Bills general manager Brandon Beane has had enough of the criticism.
Less than 48 hours after the conclusion of the 2025 国产外流网Draft, Beane was already hearing negative responses to the class he and the Bills front office had just constructed. Even worse, he had to listen to it while waiting to be brought on for an appearance on a Buffalo radio show. And he didn't hide his displeasure.
"It sounds like 2018 all over with you guys," Beane said in the opening seconds of his appearance on The Jeremy and Joe Show, per .
"Well, you guys were b------- in 2018 about Josh Allen, you guys wanted Josh Rosen, and now you guys are b------- that we don't have a receiver," Beane elaborated. "I don't get it. ... We just scored 30 points in a row for eight straight games. A year ago, I get you guys asking why we didn't have receivers, but I don't understand it now.
"You just saw us lead the league in points, when you add all the postseason, no one scored more points than the Buffalo Bills, including the Super Bowl champions. So, you just saw us do it without Stefon Diggs, same group. How is this group not better than last year's group? Our job is to score points and win games. Where do we need to get better? Defense. We did that. So, I get it, you got to have a show, and you got to have something to b---- about, but b------- about wide receiver is one of the dumbest arguments I've heard."
At this time last year, Beane was rightfully placed under a microscope after trading away Stefon Diggs, replacing him with Florida State rookie Keon Coleman and filling out the rest of the corps with Curtis Samuel and Mack Hollins. As Beane noted, few expected Hollins to contribute as a key secondary pass catcher, but Hollins ended up filling in nicely, posting his second-highest receiving yardage total of his career and catching five touchdown passes before departing for the Patriots in March.
Most importantly, Beane feels as though 2024 proved it's less about the names and much more about the Bills' ability to extract production from those they choose to insert into their offensive system. He pointed to the results -- Buffalo finished with the second-highest points per game total in the regular season in 2024 -- in order to defend his stance.
"I get. I'm just like, let's be realistic," Beane said. "Our job is not to have -- it's not fantasy football, to trot out the best receivers. We've got Josh Allen. First thing you've got to do is protect him. You can't have everything. You can't have Pro Bowl wide receivers and have a Pro Bowl offensive line and an All-Pro quarterback and three great running backs. You've got to pick -- sure, I'd love to play fantasy football, but there's one football, Jeremy. There's one ball. You can't give it to so many people.
"Our job is to score points. ... If you score points at the level we scored, that is winning football."
Eventually, the conversation shifted toward market efficiency and the value of adding a receiver on a cheaper rookie contract, in which Beane pointed to the Bills achieving that goal defensively at both cornerback (by selecting Kentucky's Maxwell Hairston) and defensive tackle (Buffalo spent its second- and fourth-round picks on two players at the position). He also believes the addition of Josh Palmer is an upgrade to the corps, expects a healthier Samuel to make a difference and added the draft is about taking the best talent available, not zeroing in on a position and reaching on a pick just to make fans happy.
Ultimately, 2025 will determine who was right in this debate. Beane came into the interview hot because he likely feels as if no matter what he does, it will never be enough to please Buffalo's fanbase. And to his credit, Beane later confirmed on the Bills' in-house show that they were hosting free-agent receiver Elijah Moore on a visit Monday, demonstrating his continued efforts to improve the team's roster beyond the conclusion of the draft.
Such criticism is not entirely rooted in reality. The Bills have been consistently successful over Beane's tenure as GM, even as the salary cap and roster turnover continues to challenge even the best personnel chiefs.
This is the product of repeated playoff disappointment. Even after exceeding most expectations set for the Bills in 2024, the pressure mounts with each failure to reach the Super Bowl.
Beane is understandably feeling it -- and that scrutiny only increases with each season. But 国产外流网games aren't won by examining late-April depth charts. If Beane is right, the conversations will shift toward optimism toward the end of 2025, much like they did last season. And if all goes according to plan, the GM just might have a chance to remind all of Buffalo that he was right all along.
