The start of the new National Football League year is less than two weeks away, which means that free agency, one of the busiest times of the year for NFL general managers, is right around the corner.
With responsibilities such as assessing the current roster and determining the holes that need to be filled, evaluating and negotiating with players who are due for new contracts, searching the upcoming free agent pool for possible signings to make, scouting college prospects for the upcoming draft, and in this year's case, there being a lot of uncertainty about the future of the league due to the ongoing negotiations between the NFL Players Association and the owners for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane joined Howard Simon and Sal Capaccio on Wednesday morning to discuss a number of key issues in regards to the Bills offseason.
Here is some of what he had to say:
Beane on building a team through the draft versus in free agency, and the challenges that come with managing salary cap space and extending those homegrown players when the time comes:
"[Drafting and developing players] is the ideal way. When it's time to re-sign a guy that you have on your roster, it takes two. The best deals are win-win, a win for the player and a win for the Bills. Sometimes we want to sign or re-sign a guy here, and the agent just feels that the market is higher than where we see it, and so those deals don't get done. Or, vice versa, [the player] feels this isn't necessarily the right spot for them, or they want to wait. Sometimes guys just want to wait and see what free agency holds this year or how the market shapes out, and just get a little bit more clarity on it. And I think one of the things going on right now is the CBA, there hasn't been a lot of deals and I think a lot of people are waiting to see if a new CBA is ratified, and what that would do to the cap this year, and also what it would start looking like in 2021 and beyond."
Beane on negotiating contracts and getting extensions done early:
"We like to get guys done or re-done early if we can. There are other guys that have had a year left on their deals that we've talked to and looked at trying to do a deal, but we just couldn't come up with what we thought was a fair number. Both sides couldn't agree on what the market value was, so at that point it's time to play it out. That's one of those things that doesn't make it out in the media, 'why didn't the Bills try and get this guy? and it happens with other teams too, but maybe both sides tried and just couldn't come up with a fair market value. So, they play it out. Sometimes you get [players] right before they go to free agency, and other times they leave. Again, we definitely evaluate all of our upcoming guys that will have a year left (on their contract) and decide if we can take a shot at them. We'll definitely look to re-sign some of those guys and see if we can figure out their value. But, again, it takes two to get a deal done."
Beane on the process of working out Tre'Davious White's upcoming contract extension and the challenges that come with it:
"Any guy that's in Tre's situation that we want back, and obviously, Tre's a guy we love and want back, you do look and try and find what the value is, and it's hard. It can sometimes be hard for agents too, because they're trying to look at what the market is today versus what it's going to be in two years, does [the player] want to play [the final year of their contract] out, do they want security now. Some guys are truly fine with playing [the final year] out and seeing where it goes in two years. Some guys want the security. It's up to us to figure out where we see [White's] market value. Is he the number one cornerback in the league? Is he the number two corner in the league? That goes with whatever position you're talking about. You have to take each player individually, case-by-case, and obviously, next year Josh [Allen] and Tremaine [Edmunds] would fall into that bucket as well, and well have that decision at that point on those two guys. Tre is a guy we love. We want him to be here in Buffalo a long time. At the right time, the deal will happen. Deals get done when they're supposed to get done, and that's kind of always been my stance."
Beane on where the Bills currently stand in regards to new contracts for Shaq Lawson and Jordan Phillips, and what the market may yield for them in free agency:
"I think I have an idea on them. But, free agency can be really tricky, especially for guys like Jordan [Phillips]. Let's take his stance, where Jordan had a career year this year, and do people view that as, 'that's what you're going to get in the following years,' or as a 'one-year wonder.' That's for each team to interpret. You might ask ten teams and get five answers for one and five for the other, it's how you view the player. Those are all things that go in for any of these guys. Shaq [Lawson]'s still an up-and-coming player, hasn't had a breakout sack season, but has been very solid and a steady-improving player. Those markets, each [player] is 25 years old, that's a guy you would like to say is hitting his prime and things like that. Again, teams have different values, and there are a lot of things floated around at the combine that I would say more is myth than reality. But, to the point of whether [Lawson and Phillips] will both hit the market, I don't know that, we're still a couple of weeks out with all of our guys, including those two. We're still having conversations with their reps., but other than that we'll just have to wait and see what happens in the next two weeks."
Beane on possibly adding a new pass rusher:
"That's where the money is, honestly. Other than quarterback, maybe left tackle, that's a premium position. So, those guys get paid pretty big money, and usually second to quarterbacks. When you look across the landscape of the top players in the league, other than quarterbacks, it is pass rushers [who're getting big deals]. That is an area we could look at. Obviously, there are a couple of guys on our own team, Shaq [Lawson] and Jordan Phillips, that will get paid, whether we're able to work a deal out with them or they go somewhere else. If we don't re-sign those two, obviously we'll have to look elsewhere to fill those holes. I know that everybody keeps talking about receivers, but that's definitely an area where we're looking to make sure we're prepared for next season."
You can listen to the full interview with Beane below:
