chongli Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 (edited) This is a really good show where Eric covered a variety of topics in his interview of Brandon Beane in his Centered on Buffalo podcast. My commentary is below. [From the description: Buffalo Bills GM Brandon Bean discusses life after the season ends, the emotional toll of not winning a championship, his belief in Josh Allen as a franchise quarterback, building the roster to compete for a Super Bowl, the reality of salary cap constraints, favorite memories from the Kentucky Derby, favorite wing spot in Buffalo, opinion on the rule of fumbling the ball out of the end zone, how Eric Ciano keeps his job for so long, and predictions for the championship games. 00:00 Life of a GM after the season ends 03:24 The emotional toll of not winning a championship 05:14 Resiliency of the team 07:26 Brandon Bean's belief in Josh Allen as a franchise quarterback 10:49 Building the roster to compete for a Super Bowl 15:12 The reality of salary cap constraints 18:52 Favorite memories from the Kentucky Derby 21:00 Balancing work and downtime as a GM 22:39 Favorite wing spot in Buffalo 24:02 Opinion on the rule of fumbling the ball out of the end zone 27:11 How Eric Ciano keeps his job for so long 29:30 Predictions for the championship games.] My commentary: Josh [10:49]: Josh may have turnovers and may even cost you some games (like the Jets Week 1: 3 INT's and 1 fumble), but he is a playmaker. He makes way more plays than turnovers. He is like an Elway or a Favre. Eric Wood said he played with a lot of QB's who rarely turned the ball over, but they never had 300 yards and did not win games like Josh. He leads the league all time in fewest playoff turnovers. So when it matters, Josh does not turn it over. Eric is tired of defensing Allen in regard to this issue, because it is not true. Josh was in the top 5 in completions two years in a row, which had ever been done. Josh and Patrick have re-written the book on how coaches look at side-arm, difficult-angle throws. Their athleticism is amazing and make defending them very hard. Josh is the type of player who puts the team on his back. He goes out and wins the game for you. You have to live with his occasional mistakes. You can't get mad at him when he makes so many outstanding plays. Salary Cap Constraints [15:12]: Start at the division and build a team to match up against all divisional foes. Then who are the other teams that are consistent contenders in the conference (Baltimore, KC, Cincy). The salary cap is absolutely real. The question is are you paying cash now or putting it on credit debt. They had a plan when they reset the cap in 2018. They added some players in 2019 a 2020, then COVID hit in 2020 and the cap went down from $198 million to $182 million, so that screwed them over and they haven't caught up. It should have gone to $210 or $211 million. They had a lot of big salaries (Josh, White, Dawkins, Milano, Stef) and they have had to put more money little by little each year into debt. They try to do it responsibly, but at the same time, the Pegulas told him they want to win. So it is a fine line. Kentucky Derby [18:52] Beane had a great time at Eric's place. Stayed up to 2 or 2:30 asking who's going to bed first. He was treated to a VIP experience at the Derby itself. Had fun at the Dustin Lynch private concert after. Off-season plan [21:00]: a. Coaches get off next week. They need some downtime. b. Football staff goes to Senior Bowl next week then comes back and does free agent meetings. c. Then college scouts come in and they lock themselves in the building for two straight weeks and go through every player on their board. They try to have their board in a good spot before going to Indy. They call the combine the "underwear Olympics" where players aren't in pads, so it is not the same. d. Week before the Combine is a vacation week for all. Beane's wife is arranging that. It must have a golf course. Brandon Beane's favorite wing spot in Buffalo [22.39]: Bar-Bill, both Cajun and honey barbeque. His wife just picked up some last night in fact. He prefers neither blue cheese nor ranch. Dipping the wing would be insulting it. If he had to, he prefers ranch. Edited January 27 by chongli 6 7 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkeerie Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Thank you for posting this.! Very informative. For the record...I'm with Beane when it comes to dipping wings. I want to enjoy the wing and sauce...no dipping. I'm a wing purist in that regard. 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BADOLBILZ Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 I like Beane but the biggest reason he is in the situation he is with the cap can be traced directly to his terrible personnel decisions in 2018. He spent $100M on total garbage in free agency.........and actually paid out a ton of that even when he should have been cutting bait later in those contracts. He has gotten much more efficient on the job but it's been a gradual climb from terrible to mediocre to improved levels of efficiency. Blaming the cap situation on the cap figure dropping due to covid is a cop-out........but the truth is if he were honest about the fact that he was terrible wrt pro personnel and cap management in his first couple years there would be nothing to gain from that honesty whatsoever. Just more criticism. He has basically faked it til' he's made it.........and NOW that he has a better grasp on what he's doing he really needs to put that expensive experience to work and knock it out of the park in the next few offseasons. As I've said before, Howie Roseman wasn't always a great GM.........he grew into it. Beane needs to build off of the successes in recent drafts and the more efficient(if not always satisfying) results he's gotten in free agency. Also needs to be a bit more ruthless, IMO. 17 1 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aussie Joe Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 (edited) 3 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said: I like Beane but the biggest reason he is in the situation he is with the cap can be traced directly to his terrible personnel decisions in 2018. He spent $100M on total garbage in free agency.........and actually paid out a ton of that even when he should have been cutting bait later in those contracts. He has gotten much more efficient on the job but it's been a gradual climb from terrible to mediocre to improved levels of efficiency. Blaming the cap situation on the cap figure dropping due to covid is a cop-out........but the truth is if he were honest about the fact that he was terrible wrt pro personnel and cap management in his first couple years there would be nothing to gain from that honesty whatsoever. Just more criticism. He has basically faked it til' he's made it.........and NOW that he has a better grasp on what he's doing he really needs to put that expensive experience to work and knock it out of the park in the next few offseasons. As I've said before, Howie Roseman wasn't always a great GM.........he grew into it. Beane needs to build off of the successes in recent drafts and the more efficient(if not always satisfying) results he's gotten in free agency. Also needs to be a bit more ruthless, IMO. I can’t argue with a lot of what you said here … but the 2018 draft navigation from Beane from pick 21 to 7 ( giving up Glenn and a couple of seconds) to pick Josh Allen ( wrong Josh) will always be a thing of beauty … This alone will get him into the GM Hall of fame .. and will trump his wasted dollars in that years free agency .. Plus in 2018 … he also managed to trade Tyrod Taylor and a cap hit for Pick 65 Edited January 27 by Aussie Joe 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBillyG Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 10 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said: I like Beane but the biggest reason he is in the situation he is with the cap can be traced directly to his terrible personnel decisions in 2018. He spent $100M on total garbage in free agency.........and actually paid out a ton of that even when he should have been cutting bait later in those contracts. He has gotten much more efficient on the job but it's been a gradual climb from terrible to mediocre to improved levels of efficiency. Blaming the cap situation on the cap figure dropping due to covid is a cop-out........but the truth is if he were honest about the fact that he was terrible wrt pro personnel and cap management in his first couple years there would be nothing to gain from that honesty whatsoever. Just more criticism. He has basically faked it til' he's made it.........and NOW that he has a better grasp on what he's doing he really needs to put that expensive experience to work and knock it out of the park in the next few offseasons. As I've said before, Howie Roseman wasn't always a great GM.........he grew into it. Beane needs to build off of the successes in recent drafts and the more efficient(if not always satisfying) results he's gotten in free agency. Also needs to be a bit more ruthless, IMO. That part right there is my pet peeve when it comes to Brandon. This isn't the first time he's pinned the cap issues to the COVID year. And I'm sure there was at some point some truth behind it. I'm certain they had a long term financial plan that COVID tore down. But that happened years ago and it didn't JUST hit for the Buffalo Bills. 31 other teams were hit, too. And by now many if not most have adjusted. I'm sorry, but you can't cry that you're behind the sticks when it comes to salary cap because of the COVID season and also have been responsible for the Von Miller albatross off a contract since. 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PayDaBill$ Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 (edited) Ranch? That explains it all. Edited January 27 by PayDaBill$ 2 1 2 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nextmanup Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Haven't listened to it, but I can't imagine a lot of inside information coming to the fore in such a context. That's kind of kool aid talk around the kool aid dispenser with these two guys speaking publicly. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Otreply Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 (edited) Prefers ranch? Wtf, Fire his azs! Edited January 27 by Don Otreply 1 3 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanC883 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Ranch? This dude is a plant from KC!!! 2 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BananaB Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Bills are treading water. Way too many vets have been signed to cover the play younger players they brought in. Beane doesn’t like to give up draft picks for proven players but will sign a guy on his last leg after the player he drafted struggles to get on the field. They ain’t improving because of it. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoonerBillsFan Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 (edited) 15 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said: I like Beane but the biggest reason he is in the situation he is with the cap can be traced directly to his terrible personnel decisions in 2018. He spent $100M on total garbage in free agency.........and actually paid out a ton of that even when he should have been cutting bait later in those contracts. He has gotten much more efficient on the job but it's been a gradual climb from terrible to mediocre to improved levels of efficiency. Blaming the cap situation on the cap figure dropping due to covid is a cop-out........but the truth is if he were honest about the fact that he was terrible wrt pro personnel and cap management in his first couple years there would be nothing to gain from that honesty whatsoever. Just more criticism. He has basically faked it til' he's made it.........and NOW that he has a better grasp on what he's doing he really needs to put that expensive experience to work and knock it out of the park in the next few offseasons. As I've said before, Howie Roseman wasn't always a great GM.........he grew into it. Beane needs to build off of the successes in recent drafts and the more efficient(if not always satisfying) results he's gotten in free agency. Also needs to be a bit more ruthless, IMO. He needs to upgrade his scouts. His DL and WR picks have been abysmal overall. He MUST find legit WR's this draft and I'll go so far as to say a guy that can push Diggs. We still don't have Alphas on the DL. And I don't want to hear about Oliver. He showed up when chasing his 500k bonus. He completely disappeared against KC when it counted. Edited January 27 by SoonerBillsFan 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billykay Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 8 hours ago, Aussie Joe said: I can’t argue with a lot of what you said here … but the 2018 draft navigation from Beane from pick 21 to 7 ( giving up Glenn and a couple of seconds) to pick Josh Allen ( wrong Josh) will always be a thing of beauty … This alone will get him into the GM Hall of fame .. and will trump his wasted dollars in that years free agency .. Plus in 2018 … he also managed to trade Tyrod Taylor and a cap hit for Pick 65 With that pick 65, who did we wind up taking in that spot. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DapperCam Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 12 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said: I like Beane but the biggest reason he is in the situation he is with the cap can be traced directly to his terrible personnel decisions in 2018. He spent $100M on total garbage in free agency.........and actually paid out a ton of that even when he should have been cutting bait later in those contracts. He has gotten much more efficient on the job but it's been a gradual climb from terrible to mediocre to improved levels of efficiency. Blaming the cap situation on the cap figure dropping due to covid is a cop-out........but the truth is if he were honest about the fact that he was terrible wrt pro personnel and cap management in his first couple years there would be nothing to gain from that honesty whatsoever. Just more criticism. He has basically faked it til' he's made it.........and NOW that he has a better grasp on what he's doing he really needs to put that expensive experience to work and knock it out of the park in the next few offseasons. As I've said before, Howie Roseman wasn't always a great GM.........he grew into it. Beane needs to build off of the successes in recent drafts and the more efficient(if not always satisfying) results he's gotten in free agency. Also needs to be a bit more ruthless, IMO. It’s speculation on my part, but we’ve seen Pegula meddle multiple times to buy high price tag free agents on the Sabres (Leino, Erhoff, Taylor Hall, etc). It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Terry was saying “buy! buy! buy!” and Beane felt like he had to go along with it. Obviously he isn’t going to ever blame ownership publicly, so we wouldn’t know. Even in this interview he said the Pegulas want to win, and it’s a balancing act. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Low Positive Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 12 minutes ago, billykay said: With that pick 65, who did we wind up taking in that spot. We traded that to Baltimore to move up to take Edmunds. They then traded to the Raiders who picked OT Brandon Parker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 14 hours ago, chongli said: This is a really good show where Eric covered a variety of topics in his interview of Brandon Beane in his Centered on Buffalo podcast. My commentary is below. [From the description: Buffalo Bills GM Brandon Bean discusses life after the season ends, the emotional toll of not winning a championship, his belief in Josh Allen as a franchise quarterback, building the roster to compete for a Super Bowl, the reality of salary cap constraints, favorite memories from the Kentucky Derby, favorite wing spot in Buffalo, opinion on the rule of fumbling the ball out of the end zone, how Eric Ciano keeps his job for so long, and predictions for the championship games. 00:00 Life of a GM after the season ends 03:24 The emotional toll of not winning a championship 05:14 Resiliency of the team 07:26 Brandon Bean's belief in Josh Allen as a franchise quarterback 10:49 Building the roster to compete for a Super Bowl 15:12 The reality of salary cap constraints 18:52 Favorite memories from the Kentucky Derby 21:00 Balancing work and downtime as a GM 22:39 Favorite wing spot in Buffalo 24:02 Opinion on the rule of fumbling the ball out of the end zone 27:11 How Eric Ciano keeps his job for so long 29:30 Predictions for the championship games.] My commentary: Josh [10:49]: Josh may have turnovers and may even cost you some games (like the Jets Week 1: 3 INT's and 1 fumble), but he is a playmaker. He makes way more plays than turnovers. He is like an Elway or a Favre. Eric Wood said he played with a lot of QB's who rarely turned the ball over, but they never had 300 yards and did not win games like Josh. He leads the league all time in fewest playoff turnovers. So when it matters, Josh does not turn it over. Eric is tired of defensing Allen in regard to this issue, because it is not true. Josh was in the top 5 in completions two years in a row, which had ever been done. Josh and Patrick have re-written the book on how coaches look at side-arm, difficult-angle throws. Their athleticism is amazing and make defending them very hard. Josh is the type of player who puts the team on his back. He goes out and wins the game for you. You have to live with his occasional mistakes. You can't get mad at him when he makes so many outstanding plays. Salary Cap Constraints [15:12]: Start at the division and build a team to match up against all divisional foes. Then who are the other teams that are consistent contenders in the conference (Baltimore, KC, Cincy). The salary cap is absolutely real. The question is are you paying cash now or putting it on credit debt. They had a plan when they reset the cap in 2018. They added some players in 2019 a 2020, then COVID hit in 2020 and the cap went down from $198 million to $182 million, so that screwed them over and they haven't caught up. It should have gone to $210 or $211 million. They had a lot of big salaries (Josh, White, Dawkins, Milano, Stef) and they have had to put more money little by little each year into debt. They try to do it responsibly, but at the same time, the Pegulas told him they want to win. So it is a fine line. Kentucky Derby [18:52] Beane had a great time at Eric's place. Stayed up to 2 or 2:30 asking who's going to bed first. He was treated to a VIP experience at the Derby itself. Had fun at the Dustin Lynch private concert after. Off-season plan [21:00]: a. Coaches get off next week. They need some downtime. b. Football staff goes to Senior Bowl next week then comes back and does free agent meetings. c. Then college scouts come in and they lock themselves in the building for two straight weeks and go through every player on their board. They try to have their board in a good spot before going to Indy. They call the combine the "underwear Olympics" where players aren't in pads, so it is not the same. d. Week before the Combine is a vacation week for all. Beane's wife is arranging that. It must have a golf course. Brandon Beane's favorite wing spot in Buffalo [22.39]: Bar-Bill, both Cajun and honey barbeque. His wife just picked up some last night in fact. He prefers neither blue cheese nor ranch. Dipping the wing would be insulting it. If he had to, he prefers ranch. Sixty two years of waiting and my hopes and dreams are in the hands of a man who both prefers ranch and is willing to say it out loud! My work is done, here, God … take me anytime. 1 6 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BADOLBILZ Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 4 hours ago, BuffaloBillyG said: That part right there is my pet peeve when it comes to Brandon. This isn't the first time he's pinned the cap issues to the COVID year. And I'm sure there was at some point some truth behind it. I'm certain they had a long term financial plan that COVID tore down. But that happened years ago and it didn't JUST hit for the Buffalo Bills. 31 other teams were hit, too. And by now many if not most have adjusted. I'm sorry, but you can't cry that you're behind the sticks when it comes to salary cap because of the COVID season and also have been responsible for the Von Miller albatross off a contract since. It's been annoying listening to Beane's excuses for the terrible mistakes with money and pro personnel in general in his first 2-3 seasons. I've made that point here probably hundreds of times since then. But I also give him some credit for cleverly avoiding taking any real responsibility for any of it. That is the way of the con-man and fans eat that confidence up and bought him a lot of runway. Smart. And it's not like it's a house of cards with him, he was just terribly unqualified as a personnel and salary cap man when he got the job and has been faking it til' he makes it in that regard. As pure executive he was immediately a great hire to steady the ship for the Pegula's. They needed that aspect of his job more than anything because they were floundering. And I think his personnel work has greatly improved with experience and I expect that to continue. But he still has ground to make up because of past mistakes. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aussie Joe Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 2 hours ago, billykay said: With that pick 65, who did we wind up taking in that spot. They used it to move up from 22 to take Edmunds 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianthomas Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 10 hours ago, Aussie Joe said: I can’t argue with a lot of what you said here … but the 2018 draft navigation from Beane from pick 21 to 7 ( giving up Glenn and a couple of seconds) to pick Josh Allen ( wrong Josh) will always be a thing of beauty … This alone will get him into the GM Hall of fame .. and will trump his wasted dollars in that years free agency .. Plus in 2018 … he also managed to trade Tyrod Taylor and a cap hit for Pick 65 I thank the Gods we have Josh Allen I really do, but i cant describe this as a 'thing of beauty' when you consider how we previously traded the Patrick Mahomes pick to KC, i just cant. Not with who Mahomes has turned out to be & with how desperate we were for a QB in 2017, & not with where our 2 franchises are now. Josh Allen sure we drafted him so thats all that counts, but we very easily couldve gotten this pick wrong as well & missed out on both & where would we be today? In all honesty, im surprised we did pick Josh & that its turned out as well as it has. Its not too often things go better than expected around here. But as far as BILLS seasons go, you could argue everything else is par for the course, with the 1 anomaly being how great Josh Allen is. He on his own makes everyone look like geniuses for picking him & he makes the coaches & players around him better too. But at some point & many of us fans are there right now, thats not enough. Maybe i'm being too hard on the GM & team but theres that saying how a broken clock is right twice a day. We got the clock right the one time with Josh, but 6-7 years later, the rest of the clock is still broken it seems, as we still haven't figured out what makes it even tick. And we're all just hoping now that Beane has figured it all out & will make the right moves. Every one of us will have a different level of faith in this staff's ability to do that now. For me, my faith is shaken to its final threads, given the past few years of self inflicted personnel mistakes. But when you have a Josh Allen, anything is possible i suppose. In Beane we hope... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hondo in seattle Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 We can nitpick his successes and failures. But Beane's overall body of work is good. He took a franchise mired in mediocrity and turned it into the AFCE champs. Some worry that McD isn't a good enough head coach to take us further. I personally worry if Beane is a good enough GM. He's never given McD a SB-caliber roster. When we lose in the playoffs, it's either to a team better than us or healthier than us. Or both. That's partly Beane's fault. Beane found us a great QB and has built a good - not great - roster with solid depth. That's enough to make us competitive. It hasn't been enough to win us a Lombardi. I'm hoping Beane has learned from his mistakes and fixes them. But given our cap situation, I worry that we're going to flounder along at the good-but-not-quite-good-enough level. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aussie Joe Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 (edited) 20 minutes ago, brianthomas said: I thank the Gods we have Josh Allen I really do, but i cant describe this as a 'thing of beauty' when you consider how we previously traded the Patrick Mahomes pick to KC, i just cant. Not with who Mahomes has turned out to be & with how desperate we were for a QB in 2017, & not with where our 2 franchises are now. Josh Allen sure we drafted him so thats all that counts, but we very easily couldve gotten this pick wrong as well & missed out on both & where would we be today? In all honesty, im surprised we did pick Josh & that its turned out as well as it has. Its not too often things go better than expected around here. But as far as BILLS seasons go, you could argue everything else is par for the course, with the 1 anomaly being how great Josh Allen is. He on his own makes everyone look like geniuses for picking him & he makes the coaches & players around him better too. But at some point & many of us fans are there right now, thats not enough. Maybe i'm being too hard on the GM & team but theres that saying how a broken clock is right twice a day. We got the clock right the one time with Josh, but 6-7 years later, the rest of the clock is still broken it seems, as we still haven't figured out what makes it even tick. And we're all just hoping now that Beane has figured it all out & will make the right moves. Every one of us will have a different level of faith in this staff's ability to do that now. For me, my faith is shaken to its final threads, given the past few years of self inflicted personnel mistakes. But when you have a Josh Allen, anything is possible i suppose. In Beane we hope... Beane wasn’t here for the Mahomes pick … so can’t blame him for that … You can’t also hit Beane over the head because “ he could have got the Josh Allen pick wrong”… he didn’t … and you are surprised they got something of that magnitude correct ? Well … they did … It’s also not very honest to say he has only been right “one time”… he has drafted some good players ….found a few decent guys in FA.. turned around an average ( at best) team he inherited into a top 6 team these past 4 years … Made some absolutely terrible decisions though … signing Star, trading for Benjamin, letting Teller go… Boogie Basham, Ford and Elam…Took a long time to give Josh a functional O Line …and others .. He has a mountain to climb this offseason … got to replace a lot of guys with minimal cap .. and needs to find 3 good playes ( at leastj) in the draft that impact this team in 2024. … they have some good pieces still..( Not just Josh) … so I will give them a chance if he can make the right calls ….. if he doesn’t then next year might be the last year for him and Sean .. Edited January 27 by Aussie Joe 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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