The Buffalo Bills were one of the best teams in football last season and improved their biggest weaknesses. In other words, they’ve won NFL Free Agency, and it didn’t even take much effort.
Let the losers enjoy the headlines in March. The Bills will happily wait until the games get underway.
Admittedly, it’s unusual for us to think this way, especially with the New England Patriots guaranteeing at least $162.5 million towards players this offseason. But we know one fact about teams that spend big in the free agent market: they seldom win. Only one Super Bowl victor over the last 10 years has exceeded $100 million in free agent spending.
The Bills are in much better shape than the Patriots, who are a desperate team. Robert Kraft recently admitted as much to NBC Sports' Peter King.
“In my 27 years as owner, I’ve never had to come up with so much capital before,” he said.
Coming off a 13-win season, the Bills had the luxury of picking their spots. After years of pursuance, general manager Brandon Beane inked wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders to a one-year deal last week.
“He’s a guy we’ve tracked for a couple of years. He’s been in winning locker rooms,” head coach Sean McDermott told reporters on Thursday. “He’s had some big-time impressive numbers. Listen, you never want to lose your fastball.”
Adding Sanders to the mix gives Buffalo one of the best receiving corps in football. He’s caught an average of 66 passes over the last three seasons for more than 800 yards — slotting nicely behind Stefon Diggs as the team’s second target. And the Bills only had to sign Sanders to a one-year.
That’s what happens when you’re coming off an AFC championship berth, and have one of the best quarterbacks in football: you can sign veterans on discounts.
Entering free agency, tight end was, arguably, the biggest weakness on Buffalo’s roster. The Bills reportedly flirted with Rob Gronkowski, but settled on Jacob Hollister, who’s a pass-catcher on the rise. In addition to playing with Josh Allen at Wyoming, he’s reeled in 66 passes for 558 yards and six touchdowns in 27 games over the last two years.
Hollister is ready to take off with his old quarterback.
The Bills also won financially with the Hollister signing — another mark of an elite operation. He signed for less money than Tyler Kroft, who caught just 18 passes in Buffalo over the last two seasons.
But the biggest steal of the week was quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.
The No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft signed a bargain basement deal with Buffalo, inking $2.5 million for one year. When Trubisky first entered the league, he received a $19.25 million signing bonus under a contract that paid out more than $29 million over four seasons. Despite leading the Bears to the postseason twice in three years, his value fell.
Perhaps Trubisky could’ve gotten more money elsewhere. But signing with the Bills, and working with offensive coordinator Brain Daboll, was apparently worth more than short-term monetary gain. Look at the improvement of Allen over the last three years: the Bills know what they’re doing at quarterback. Trubisky wants to join a winning operation.
It was difficult to find weak spots on Buffalo’s roster last season. One area was tight end, where Dawson Knox caught just 24 passes in 2020. Now he’s returning alongside Hollister. Suddenly, Allen has multiple pieces to target in the red zone.
For years, the Bills desperately tried to change their roster, while the Patriots just added pieces. Suddenly, the fortunes have reversed.
With Allen at just 24-years-old, the Bills are a team on the ascent, and most importantly, they’ve brought back their own pieces. Stalwarts such as Matt Milano, Daryl Williams, Jon Feliciano, Taiwan Jones, and Levi Wallace all re-signed. Despite limited cap space, they were able to bring back their core, and add to it.
There are still moves to be made as free agency enters its second stage, but the Bills are sitting in the best position possible. They have their championship nucleus, and everything else is just gravy.
It’s a nice situation, indeed.