could have been just that, but you’ve got to control what you can control and try and compartmentalize that. I internalize it as my chip is deeper, my hunger is burning even more. And not that I was ever not working long hours. But I find myself, even at home, I struggle to turn it off. Even more now than when I took the job.
What does that look like? How so?
Beane: You’re constantly trying to find an inch here, an inch there to help put your team over the top. And you become wiser on things. And so you say, “You know what? I need to spend a little more time with this person. Even though that’s not necessarily in my daily calendar to do that, that can help this team.” Anything that can help this team. “You know what? I need to get on the phone. Even though I’m at home, I need to get on the phone with a couple of people — I didn’t have time (earlier) today — to discuss some things.” You can sit for hours. But where I find myself going into Season 10. It’s like this thing, “work smarter, not harder.” I do want to work smart, but I think it’s the competitive drive. Joe’s been using it, and I agree with it, to the team: competitive stamina. Keeping that going.
Listen, no one’s more angry that we haven’t got it done at myself than me. And I’ll always be that way. I don’t need outside motivation. I don’t need that. If we go in there right now and we play ping-pong, I’m going to try and whip your ass. And if you beat me, I’m going to try and figure out what you did and how you beat me. And I’m going to tell you to get your ass back over here soon and we’re going to come back at it until I can beat you. And so as long as Terry Pegula and the Pegula family allows me to do this job, that’s what it’s going to be.
Philosophically into this draft, obviously everybody’s trying to get inside your head. How are you approaching this? We’ll get into DJ Moore. You used your second-round pick on a wide receiver before the game of musical chairs started. But you could have gone the other direction. If you have X amount of first round grades, I don’t know how many did you have?
Beane: I’m not going to say the number, but it wasn’t enough.
You could say, “Do I package these picks to get that one premium player who might be the difference? Who might have star potential?” Howie Roseman and the Eagles did that this year with Makai Lemon, and he’s done it in the past.” You traded back three times and take T.J. Parker. Then you come up to take a corner. What went into that decision to not move up the board for one of those guys and matriculate the way you did?