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There’s a fine line between sticktoitiveness and stubbornness, and the next few years will define which adjective will best describe what Buffalo Bills fans remember Brandon Beane for.
Over the past two weeks, the Bills and their general manager have gone on an extension spending spree. It started during the NFL Scouting Combine when they signed slot receiver Khalil Shakir to a four-year, $60 million pact. Days later, linebacker Terrel Bernard got $50 million over four years. The next morning, defensive end Greg Rousseau re-upped for $80 million across the same term.
All three were set to be unrestricted free agents after 2025. All three are locked up through the ’29 season, with their extensions combined to cost $101.2 million in guaranteed money.
But all that was a warm-up act for Sunday night’s news, when Beane ripped up MVP quarterback Josh Allen’s contract with four years remaining and replaced it with a six-year, $330 million deal worth a record-setting $250 million guaranteed.
The quartet of moves says one plain fact: The Bills can win it all despite recent and repeated postseason failures.
Yes, there’s still work to be done. Buffalo could continue the trend by giving out extensions to star corner Christian Benford and running back James Cook. The Bills also have roughly $20 million in cap space and could make a few meaningful signings in free agency, albeit with a weak crop staring them in the face.
Then there’s the draft in which Buffalo has 10 selections, including two in the second round and three in the sixth.
But Beane has made his statement. On Jan. 26, Buffalo walked off the cold turf at Arrowhead Stadium, a 32–29 loser in the AFC championship game. It was the fourth time in five years the Bills lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the postseason, all of which were heartbreakers at the end sans the first clash in 2020.
Yet, there was reason to believe Buffalo should have made bold moves. After all, running it back with the same cast is somewhat the definition of insanity. Buffalo has had almost annual runs at Kansas City, and each time has come up short. Home and away. Underdogs and favorites. Leading late. Needing a score.
For Bills fans, those games have become a Goosebumps choose your own adventure, and all of them end terribly.
Yet, instead of waiting for another year’s worth of evidence or becoming desperate and making a trade for a big name who would cost picks and a monstrous extension, Beane stayed the course. He signed his own draft choices to logical contracts, believing the core was already in place, buttressed by a few more additions, whether through the draft or free agency, could bring the Bills something they’ve long yearned for but never won: the Super Bowl.
Elsewhere in the AFC, teams have been chasing the Chiefs and failing to catch them.
The Miami Dolphins built themselves on speed and big contracts, hoping a few household names such as Tyreek Hill, Jalen Ramsey and Bradley Chubb could make the difference. The Cincinnati Bengals built a phenomenal offense but, to this point, have failed to replenish their roster with quality drafts while allowing top-tier players to leave. The entire AFC West went for splash moves in 2022, only to fail miserably. The Cleveland Browns went all in on Deshaun Watson. And so it goes.
Only the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo have shown patience, and those are the two teams who have been the biggest, most consistent threats to dethroning Kansas City in the AFC.
Now Beane has doubled, tripled and quadrupled down. He’s betting big on his existing talent. He’s betting on a group that has won five consecutive AFC East titles. He’s betting that Allen essentially has enough support around him, and doesn’t need the roster reshuffled as it was after the 2023 season, when Beane jettisoned a litany of players whose names outranked their present impact.
In short, Beane believes that while the ultimate result hasn’t materialized yet, it eventually will with the players who have been pounding on that championship door only to be cruelly turned away time and again.
Oddly, Beane is almost doing the more difficult thing in an age where most team executives are short on patience and long on pipe dreams. He’s showing a commitment to the players who have gotten so close, not those who could conceivably cross the final river.
Over the next few years, the games will be played, and the contracts will run. The Bills will have their generational talent at quarterback trying to win a ring on a new, well-deserved deal. Teammates will surround him he knows so well.
And if the Bills finally win it all, if they’re celebrating in the confetti one February night, Beane will be hailed for his sticktoitiveness.
But should Buffalo annually fall short with the same names on the backs of the same jerseys, stubbornness will be the label that will define Beane for a generation of fans.
Which adjective sticks will largely be determined by those in whom Beane has shown so much faith over the past weeks.
And rightfully so.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Brandon Beane Betting Big on Bills’ Existing Talent.