How Brandon Beane sees the Bills roster after free agency’s first wave
· Yahoo Sports
ORCHARD PARK - Last Friday afternoon, Buffalo Bills president/GM Brandon Beane met with head coach Joe Brady and coordinators Pete Carmichael and Jim Leonhard to discuss the state of the roster after the initial burst of free agent signings were in the books.
“Joe and I decided to do an exercise,” Beane told the Democrat and Chronicle in an exclusive interview Monday morning. “Just grabbed the coordinators and my top scouts to look at the roster now with the guys we’ve added. My point to Joe was, ‘All right, if we have two nickels left to spend, I don’t want to spend them on a guy that may not even get a jersey on game day if we’re healthy.
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“So let’s talk about the 48-man on game day. We still need this, we still need that. If we can get someone again for minimum or just over minimum, and we just have a little bit of money left to spend, let me make sure I am spending it in the right place.”
While it may have felt like a quiet start to free agency for Buffalo, that meeting left Beane feeling like the roster is in a good spot for mid-March given the salary cap constraints he faced. He quickly acknowledged that there’s still plenty of work to be done, but Friday’s get-together helped set the agenda for what the Bills will be looking for in the weeks to come as they try to fill in more holes with low-budget free agents, and of course, the draft.
Beane said the Bills were around $16 million or so over the cap before he began making the necessary moves to not only get them compliant with the $301.2 million salary cap threshold, but give them room to operate.
“It wasn’t like we had an easy cut to get $30 million back,” he said. “It was multiple moves - we had to release players, restructure deals, do some pay reductions. There was a lot of different ways to do it.”
Amidst that accounting work, he executed the trade for wide receiver DJ Moore and re-signed one of his own free agents, center Connor McGovern, before he systematically ticked off the Bills’ primary needs one by one, working on the fringes of the market.
Dee Alford was signed to fill the slot corner role vacated by the trade of Taron Johnson; Bradley Chubb is a perfect fit to play outside linebacker in the new odd-man front defense; Chauncey Gardner-Johnson fills the vacancy at deep safety; Geno Stone adds competition and depth in the secondary; and Kyle Allen replaces Mitchell Trubisky as Josh Allen’s backup QB.
“I feel good about what we came away with knowing what we were walking in with (money wise),” Beane said. “Like any competitor, you are always wanting to get the best players you can. Sometimes you’re like, ‘I just can’t shop where that player is going to go.’ I do check in on about everything because I don’t want to assume, then see a player sign for something and I’m like, ‘Damn, I didn’t think that guy would sign for that. I wish we were in on it.’”
For instance, he admitted he was in pursuit of edge rusher Trey Hendrickson, but the Bills were never in a position to match what he ended up signing for in Baltimore.
“Hendrickson was a call and a discussion, but we weren’t going to be able to afford where his market was,” Beane said. “You stay in it until they got it. Once they got it, you pivot.”
That pivot was to Chubb whose $21.7 million guarantee was just over a third of Hendrickson’s $60 million, and Chubb is two years younger.
“We definitely targeted (players), and I think at the end of the day you’re not going to fill every hole, you know that, but you’re going to do your best,” he said.
While the sports business websites are still trying to catch up because not all of the new contracts are known, Beane said the Bills are currently around $9 million under the cap, but he can’t just spend it.
In fact, he’s going to need to find more money because by the time the season starts, he’ll have to account for two more salaries (only the top 51 count against the cap right now), he needs to pay for the draft class which will cost about $10 million, the practice squad which chews up around $3 million, and still have some for injury replacement costs.
Here’s a quick thought from Beane on the acquisitions he has made thus far:
Bradley Chubb fills an obvious void on the edge
In the new 3-4 defense, Beane said the plan right now is for Chubb, Greg Rousseau and Michael Hoecht to play as standup outside linebackers, but of those three, Chubb has by far the most experience in that role.
“I think he fits this great,” Beane said. “And he really wanted to be a part of it. He had multiple suitors but he really wanted to be here. I think he narrowed it down to like maybe three teams or something and we were one of them, so we got him up here on a visit, and he really hit it off at dinner with Joe and Jim Leonhard. He’s a proven player, a three-down player with excellent size.”
The addition of Chubb really gives Leonhard some options up front. The way Beane explained it, the front will include two outside linebackers, a three-tech defensive tackle, a nose tackle (though not necessarily lined up right over the center), and a defensive end.
The edge rotation is strong with Chubb, Rousseau and Hoecht with perhaps Javon Solomon and a draft pick also in the mix. Deone Walker, DeWayne Carter and Phidiarian Mathis could work as the nose, Walker, Ed Oliver and TJ Sanders would fit as the three-tech, and those three plus Landon Jackson could be a fit at the end position.
Dee Alford will be a different slot corner
In Leonhard’s defense, the slot corner will not be on the field as much as Taron Johnson was in Buffalo’s previous defense.
“The nickel is used differently in this defense,” Beane said. “Taron was playing a kind of nickel/linebacker, but this is going to be more of a cover player type position. They’re not going to be inserting in the B gap to fill the run. They still have to know how to tackle, but it’s just a different utilization.
“Alford gives you that skill set to do man, zone, he’s got ball skills, he’s tough - undersized but he’s tough - and he’s got versatility, an inside player to outside. If something happened to Max (Hairston) or (Christian Benford), you could move him to outside and then put a (Jordan) Hancock in there at nickel, put a Gardner-Johnson at nickel. So we love (Alford’s) nickel coverage ability and the versatility.”
Chauncey Gardner-Johnson’s journey is not a worry
In the last calendar year, the 28-year-old Gardner-Johnson has been employed by five teams - Eagles, Texans, Ravens, Bears, Bills. Before that, he played for the Saints, Eagles and Lions. Clearly, he seems to be a guy who wears out his welcome a bit quickly, but Beane isn’t concerned about that.
First, the team received good intel from members of the organization, and second, Gardner-Johnson is a talented player who can make a difference for the defense, something he’s done at every stop along the way.
“Craig Robertson (a Bills defensive assistant coach) played with him, was his big brother in New Orleans, and so he has a very good feel for him,” Beane said. “Pete Carmichael was on that (Saints) staff. John Fox had him in Detroit a couple of years ago. And then we’ve talked to people who have been teammates with him before.
“We’re not afraid of a competitive, edgy dude. Listen, I was around Steve Smith pretty much his whole career (in Carolina). Some of that’s good. You obviously have to stay within boundaries, and we talked about that. I thought he was straightforward with how he saw things. I think Craig attested to he’s seen maturity from when he saw him in his time in New Orleans.”
Beane said Gardner-Johnson and Cole Bishop will be able to swap positions seamlessly - from deep to in the box - and Gardner-Johnson can even move into the slot if there’s a matchup there better suited for him as opposed to Alford.
“He’s a physical player,” Beane said. “He’s not a traditional box guy, he’s not a traditional post safety. He can do different things; that’s what you’re looking for, as many players that can do more than one thing so that the offense can’t dictate to them. That’s the attractiveness to Jim.”
Geno Stone will add depth to secondary
Stone isn’t a great athlete, and he certainly needs to improve his tackling as he has a missed tackle rate of 18.7% for his career per Pro Football Focus. But the 210-pounder is only 26 years old yet he has six NFL seasons under his belt with 53 starts in 85 games for the Ravens and Bengals.
The cost of his one-year contract isn’t yet known, but it’s a low-wage deal for a player who can add valuable experience and versatility to the defense.
“I think Geno was a guy that we’ve known here, been in the AFC and has very good ball skills and instincts, that’s what stands out,” Beane said. “I would say this year he needs to improve his tackling a little bit; that was probably his downfall a little bit, but I think it’s all correctable. It’s not a lack of willingness, he’s got some big hits on tape. I think it’s just some of his technique more than anything. But the guy’s had production, he started a ton of games, and there’s no substitution for starting experience, so he’s going to add competition to the group.”
DJ Moore provided a known fixed cost
One of the main reasons Beane traded for Moore was undeniable production, a player who has averaged 79 catches for 1,006 yards across eight NFL seasons with the Panthers and Bears. Another reason why he was willing to part with a second-round pick - rather than wait to sign someone else in free agency without losing draft capital - is that Moore’s contract was a known commodity that he could plan for ahead of time.
“In free agency, you never know what the numbers are going to be, so in this deal, it wasn’t a trade for a one-year or two-year rental; this is a guy that’s under contract,” Beane said. “And he’s got a good skill set, he’s a productive player. He’ll be our most accomplished receiver in the room and he adds speed, he adds run after catch, he’s a tough player with good hands, an instinctive player. And so I think he just upgrades the whole level of the wide receiver group.”
Regarding the second-round pick, Beane pointed out that pick No. 60 late in the second round is much different than parting with a second-round pick in the early 30s.
“It’s at the very bottom, five picks later and it’s in the third,” Beane said. “It’s a second-rounder but we all know there is a huge difference in pick 35 and pick 60. And we did get a fifth back, and I think we’ve had success in that round. So I like the pick swap value of it.”
Of course, we all know Beane’s penchant for draft day deals, so it would not surprise anyone if he were to trade out of the first round, provided it made sense according to his draft board, and recoup that second-round pick, probably higher in the round, plus add an additional pick.
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 37 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at [email protected], and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills roster strategy detailed by Brandon Beane after early free agency