When Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane signed outside linebacker Bradley Chubb to a three-year contract, the reaction from Bills Mafia was a bit mixed. Some felt like it was an incredible value, a pass-rusher with a history of success who can make a difference in the team’s new defensive scheme.
Others saw it as yet another unwise kick at the can by Beane to acquire a premier pass-rusher. Some feel that it is just another instance of Beane signing a veteran with past production who has more questions surrounding their game than answers. With Beane already feeling the pressure, another big misstep could be what ends his time in Buffalo.
Bills GM Brandon Beane follows familiar blueprint with latest edge addition
Von Miller
The biggest swing during Beane’s tenure in Buffalo came just ahead of the 2023 season. He gave Miller, the vaunted edge rusher who had just helped the Los Angeles Rams win the Super Bowl, a six-year, $120 million contract.
It marked a massive swing to try to help the Bills get over the top. The problem is that Miller was set to be 33 years old at the time. Miller had 9.5 sacks with the Rams in the regular season and was disruptive during the playoff run but the signs of a decline where there.
Beane couldn’t be faulted for Miller tearing his ACL in that first season with the Bills, ultimately marking the end of Miller as an “elite” rusher. Miller was serviceable but his contract made it impossible to live up to the hype. But paying that kind of money and term to a 33-year-old with major knee injuries in his past was a risky move no matter how you cut it.
Joey Bosa
Miller was clearly a lesson but not a complete one. The signing of Joey Bosa – one year, $12.6 million – was as low-risk a signing as it gets. At his peak, Bosa was a double-digit sack producer and an anchor for the Los Angeles Chargers.
Injuries had robbed him of much of the final three seasons of his Chargers tenure, and the Bills hoped they could get a healthy Bosa for 2025. They did – he started 15 games – but his five sacks were the lowest in a full season since he posted 10.5 sacks in 2021.
This wasn’t a bad signing by any stretch of the imagination, but Bosa’s tenure in Buffalo became the epitome of the season as a whole: just solid enough to get pressure but never good enough to get home. Bosa looked a step slower and worn out by the time they walked off the field in Denver in the playoffs.
Bradley Chubb
After a major trade for D.J. Moore, most believed Beane would find a pass rusher in the draft. Instead, he signed Chubb from the rival Miami Dolphins. The three-year, $43.5 million deal feels like something of a middle ground between the Bosa and Miller contracts.
Chubb looked like a borderline elite pass rusher until tearing his ACL at the end of the 2023 season, a season that saw him record 11 sacks. He missed all of 2024 and was no doubt still working through his recovery last season, yet still managed 8.5 sacks on a bad Dolphins defense.
At surface level, Chubb looks like a more optimistic version of the Bosa signing. The hope is that, with a better team around him, Chubb can find his double-digit sack production once again and become a true difference-maker for the Bills.
Too many questions at the time of signing
The hope is that Beane’s signing of Chubb will not only make the Dolphins pay, but give the Bills the fearsome pass rusher they have been looking for. Unfortunately, Chubb’s signing – like Miller and Bosa before him – comes with far too many questions.
The Bills don’t have the luxury to go out and acquire a premier pass rusher like Maxx Crosby. That said, Beane’s track record of signing damaged, veteran goods may ultimately backfire on him one time too many.