Brandon Beane end of season press conference 1/27 11am

[DrDawkinstein]

2 minutes ago, CaptnCoke11 said:

It’s going to be very hard for Buffalo to sign any of their own guys unless they release a slew of players like Brown, Butler, Addison, Jefferson, maybe even Morse and restructure Diggs again to lesson his hit in 2021.  Very challenging off season coming up for Beane.  FYI Spotrac has Buffalo projected at -5 million cap space right now but that could change once the official number comes out.  

 

-$8M, but they are using the $175M number. Actual cap may come in around $180M. Fingers crossed.

 

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cap/

[TPS]

52 minutes ago, YoloinOhio said:

 

I'm sure he saw even more doubles this year without a true one technique next to him.

[YoloinOhio]

3 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Not at $14M/year for Milano. He isnt that good. He's the best of what we have now, but that's not saying much. For a coverage LB, TEs kill us. And he's still a liability in open-field tackling.

 

Milano will hit the market, and some team will prob over pay for him. I'd trigger Edmunds 5th year option, but he needs to improve big time in order to get that 2nd contract.

 

Draft Milano's replacement this year, look to draft Edmunds replacement next year.

I’m not sure a team will overpay. His value is somewhat scheme specific, and the lower cap this year could impact things as well for teams “overpaying”. He should get a nice payday for a former 5th round pick but not sure he will be paid outside the market value like say CJ mosely a few years ago 

[Blank Stare]

4 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Not at $14M/year for Milano. He isnt that good. He's the best of what we have now, but that's not saying much. For a coverage LB, TEs kill us. And he's still a liability in open-field tackling.

 

Milano will hit the market, and some team will prob over pay for him. I'd trigger Edmunds 5th year option, but he needs to improve big time in order to get that 2nd contract.

 

Draft Milano's replacement this year, look to draft Edmunds replacement next year.

How do we know he wants $14MM? Why can’t we cut the scrubs on the dline to make it work or structure a deal around this year’s salary cap constraints. I’m happy to eat crow on this if I’m wrong, but I’m telling you if we let him walk, he’ll go be a big time player for someone else. We’ve been fed the line “draft well and retain our own” by this management team. Time to put their money where their mouth is. Pay him. 

[DrDawkinstein]

4 minutes ago, YoloinOhio said:

I’m not sure a team will overpay. His value is somewhat scheme specific, and the lower cap this year could impact things as well for teams “overpaying”. He should get a nice payday for a former 5th round pick but not sure he will be paid outside the market value like say CJ mosely a few years ago 

 

Again, fingers crossed.

 

I could see Indy do it tho. They have a ton of space, and I believe he fits there.

4 minutes ago, TheProcess said:

How do we know he wants $14MM? Why can’t we cut the scrubs on the dline to make it work or structure a deal around this year’s salary cap constraints. I’m happy to eat crow on this if I’m wrong, but I’m telling you if we let him walk, he’ll go be a big time player for someone else. We’ve been fed the line “draft well and retain our own” by this management team. Time to put their money where their mouth is. Pay him. 

 

Why would he want anything less than his market value?

 

I dont want to take resources away from the DL and shift them to one LB. DL is far more important. Maybe not the players we have on the DL right now, but as a unit.

 

And yeah, "draft and pay your own". We've done that. White re-signed, Dawkins re-signed, Allen will get a big deal this offseason. BUT... it takes two to tango and from what Beane says, Milano wants to test the market. AND even if you draft well, you will never be able to re-sign everyone. That is impossible. We are re-signing the guys we can, and who want to be here. It's not all on the Bills.

 

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by DrDawkinstein

[D. L. Hot-Flamethrower]

I wonder if we are really talking about a traditional statistics based run/pass offense balance or if we we're really

talking about balanced use of weapons? Recently, I took a look at the final four teams and get this breakdown (% of yards from scrimmage by position):

Breakdown is QB-RB-TE-WR (%)

TB 0-32-17-50

GB 2-41-13-44

BUF 7-26-7-60

KC 5-28-22-45

As you can see, BUF is a wide receiver oriented offense (60%) way above the others. Our TEs and RBs are much less productive. You think Spags said, their receivers are banged up, double Diggs and let the others (TE,RB) beat us and if they can more power to them? But, I doubt they can! I know what my preference would be as a coach.

[Blank Stare]

6 minutes ago, Rc2catch said:

Keeping milano over Edmunds isn’t really an option though. The only way milano stays imo is if his market is ice cold. It only takes one and we see every year in free agency someone throw crazy money around. 
I could see Jacksonville or Indy tossing Milano a big payday 

I hear you. I’m not trying to be a PITA on this, but we need to make it work with Milano. Why draft his replacement when we already drafted and developed a guy? We struck gold in the 5th round on him. Seattle kept Bobby Wagner and KJ Wright all these years along with paying Russ a ton of $. No reason we can’t make it work. There is plenty of fat that can be cut on this roster to accommodate. 

[Mark Vader]

1 minute ago, JohnNord said:

My takeaways:

 

Bills will upgrade the DL (but like Ed Oliver) I think we all expect them to do this, they gambled by bringing in some new guys and it didn't work out. They should like Ed Oliver, he played good this year.

 

Bills still believe in Tremaine Edmunds (UGH) don’t expect a change. They are not giving up on Edmunds. He's only 22, and he's shown improvements. Is he playing out of position? Probably.

 

Matt Milano is probably gone (said the same thing about Shaq) Wouldn't surprise me. You can't keep everyone.

 

John Brown is probably gone  This is probably true. Numbers victim. Emergence of Davis and Hodgins waiting in the wings and improved play of McKenzie.

 

Don’t look for any crazy additions at CB or in the secondary. Not expecting any. This will be an in-house move. Dane Jackson gets more opportunities and maybe E.J. Gaines adds something?

 

Expect a new TE Kyle Pitts!? 

 

[YoloinOhio]

 

[SCBills]

10 minutes ago, ScottLaw said:

He said he thought the D Line struggled early but came together towards the end of the year and started playing a lot better. Gave credit to the DLine coach.

 

Sounded to me like he wanted to give them more time together. Maybe I'm wrong. 

 

I'd be shocked.  Just like I think the Singletary comments were GM speak, so do I with this...

 

We already have an insanely overpaid DL for their middle of the pack production.  He knows this.  Now add Star's salary into the mix on top of that.  

 

We will have no money to do anything, including re-signing guys, if we don't cut some of our Defensive Linemen.  All of whom have outs written into their contracts this year for a reason...or so I hope. 

[Buffalo_Stampede]

I still predict Milano is back on a 1 year deal. Not a lot of money in free agency this year. He'd be smart to re-sign and bet on himself. 

 

TE is going to be a priority but I don't see any fixes unless they trade up in the draft. 

 

[JohnNord]

2 minutes ago, Mark Vader said:

 

Only point I disagree with is Edmunds.  I don’t feel he’s much better than he was his first or second year.  I don’t think he’s good

[D. L. Hot-Flamethrower]

Just now, Buffalo_Stampede said:

I still predict Milano is back on a 1 year deal. Not a lot of money in free agency this year. He'd be smart to re-sign and bet on himself. 

 

TE is going to be a priority but I don't see any fixes unless they trade up in the draft. 

 

Pitts from Florida, likely gone by our pick, would be like adding Waller to the Bills.

[JohnNord]

11 minutes ago, YoloinOhio said:

I’m not sure a team will overpay. His value is somewhat scheme specific, and the lower cap this year could impact things as well for teams “overpaying”. He should get a nice payday for a former 5th round pick but not sure he will be paid outside the market value like say CJ mosely a few years ago 

I think Beane and the Bills put a maximum dollar value on players like Milano.  IMO he knows that his value will probably exceed that number.  He’s hoping he’ll take less but likely knows he gone

Edited January 27, 2021 by JohnNord

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, SCBills said:

Moss is fine as our #2 back, but I really hope the Singletary comments are simply GM speak for a guy who's on the roster.  

We tried to get Le'Veon Bell during the season so I can't imagine Beane is truly thrilled with what he's seen, especially after Singletary's disaster of an AFCCG.

 

I think his wording is important.  It was something like "I think it's unfair to SINGLE OUT the backs for the problems in the run game" (emphasis mine)

I don't think he's saying the backs weren't part of the problem.  He's just saying the problem wouldn't be fixed by "ditch these guys, get better backs"

[Blank Stare]

5 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Again, fingers crossed.

 

I could see Indy do it tho. They have a ton of space, and I believe he fits there.

 

Why would he want anything less than his market value?

 

I dont want to take resources away from the DL and shift them to one LB. DL is far more important. Maybe not the players we have on the DL right now, but as a unit.

 

And yeah, "draft and pay your own". We've done that. White re-signed, Dawkins re-signed, Allen will get a big deal this offseason. BUT... it takes two to tango and from what Beane says, Milano wants to test the market. AND even if you draft well, you will never be able to re-sign everyone. That is impossible. We are re-signing the guys we can, and who want to be here. It's not all on the Bills.

 

 

Who else on defense would you value more than Milano that should stay? I’d put Tre White, Poyer, and maybe Hyde as more important than Milano. Maybe Edmunds? Taron Johnson? Jerry is getting older and hardly ever gets home. None of the other guys on the dline are more important than Milano. Imagine this defense without Milano’s blitzing or coverage ability. Pay the guys that matter and fill in around them through the draft and cheap FAs. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 minute ago, JohnNord said:

I think Beane and the Bills put a maximum dollar value on players like Milano.  IMO he knows that his value will probably exceed that number.  He’s hoping he’ll take less but likely knows he gone

 

That was my interpretation.  He used the Jordan Phillips conversation.

 

The thing is, for both Shaq Lawson and for Jordan Phillips as I recall the Bills offer was not that far off of what they eventually took, on a per-year basis.  The big sticking point seemed to be the length of the contract and the guaranteed $$. 

 

But to replace them, we wound up spending a lot of dollars to bring in a bunch of guys who arguably we did not get nearly as much production from.

 

I kind of had a sinking feeling when I heard that about Milano - that we might wind up spending more to bring in 2-3 JAGS who, added together, only kind of replace him

 

[Blank Stare]

17 minutes ago, CaptnCoke11 said:

It’s going to be very hard for Buffalo to sign any of their own guys unless they release a slew of players like Brown, Butler, Addison, Jefferson, maybe even Morse and restructure Diggs again to lesson his hit in 2021.  Very challenging off season coming up for Beane.  FYI Spotrac has Buffalo projected at -5 million cap space right now but that could change once the official number comes out.  

I agree that it’ll be challenging with the guys you mentioned. It’s tough to maintain when you have success. Of that list, I think Milano is more important than everyone but Diggs. I prioritize keeping Milano over all those other guys. 

[Freddie's Dead]

I thought the most interesting comments were around letting Phillips go, and then Star opts out.  Oops...

[Rc2catch]

6 minutes ago, TheProcess said:

I hear you. I’m not trying to be a PITA on this, but we need to make it work with Milano. Why draft his replacement when we already drafted and developed a guy? We struck gold in the 5th round on him. Seattle kept Bobby Wagner and KJ Wright all these years along with paying Russ a ton of $. No reason we can’t make it work. There is plenty of fat that can be cut on this roster to accommodate. 

It sometimes boils down to the player. 
Since day one Beane has put a value on a player and for the most part won’t go above that. 
He has a value for milano and is willing to let him test the market to see if anyone wants to pay more. He’s a good player. He’s not elite. Given the cap problems in the league I would guess most teams will only be offering deals to elite level players. And, losing him sucks for fans but may be a blessing in disguise if it causes them to change up the style of defense. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

6 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

I still predict Milano is back on a 1 year deal. Not a lot of money in free agency this year. He'd be smart to re-sign and bet on himself.

 

That actually is a point.  The real sticking point for Beane with Milano is the injuries, I bet.  So if he has a good year but stays on the field all year, it would help.

 

[DrDawkinstein]

1 minute ago, TheProcess said:

Who else on defense would you value more than Milano that should stay? I’d put Tre White, Poyer, and maybe Hyde as more important than Milano. Maybe Edmunds? Taron Johnson? Jerry is getting older and hardly ever gets home. None of the other guys on the dline are more important than Milano. Imagine this defense without Milano’s blitzing or coverage ability. Pay the guys that matter and fill in around them through the draft and cheap FAs. 

 

I would rather use the DL resources to sign other, more productive DL players. That is why I said "Maybe not the players we have on the DL right now, but as a unit."

 

The game is won and lost in the trenches, and a good DL makes your LBs and CBs better. We learned that the hard way this year.

 

We cant release a bunch of DL starters and shift those resources to one LB. The DL will be even worse than this year, and as the DL goes, so goes the rest of the D. Which means you are just wasting money on a high-priced LB who cant make plays because we have no DL.

 

That is also how Beane works it too. They have set values for positions and units, and will only spend so much. They will not, nor should they, rob Peter to pay Paul.

[BillsVet]

It's waaaay early in the off-season, but McD and Beane have some strategic roster management decisions to make this off-season.  As in, does this team really need to spend 52M or about 25% of total cap dollars on DLinemen? (not including Star's deal).  Those contracts may fit what the HC wants to do, but I question those expenditures compared to the value they provide in on-field results.  

 

I'm actually happy they aren't going to be active in UFA this off-season because it's clear McBeane aren't the best there, especially defensive signings.  And I think some of that is the HC's overwhelming desire to have his scheme that requires his type of players on defense. 

 

Go all-in on offense by improving the interior OL, developing a run game, and focus on improving the pass rush.  Easier said than done, yes.  

[Buffalo_Stampede]

Just now, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

That actually is a point.  The real sticking point for Beane with Milano is the injuries, I bet.  So if he has a good year but stays on the field all year, it would help.

 

And every NFL GM will think the same thing. 

[SCBills]

3 minutes ago, TheProcess said:

Who else on defense would you value more than Milano that should stay? I’d put Tre White, Poyer, and maybe Hyde as more important than Milano. Maybe Edmunds? Taron Johnson? Jerry is getting older and hardly ever gets home. None of the other guys on the dline are more important than Milano. Imagine this defense without Milano’s blitzing or coverage ability. Pay the guys that matter and fill in around them through the draft and cheap FAs. 

 

It's not that simple. 

 

I'd rather not re-sign Milano AND cut Jefferson, Butler and Addison, thus allowing us to go after a pass rusher in Free Agency.  

 

Getting Star back, drafting a mid-round space eater and putting a legitimate pass rusher opposite Hughes next year is far more impactful than paying big money to not one, but two linebackers on a team who will have a QB commanding a ton of cap space soon.  

[DrDawkinstein]

3 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

That was my interpretation.  He used the Jordan Phillips conversation.

 

The thing is, for both Shaq Lawson and for Jordan Phillips as I recall the Bills offer was not that far off of what they eventually took, on a per-year basis.  The big sticking point seemed to be the length of the contract and the guaranteed $$. 

 

But to replace them, we wound up spending a lot of dollars to bring in a bunch of guys who arguably we did not get nearly as much production from.

 

I kind of had a sinking feeling when I heard that about Milano - that we might wind up spending more to bring in 2-3 JAGS who, added together, only kind of replace him

 

 

I mean, AJ Klein played well when he was in for Milano and only costs $6M/year.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

8 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

Only point I disagree with is Edmunds.  I don’t feel he’s much better than he was his first or second year.  I don’t think he’s good

Agreed. There will be a lot of prove-it free agents seeing 1 or 2 year deals.  Wait until that cap goes up to sign big deals. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

I mean, AJ Klein played well when he was in for Milano and only costs $6M/year.

 

AJ Klein only played well when we re-vamped the defense to let him NOT be in for Milano.

 

Now.  The Bills obviously need to think about what role their defensive scheme played in Sunday's massacre, and how to fix it.

 

But thinking that's the scheme they want and Klein can substitute for Milano is not accurate.

 

[SCBills]

1 minute ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

I mean, AJ Klein played well when he was in for Milano and only costs $6M/year.

 

Not that i'm saying he should be the replacement, but AJ Klein literally could not have played worse with Edmunds against KC than Milano did. 

[DrDawkinstein]

Just now, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

AJ Klein only played well when we re-vamped the defense to let him NOT be in for Milano.

 

 

Ok. Point is, the D and Team did fine with him and without Milano. Milano is replaceable.

2 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

AJ Klein only played well when we re-vamped the defense to let him NOT be in for Milano.

 

Now.  The Bills obviously need to think about what role their defensive scheme played in Sunday's massacre, and how to fix it.

 

But thinking that's the scheme they want and Klein can substitute for Milano is not accurate.

 

 

If thats the case, then I could argue the scheme was BETTER with Klein then the scheme they run with Milano.

[Nextmanup]

Beane's comments about Milano "earning the right to test the market" and that the Bills "would like to bring him back" sounds to me like they are planning on him not  being here next year.

 

 

[NewEra]

1 hour ago, ScottLaw said:

Says no big moves in FA due to salary cap restrictions which is obvious.....but they wouldn’t be as restricted if they didn’t over value and over pay some really average players in last years FA. 

Like who?  Klein? Every other FA can be cut with little dead cap.  
 

keeping phillips and Shaq would’ve led to contracts that we would be stuck with.  We aren’t stuck with any of the FA’s except Klein.  If I’m wrong, please explain

[Blank Stare]

1 minute ago, Rc2catch said:

It sometimes boils down to the player. 

Completely agree with this point. This is the biggest unknown and you can’t force anyone into a deal.  Admittedly, I’m making a lot of assumptions on my end. If it’s something where we are at $11MM per year and he’s at $20MM per year, then we were never likely to keep him. But if it’s where we think he’s $11-13MM and he’s at $14-16MM and both sides want to make a deal, and the only reason we say we can’t do it is because of the salary cap being less, I think that’s BS. We can make it work. As I’ve said in other posts, there’s only maybe 3 guys I value equal or more on this defense than Milano as far as impact on the field. 
 

I don’t want to watch a homegrown talent walk off, suddenly be healthy every year, and turn into a star for someone else. I could be wrong, but I can see that with Milano. 

[Wayne Cubed]

5 minutes ago, BillsVet said:

It's waaaay early in the off-season, but McD and Beane have some strategic roster management decisions to make this off-season.  As in, does this team really need to spend 52M or about 25% of total cap dollars on DLinemen? (not including Star's deal).  Those contracts may fit what the HC wants to do, but I question those expenditures compared to the value they provide in on-field results.  

 

I'm actually happy they aren't going to be active in UFA this off-season because it's clear McBeane aren't the best there, especially defensive signings.  And I think some of that is the HC's overwhelming desire to have his scheme that requires his type of players on defense. 

 

Go all-in on offense by improving the interior OL, developing a run game, and focus on improving the pass rush.  Easier said than done, yes.  

 

Agree with a lot of this.

 

To the bold, I almost think that' one task. If they Bills improve the interior OL the running game will be more efficient/effective. I don't want the Bills running more because I'd prefer the ball stayed in Joshs hand but if they ran more effectively when they did, it would help. 

 

Only thing I would add beyond the pass rush is I think they need another weapon in the pass game for Josh. And I'm thinking it needs to be TE.

[DrDawkinstein]

12 minutes ago, TheProcess said:

I don’t want to watch a homegrown talent walk off, suddenly be healthy every year, and turn into a star for someone else. I could be wrong, but I can see that with Milano. 

 

You're just going to have to deal with that. If not with Milano, then it will be someone else. This is exactly what happens to good teams who draft well. They'll re-sign some/most guys, but you can't keep everyone. That is literally how the system is setup. It wants to create Free Agents.

 

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by DrDawkinstein
letters

[bills6969]

 

Are they trying to convert Epenesa to LB or something.  He doesn’t look like a DE when I see him out there. Looks too small.

[KOKBILLS]

11 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

I still predict Milano is back on a 1 year deal. Not a lot of money in free agency this year. He'd be smart to re-sign and bet on himself. 

 

TE is going to be a priority but I don't see any fixes unless they trade up in the draft. 

 

 

This is going to be a really strange off season for sure. I really doubt anyone is going to back up the Brinks truck for a player like Matt this off season based on the Cap. If he had played all 16 games plus the Playoffs I have no doubt he'd cash in. But he's coming off a down year, mostly due to the injuries. Not ideal for his market value for sure... 

 

But we'll see...No doubt there will be a slew of one-year deals, especially after the top tier guys sign. 😎

[DCOrange]

1 hour ago, SCBills said:

 

Moss is fine as our #2 back, but I really hope the Singletary comments are simply GM speak for a guy who's on the roster.   

 

We tried to get Le'Veon Bell during the season so I can't imagine Beane is truly thrilled with what he's seen, especially after Singletary's disaster of an AFCCG.

Our reported interest in pretty much every significant free agent RB does make me wonder. I hope we ultimately just sign a cheap RB this offseason that can catch the ball and call it a day personally.

 

15 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

I still predict Milano is back on a 1 year deal. Not a lot of money in free agency this year. He'd be smart to re-sign and bet on himself. 

 

TE is going to be a priority but I don't see any fixes unless they trade up in the draft. 

 

Yeah, I mentioned it last year as well, but I think a trade for a vet TE makes the most sense for us and I would continue to look to the Bucs, who have two TEs on their roster for next year that would be upgrades over Knox and they'll likely try to keep Gronk as well.

[Coach Tuesday]

The Epanesa pick seems to have been bungled.  They got zero help from their top draft pick (yes, Diggs, I get it, please) in a year they could've used it.  Chinn would've been a huge boost to the defense.

[KOKBILLS]

1 minute ago, bills6969 said:

 

Are they trying to convert Epenesa to LB or something.  He doesn’t look like a DE when I see him out there. Looks too small.

 

No...They still want him at DE. Just sounds like he went a little overboard on the weight cut and had problems putting any back on. I think a lot of it had to do with the strange off season. I think if it's a regular off season and he's in the facility every day, their plan for his weight would have been better managed. 😎