Brandon Bean Press Conference

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, The Wiz said:

Either that or the agent was talking out of both sides of his mouth which wouldn't surprise me.  Either way, both the player and the agent are probably on Beane's blacklist.

 

I think Beane may have some information about what happened.

 

There's also this:

https://washingtonfootballwire.usatoday.com/2022/03/16/agent-for-defensive-tackle-matt-ioannidis-is-not-happy-with-the-washington-commanders-2022-nfl-free-agency/

 

Ioannidis agent is very pissed because he and a fellow agent met with Sr VP of Football Admin at the combine and asked if Ioannidis was in the team's plans for 2022, and was told that he was "absolutely not, we have no thoughts of releasing Matt Ioannidis".  

 

Agents use this kind of info to shop their guys, and it's considered courtesy to release guys you're gonna cut at or before the "Tampering Period" so that they have their best shot to find a new team.  So the agent's 'beef' is that other guys at his client's position were getting offers, and part of the market dried up before he hit it.

It won't let me cut and past from the above article, but the agent said "we don't particularly care to be lied to right to our face.  I don't like it when someone lies right to my face". 

 

He sounded even more pissed than Beane, but the point is, Beane isn't the only one who feels screwed over by the WFT this off-season.

 

 

[Buddo]

Beane may not get everything right, but it's certainly not for trying to do things the right way.

 

He also dishes out the credits where due.

 

Once again, we are lucky to have the Pegulas as owners, who are prepared to invest in the best facilities for the players. Oh, and also not jibing about having to escrow millions in guarantees to the likes of Allen and Miller.

 

My guess would be that the WCs, will hereafter be referred to as 'Team Toilet' by Beane, as he was so obviously pissed at them.

 

An extremely good PC, well worth the listen.

[HomeTeam]

I love watching Beane's press conferences. Honest and insightful. So happy he's leading the charge for this team. 

 

I'm a little hesitant of the Miller signing but I'm hopeful that is going to work out. 

[Buffalo Barbarian]

Definitely salty about the McKissic deal

 

 

[RyanC883]

21 hours ago, JGMcD2 said:

He’s having a hard time pulling punches when they ask question about McKissic and the Commanders. I’ve never seen him like that. 
 

It sounds like that relationship may be fractured. 

 

I’m not sure why he is so upset?   Did he want/expect Commanders to just say “oh, this guy wants to stay here, but you had a verbal so just take him?”.   

[Warcodered]

2 minutes ago, RyanC883 said:

 

I’m not sure why he is so upset?   Did he want/expect Commanders to just say “oh, this guy wants to stay here, but you had a verbal so just take him?”.   

He's upset because they had a deal in place and the WTFs went and did some shady ass ***** to get him to break it, and Bean knows those guys.

[RyanC883]

19 hours ago, junior said:

When a reporter asked Beane about Levi Wallace, he said (paraphrasing here - not an exact quote): "That's where it gets hard. Sometimes you tie up money in one player, maybe you're out on some other players, then that player backs out."

 

I wonder if the Bills decided to sign McKissic over Wallace, and when he backed out, Wallace had already committed to Pittsburgh 🤷‍♂️

 

that would explain perhaps the level of anger.  no no rb or cb.  

1 minute ago, Warcodered said:

He's upset because they had a deal in place and the WTFs went and did some shady ass ***** to get him to break it, and Bean knows those guys.

 

how was it shady?   that’s what I don’t get.  It’s clear if the money is the same the RB wanted to stay in Wash for whatever bizzare reason.  Did the RB reach out?   I mean this was in the “legal tampering” verbal commitment stage.   

[Warcodered]

5 minutes ago, RyanC883 said:

 

that would explain perhaps the level of anger.  no no rb or cb.  

 

how was it shady?   that’s what I don’t get.  It’s clear if the money is the same the RB wanted to stay in Wash for whatever bizzare reason.  Did the RB reach out?   I mean this was in the “legal tampering” verbal commitment stage.   

When a team doesn't offer him until after him and his agent have agreed to a deal with another team(which is where it's supposed to end) and lies and says that they had offered to get him and his agent hadn't told him to get him to break said deal that's ***** shady.

[RyanC883]

1 minute ago, Warcodered said:

When a team doesn't offer him until after him and his agent have agreed to a deal with another team(which is where it's supposed to end) and lies and says that they had offered to get him and his agent hadn't told him to get him to break said deal that's ***** shady.

 

I get that.  I guess its a legal tampering period though.  If the roles were reversed we would want our guy back.   Bad business by WA FO sure, but nothing is official till it’s official.

 

I think the RB is more at fault here.  He went out and then went back for the same money to a MUCH worse team.   

[JGMcD2]

16 minutes ago, RyanC883 said:

 

I’m not sure why he is so upset?   Did he want/expect Commanders to just say “oh, this guy wants to stay here, but you had a verbal so just take him?”.   

It’s unethical. There’s very clearly a way you’re supposed to operate in these negotiations. Brandon Beane laid out exactly how teams are expected to handle themselves during his press conference. There are hundreds of these negotiations every year, this was clearly out of place. 
 

The Commanders had every opportunity to match throughout the process of the negotiation PRIOR to McKissic accepting the deal. They told the agent that they didn’t want him back, but he continued to keep them in the loop because that’s what McKissic wanted. After the deal was agreed to, the Commanders even went as far as congratulating the agent on the deal with Buffalo when they were informed. 
 

Then they went around the agent and lied to the player after telling the agent they didn’t want him back. 
 

It’s a courtesy thing. Everyone is operating under the same rules, these verbal agreements mean teams tie up money in guys. Beane, being ethical withholds that money from other negotiations - it would be a bad look if he’s commiting McKissic’s money to McKissic and another player. Then all of a sudden both accept and he doesn’t have the means to go through on both deals. It would ruin relationships with agents and players.
 

The lack of mutual respect is an issue. That’s how you find yourself on the ***** list of 31 other teams. It sounds like they’re ***** up relationships with players and agents too (See Ioannidis, Matt). 

[GolfandBills]

20 minutes ago, RyanC883 said:

 

I get that.  I guess its a legal tampering period though.  If the roles were reversed we would want our guy back.   Bad business by WA FO sure, but nothing is official till it’s official.

 

I think the RB is more at fault here.  He went out and then went back for the same money to a MUCH worse team.   

Beane said its one of those unwritten rules that when you agree to terms the other team backs off.   That money is earmarked for said player.  Just shady business by Washington

[YoloinOhio]

38 minutes ago, RyanC883 said:

 

that would explain perhaps the level of anger.  no no rb or cb.  

 

how was it shady?   that’s what I don’t get.  It’s clear if the money is the same the RB wanted to stay in Wash for whatever bizzare reason.  Did the RB reach out?   I mean this was in the “legal tampering” verbal commitment stage.   

The WFT told the agent they did not want mckissic. They didn’t care what offers he got. The agent still kept them informed. The agent told Beane WFT didn’t want mckissic. The deal was agreed to. WFT congratulated mckissic. Then it went public. WFT then decided they did want him (public/fan pressure?) and lofted a matching deal, telling the agent and player that they always wanted him and the agent lied. Mckissic wanted to stay if he got a deal. They didn’t want him until he landed with the Bills. 

Edited March 19, 2022 by YoloinOhio

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, RyanC883 said:

 

I’m not sure why he is so upset?   Did he want/expect Commanders to just say “oh, this guy wants to stay here, but you had a verbal so just take him?”.   

 

Beane and others explained exactly why he is upset.

 

This time of year works very much on verbal agreements and trust, because that's in everyone's interest.  The money the Bills earmark to sign McKissic is money they can't earmark to sign someone else or to re-sign their own.    The money they earmark to re-sign their own is money they can't offer to McKissic.

 

It has to be that way because deals move much faster than guys can visit the teams and actually put ink to paper.

 

The Commanders aren't "treating other teams and players as they would like to be treated".  They won't be able to negotiate their own FA deals effectively if they shake on a deal and commit money to Player A while passing up resigning or signing Player B,  then after the deal is considered "done" and they ringfence the cap dollars for Player A, Player A and/or his agents negotiate a new deal with a different team.  They'd consider themselves screwed.

 

That would be chaos.  It's not how it works.

 

There are understandable reasons to back out - if the player doesn't pass a physical, if the player and his agent review the contract and there are non-standard terms in there.

 

But "reconsidering after fan regret" when the team already turned down their chance to match and the agents and players finalized another deal with another team is not how it's supposed to work.

 

The problem isn't that the guy wanted to stay with Washington.  The problem is that Washington was kept in the loop and aware that he was negotiating a contract with Buffalo and expressed no interest in countering or negotiating until AFTER the deal was finalized, Buffalo committed their cap dollars, and the publicized deal attracted negative attention in Washington.

[Freddie's Dead]

Beane got done by McKissMYASSic and didn't like it one bit.  As @Hapless Bills Fanexplained above, the Bills got screwed by the WTF's on salary cap calculations.  If another deal had fallen off the table while the Bills had McKissMYASSic's money in the Excel spreadsheet, Beane would have gone even more ballistic.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

47 minutes ago, Freddie's Dead said:

Beane got done by McKissMYASSic and didn't like it one bit.  As @Hapless Bills Fanexplained above, the Bills got screwed by the WTF's on salary cap calculations.  If another deal had fallen off the table while the Bills had McKissMYASSic's money in the Excel spreadsheet, Beane would have gone even more ballistic.

 

From what Beane said about Levi Wallace, I think a deal did fall off the table.  I think Levi's agents may have asked the Bills if they wanted to match Pittsburgh's incredibly reasonable and matchable offer for Wallace while McKissic's money was ringfenced in the Cap spreadsheet, so the Bills said "wow, we'd love to but we can't", and that took him from "Ticked" to "Extra Salty"

[Freddie's Dead]

2 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

From what Beane said about Levi Wallace, I think a deal did fall off the table.  I think Levi's agents may have asked the Bills if they wanted to match Pittsburgh's incredibly reasonable and matchable offer for Wallace while McKissic's money was ringfenced in the Cap spreadsheet, so the Bills said "wow, we'd love to but we can't", and that took him from "Ticked" to "Extra Salty"

 

If that's the case, then ***** the WTF's, McKissMYASSic, and the horses they rode in on.

[Punching Bag]

7 hours ago, RyanC883 said:

how was it shady?   that’s what I don’t get.  It’s clear if the money is the same the RB wanted to stay in Wash for whatever bizzare reason.  Did the RB reach out?   I mean this was in the “legal tampering” verbal commitment stage.   

 

Earlier it was reported that WTF had NO interest in re-signing him.  After he got an offer from Buffalo they "changed their mind".  Some are questioning whether they did so because Bills signed one of their backup DTs.

[blacklabel]

If it turns out that McKissic going back on his deal and returning to Washington forced Beane to let Levi walk then yeah, I can see why he’s so mad with them. If the negotiations were done the way they’re supposed to be done then Beane would’ve operated knowing that Washington was still in the running to re-sign McKissic and he would’ve been able to communicate that with Levi’s agent like, “If we land him, we can’t re-sign Levi, but if we don’t then we can explore options for Levi knowing we’d have some money to move around.” Instead, he was told from the jump that Washington was out, and had no interest in re-signing him. So Beane may have been like, “OK cool, that money is going on the McKissic deal, let’s let Levi’s guy know that we won’t have the money to bring him back.” So Levi takes the deal in Pittsburgh and then the next day McKissic backs out. If that’s indeed the case then he actually lost out on two players. I’d be pretty irritated as well. 

[The Red King]

If you're Washington, why burn bridges when you're not a contender?  I mean other teams, agents and players aren't going to trust Washington the slightest bit with all the bullpoop they've been pulling this offseason.

[Chicken Boo]

Honor amongst thieves.  Beane should know better than that.  Teams are trying to win.

[The Red King]

17 minutes ago, Chicken Boo said:

Honor amongst thieves.  Beane should know better than that.  Teams are trying to win.

 

These are unspoken rules every team follows though.  Washington is screwing players and teams for short-term gain, but will pay for it when other teams start to shun them because they no longer trust them.

[stevewin]

Wow finally got to watching - that really was a great PC.  Some things I thought were interesting

 

- Saying how things are different now with FA signings - used to be you typically brought a guy in first so both could get a first hand sense of fit - but now that doesn't happen as much now.  They let Von walk around and talk to staff/coaches to let him be sure it was the right fit for him before finalizing

- The comment regarding Von on it being tough decision to move from a familiar situation - he told Von he knows what that's like, he was in Carolina for 19 years and when he told his kids they were moving to Buffalo they cried 😢

- Said his son is a freshman at Alabama and they still talk about Levi Wallace in the football offices - success as walk-on etc

- Josh and Diggs involved in recruiting Von -  the excitement of players when they found out he was coming - Tre gave him a big hug when he saw him he was so excited   "Guys (players) just like fans get excited"

- Sounded like Cole approached them about moving on - was kind of surprised Beane actually put the Covid thing right out there, but not like it wasn't a known thing

- Mentioning Star wasn't the same after Covid - and the challenge of coming back after a year off on top of it.  He basically said Phillips becoming available sealed Star's fate.  Mentioned that he knows fans were somewhat critical of Star's performance /roles.  One thing Beane seems to really be in touch with and not afraid to mention occasionally is the fan perception of players - not that if affects his decision making but find it interesting he seems to keep his finger on that pulse fwiw

- Didn't seem concerned about Bates - basically let the process run it's course.  You know he has a plan B if Bates signs elsewhere - could also be fairly confident they will be able to match any offer if it comes

- Didn't seem like they were working too hard on keeping Jerry - told him and agent at combine "keep an open door/communication but nothing beyond that"

- Saffold was another guy on their radar for years - sounds like also a good locker room addition "leader/pro" - said Spencer Brown was impressed just the short time they got to meet - former teams rave about him

- Mentioned Josh was excited Morse was back

- Main focus first day of FA was "Let's get 1/2 DT's" - not a deep position in draft

- Up against the cap now - for rest of FA "Shopping please come to us for as cheap as you can right now" 😛 "Sell opportunity.  Come here and we'll help you improve your value for next year"

 

Definitely an impressive guy - continues to make you feel like we are in good hands

[JGMcD2]

4 hours ago, stevewin said:

Saying how things are different now with FA signings - used to be you typically brought a guy in first so both could get a first hand sense of fit - but now that doesn't happen as much now.  They let Von walk around and talk to staff/coaches to let him be sure it was the right fit for him before finalizing

I think this says SO MUCH about this regime. You've got Von Miller in the building to complete what has the potential to be a franchise altering move. You know he's having a hard time processing things up to this point, you just got screwed by McKissic/the Commanders and instead of rushing the guy upstairs to sign his contact... you let him get comfortable.

 

It's these little things... the sincerity of their actions is the foundation for what they've built. You have to know it'll never be perfect. Guys will move on and relationships will fray - that's the just the reality of things.

 

I personally believe we'll continue to outperform the rest of the league in limiting those types of instances because Beane and McDermott are damn good men and damn good leaders.

[Simon Says]

On 3/18/2022 at 4:17 PM, JGMcD2 said:

He’s having a hard time pulling punches when they ask question about McKissic and the Commanders. I’ve never seen him like that. 
 

It sounds like that relationship may be fractured. 

I didn't think that was a great deal,anyway,considering the other needs 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

9 hours ago, stevewin said:

- Sounded like Cole approached them about moving on - was kind of surprised Beane actually put the Covid thing right out there, but not like it wasn't a known thing

 

I thought it was interesting he mentioned hard on Cole and his family in the community.  I wonder if there were harassment of Cole's wife and family? 

I wonder because just before Cole went out with Covid, Josh's girlfriend Britt posted an Instagram photo of herself hugging Cole's wife.  Shortly after that, she deleted her Twitter account and made her Instagram account private.  Cole's wife has no social media presence and without occasional photos shared by other WAGs, I doubt anyone would know what she looks like.

 

Roughly 2.6 million people in the WNY area, you only need 2 or 3 ***** to make someone uncomfortable when they have a family and young kids.  On the other hand, if there were anything much, I would have expected Feliciano to wax loudly indignant about it like he did when apparently some drunk fans shouted "your dad should get vaccinated" at Cole's kids as they were in the car leaving after a game.

 

I said elsewhere, I personally think Beane isn't going to throw a previous valued contributor "under the bus" or diss him - but if Cole's 2021 contributions were as strong as his 2022 contributions, I think Beane's focus woulda been "you're uncomfortable, OK, you're here for another year, how can we change that?" vs "you're uncomfortable, OK, we don't want hostages, you can seek out a trade"

 

 

[vincec]

On 3/19/2022 at 2:09 PM, JGMcD2 said:

It’s unethical. There’s very clearly a way you’re supposed to operate in these negotiations. Brandon Beane laid out exactly how teams are expected to handle themselves during his press conference. There are hundreds of these negotiations every year, this was clearly out of place. 
 

The Commanders had every opportunity to match throughout the process of the negotiation PRIOR to McKissic accepting the deal. They told the agent that they didn’t want him back, but he continued to keep them in the loop because that’s what McKissic wanted. After the deal was agreed to, the Commanders even went as far as congratulating the agent on the deal with Buffalo when they were informed. 
 

Then they went around the agent and lied to the player after telling the agent they didn’t want him back. 
 

It’s a courtesy thing. Everyone is operating under the same rules, these verbal agreements mean teams tie up money in guys. Beane, being ethical withholds that money from other negotiations - it would be a bad look if he’s commiting McKissic’s money to McKissic and another player. Then all of a sudden both accept and he doesn’t have the means to go through on both deals. It would ruin relationships with agents and players.
 

The lack of mutual respect is an issue. That’s how you find yourself on the ***** list of 31 other teams. It sounds like they’re ***** up relationships with players and agents too (See Ioannidis, Matt). 

I assume there’s some link confirming this that I missed.  Can you please post it? From what I read, it sounded like the Commanders claimed that they expected to have an opportunity to match the offer but we’re never given one, hence their reaction of going directly to the player after the deal was agreed to by the agent.

Edited March 20, 2022 by vincec

[JGMcD2]

3 hours ago, vincec said:

I assume there’s some link confirming this that I missed.  Can you please post it? From what I read, it sounded like the Commanders claimed that they expected to have an opportunity to match the offer but we’re never given one, hence their reaction of going directly to the player after the deal was agreed to by the agent.

 

[vincec]

7 hours ago, JGMcD2 said:

 

Thanks. It makes no sense to me. The team just changed their mind after the deal was signed, like they had no plan at all? Bizarre.

[JGMcD2]

3 minutes ago, vincec said:

Thanks. It makes no sense to me. The team just changed their mind after the deal was signed, like they had no plan at all? Bizarre.

Pretty much. It sucks that we were effected by that… but at the same time… it’s nice to be the team with an actual plan. 

[davefan66]

18 minutes ago, JGMcD2 said:

Pretty much. It sucks that we were effected by that… but at the same time… it’s nice to be the team with an actual plan. 

Was watching the Bills/WFT game from last season.  McKissic didn’t seem to be all that special.  Don’t see he would have been our RB2.  That being said, Moss had a heck of a game.

[Warcodered]