If there is one thing that has helped Brandon Beane become a dominant general manager for the Buffalo Bills, it’s the way he structures contracts for players. Most of the time (not all the time), Beane gets ahead of the curve and pays players early before the market starts to skyrocket. At the same time, not all of his contracts have been friendly to the team.
While Beane did a great job this offseason with the extensions of Khalil Shakir, Terrel Bernard, Greg Rousseau, and Christian Benford, the pain of the contract involving Von Miller is still there. Even though it wasn’t a true six-year, $120 million deal, it still did enough damage financially because of the lack of production by Miller (post-torn ACL).
One other bad contract that Beane gave out in recent memory was to tight end Dawson Knox (four-year, $52 million) at the start of the 2022 season. Giving Knox this kind of contract when he hasn’t had over 600 receiving yards in his career and ever since his contract extension, Knox has only had over 500 yards in one season.
Dawson Knox's contract needs to be revamped sooner than later
Lou Scataglia from NFL Spin Zone listed the worst contracts for every NFL team and Knox’s was listed for the Bills, and it’s completely on point. Here’s what Scataglia said about Knox’s contract:
"Dawson Knox has fallen out of favor a bit with the Buffalo Bills after two strong years in 2021 and 2022. Since then, Knox has failed to hit 350 yards receiving over the last two years and is getting paid just about $10 million per season. Since he's still on the team, they may have a plan for him, but the value be brings to the franchise at this point is not worth nearly $10 million per season."Lou Scataglia, NFL Spin Zone
Even though Knox has had his contract restructured, getting paid nearly $10 million per year to not even be the starting tight end is a bad investment by Beane. Not to mention, after the Bills gave Knox his contract extension, they traded up in the following NFL Draft in 2023 to acquire tight end Dalton Kincaid.
Knox has great chemistry with Josh Allen, as the two are great friends both on and off the field. However, Knox has not shown to be a dominant player throughout his career. He has three touchdowns and 497 yards in the last two seasons. This is a bad contract given out by Beane and it needs to be fixed sooner than later.