8 takeaways from Brandon Beane’s year-end press conference

Here are eight takeaways from Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane’s year-end press conference.

Feels Buffalo is now an ‘attractive’ free-agent destination

The third-year general manager chuckled when asked about Buffalo’s attractiveness as a free agent destination.

“It’s funny,” he said. “Last time I had to defend Buffalo up here, didn’t I?

Defend Buffalo, he did. After All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Brown reportedly balked at the idea of a trade that would see him land at One Bills Drive in the spring of 2019, long-dated jokes about western New York again circled around social media.

“That pissed me off,” Beane said of Buffalo’s inaccurate national perception in March 2019. “Don’t speak about Buffalo if you don’t know what this city and what this fan base is like.”

Less than one year later, Beane feels as though there’s been a shift in the perception surrounding the team. With a young, developing quarterback, a burgeoning core, and a rock-solid culture, Beane thinks that Buffalo would be an attractive destination to any player looking for a new home this offseason.

“I think that people understand and see what we’re building here,” Beane said. “I think people across the league see that we have a young quarterback that’s developing and growing, I think that those can be attractive pieces.

“I think people see that we play selfless football, and we have guys that are going to fight. Not everything was pretty [in the playoffs], but I thought it was a good show that this team is going to fight 60-plus minutes on Saturday. We’re hopefully considered a young team on the rise and an attractive place. It’s not for me to determine, but that would be the part that I would sell for anyone that was looking at Buffalo.”

[lawrence-related id=52934]