Buffalo Bills: 365 days of work landed Brandon Beane his franchise QB

It’s been a year since Brandon Beane officially took over as the General Manager of the Buffalo Bills.

Brandon Beane started his career with two goals in mind for his first year in office. He wanted to change the culture, and land the Buffalo Bills a franchise quarterback.

In order to achieve these goals, he blended the two goals into one which led the team seeing a lot of household names go out the door. The team has just 27 holdovers from the Doug Whaley regime heading into 2018.

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The big roster overhaul over the past year goes back to the initial goals Beane had when he inherited the club; which I now dub as ‘the road to Josh Allen’.

Let me explain.

Pre-season kickoff: 

Beane made sweeping changes to the roster the first couple days of Bills training camp with a pair of blockbuster moves that led to the departure of the Bills’ top receiver Sammy Watkins, and Ronald Darby, the Bills’ top shutdown corner. In return, the Bills got E.J. Gaines, Jordan Matthews, a second and a third-round pick.

At the time of the trade, it seemed like the Bills were destined for a tank job after parting ways with two cornerstone pieces of the franchise for lesser players and draft selections. Little did Bills Mafia know, Tre White would become a lockdown corner in his own right, and the Bills would eventually acquire a top outside threat later in the season (we’ll get to that later).

Although neither Matthews or Gaines worked out in Buffalo, the draft picks were instrumental in being able to land two premier players in the 2018 draft (Again, we’ll get to this later).

Minor details matter

As always there are a few minor transactions over the course of the preseason as teams try to reshape their roster and swap fringe players with other teams to see if they can catch on with another club. This was the case for Reggie Ragland and Kevon Seymour.

Ragland, a former second-round pick of the Bills in 2016, never played a snap for Buffalo, eventually leading to his departure to Kansas City for a fourth-rounder in next year’s draft.

As for second-year corner Kevon Seymour, he was moved to Carolina for wide receiver Kaelin Clay and a seventh-rounder. Clay was later cut then brought back this offseason for a second stint in Buffalo.

Active at the deadline

Midseason blockbusters are not as common in the NFL as the other major North American sports, but the Bills made two big moves at the 2017 trade deadline.

Buffalo was in the hunt to make the playoffs but was also still in transition from Doug Whaley’s Bills to Brandon Beane’s Bills. The result was former number three overall pick Marcel Darius out, 6-foot-5 Carolina pass catcher Kelvin Benjamin in.

Darius was becoming a nuisance. In addition to his large contract, his lethargic attitude didn’t help his case for wanting to keep him around. So late in October Beane shipped him off to Jacksonville for a sixth-round pick (more ammunition).

But the bigger trade surprise came a few days later when the Bills pulled the trigger late into deadline day to bring in a threat on the outside to help with the passing attack. The cost? A measly third-rounder and a seventh. Considering the Bills had the extra third from the Darby deal, the trade made sense for Buffalo.

The final stretch

After making the playoffs the Bills were slotted to pick in the 20’s for the first time in years, virtually taking away their ability to take one of the top four quarterbacks in the 2018 NFL Draft. Thus, Beane, with the intent to get one, traded away two more core pieces from the Whaley era, allowing him to firmly supplant his legacy in Buffalo.

For months the talk around Bills Mafia was whether or not Beane was going to cut or keep Tyrod Taylor. The thought of a trade seemed a tad far-fetched considering he barely surpassed 3,000 yards passing every year. But somehow Beane swindled the Cleveland Browns, who were richer than rich in draft capital, to relinquish pick no. 65 in the draft for the mobile quarterback. A pick Buffalo later used to move up to 16 and take Tremaine Edmunds.

But in order to even move Taylor, Beane’s next trade must’ve been all but finalized.

A few days after dealing away the team’s starting quarterback, the Bills moved on from their starting left tackle. Cordy Glenn and pick no. 21 were traded to the Cincinnati Bengals in exchange for the No. 12 overall selection (we’re getting closer).

Drafting conclusions

From there, the Bills were able to move all the way up into the top-10 and get Allen, the quarterback they desired.

Beane wasn’t shy on the phones all year and pulled through on his plan to wind up with as much draft capital as he could. By doing so, he put the Bills in prime position to get one of the top quarterbacks from the 2018 draft class.

Next: NFL Mock Draft recap: Where we hit and missed

Many moving parts came into effect in order to secure a top-10 pick in the draft. However, with there being more questions marks on Josh Allen than the Apollo moon landing, only time will tell if it was all worth it.