Bills GM Brandon Beane ranks among league’s best in NFL executive rankings

Continuity at the general manager position was something the Buffalo Bills lacked for a long time before hiring Brandon Beane.

The role has long been a revolving door of retreads, false hopes, and Russ Brandon; Tom Donahoe was named the team’s general manager in 2001 after longtime executive John Butler left the organization, becoming the first of Buffalo’s five top executives in 15 years.

Donahoe was fired after the 2005 season and replaced by Marv Levy, the all-time winningest coach in Bills history who, in addition to being 80 years old at the time, had no coaching experience. direction. Levy resigned after two years and was replaced by an even less qualified candidate: director of non-football operations Russ Brandon, an upstate New York native who got his start in professional sports as a as a baseball frame. He was promoted to CEO after two years and replaced by Buddy Nix, who was also replaced after two years, this time by assistant Doug Whaley. He held the position for four seasons before being let go after the 2017 NFL draft; he was eventually replaced by Beane, who was then the assistant general manager of the Carolina Panthers.

Related: Underrated Bills LB poised to ‘become a celebrity’ in 2024 NFL season

Constant leadership turnover has prevented Buffalo from effectively putting its foot down; his roster was a constant mix of players targeted and acquired by different general managers, with the team never able to consistently field a cohesive roster built with a singular vision in mind. Knowing this, it’s no surprise that the team went 17 straight seasons without a playoff berth from 2000-2016.

Beane has had the necessary time to craft the roster to his liking and it has paid off so far; the team qualified for the playoffs in six of his seven seasons at the helm, with the executive responsible for acquiring quarterback Josh Allen, who could become one of, if not the best players and the most beloved in franchise history. .

Beane transformed Buffalo from a bottom-dweller in the NFL into a perennial contender and is therefore rightly considered one of the best general managers in the league. That sentiment was echoed by NBC Sports writer Patrick Daugherty, who recently ranked Beane eighth among his peers in an article ranking the NFL’s best general managers.

“By any reasonable measure, this is an extremely successful front office,” Daugherty wrote. “Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott had one losing season in seven years and were successfully traded for a franchise player. They have won at least one playoff game four seasons in a row. But you’re not judged by reasonable measures when Josh Allen is in his prime. This is the Super Bowls, and the Bills haven’t had a sniff of one since 2020. That’s despite building “all-in-one” teams that produced top-tier teams, an approach that ultimately had to be reduced with an off-season release-a-thon.

“. . . Although they are now a “post-hype” team, they remain a heavy favorite in the AFC East, likely to win another playoff game. It’s just a matter of how much time is enough time for Beane and McDermott as the clock ticks down on Allen’s wrecking years.

Related: Where do Josh Allen and Keon Coleman rank among the NFL’s new WR-QB duos?

It’s perhaps a little unfair to describe the Bills’ recent rosters as “heavy,” because a team led by objective superstars at multiple positions doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t have depth overall. the workforce. It could reasonably be argued that the depth of the roster has been one of its greatest strengths in recent years; the team remained competitive – and won four straight division titles – despite constant injuries throughout the roster (primarily in the secondary and at linebacker), a testament to its overall depth.

That said, the author is correct that Buffalo’s roster is not as strong today as it once was; Beane, on several occasions, has described his team as a team “in transition,” using the 2024 offseason to better position the Bills for the future instead of going all-in once again. How he builds on those foundations and completes the “next core” around Allen could ultimately define his legacy.

Brett Veach of the Kansas City Chiefs, John Lynch of the San Francisco 49ers, Howie Roseman of the Philadelphia Eagles, Les Snead of the Los Angeles Rams, Eric DeCosta of the Baltimore Ravens and Brad Holmes of the Detroit Lions are the only executives to have place yourself above Beane on the list. It’s hard to argue with any of these names; Beane will look to usurp a few as he further refines Buffalo’s roster in the years to come.