Buffalo Bills: Josh Allen will define Brandon Beane’s place among GMs
The Buffalo Bills have improved since Brandon Beane took over as general manager, but his rank among other GMs in the NFL will be defined by Josh Allen.
Over the past three years, Brandon Beane has done a great job elevating the talent of the players on the Buffalo Bills. The changes he has made along the offensive line as well as the wide receiver position while improving the team’s salary cap situation has been pretty remarkable.
The moves he has made has elevated Beane and he is considered one of the top general managers in the NFL. That was evident in a recent article by Patrick Daugherty of Rotoworld where he had Beane as the ninth best general manager.
"The pieces are also falling into place on offense, but Allen is a literal and figurative wild card. If he’s the next Blake Bortles, the Bills’ defensive foundation won’t amount to much. If he’s something more, the Patriots’ reign of AFC East terror might finally be over. Beane and McDermott have been good enough that they should survive a potential Allen failure, but it will represent a massive missed opportunity with an otherwise readymade roster."
However, Daugherty brings up a good point in that Brandon Beane’s legacy is really going to come down to how Josh Allen develops and if he becomes a franchise quarterback. There is no general manager in the NFL that is going to get every move right. They will sometimes give up on some players too early or give big free agent contract that turns out to be a bust.
The one position that general managers can’t get wrong, and they usually only get one chance to get it right, is at quarterback. This is by far the most important position and sometimes is the difference between Super Bowl contenders and being in the Top 10 of the NFL Draft.
One of the reasons Josh Allen will be so career defining for Brandon Beane is because of the fact that he traded significant draft capital to move up to select Josh Allen. A similar situation is what the Bills did when they traded up for Sammy Watkins. The former fourth overall pick wasn’t necessarily bad for the Bills but was expected to produce more considering they traded a first round pick to move up to select him.
dark. Next. Projections for Stefon Diggs in his first season with Bills
As Daugherty notes, Brandon Beane has done enough to likely keep his job if Josh Allen doesn’t continue to improve. However, if he wants to move up into that top tier of general managers then Josh Allen must become that franchise quarterback the Buffalo Bills general manager envisioned he could be when he selected him in 2018.