Between their incomings and outgoings, the Buffalo Bills were busy during free agency. ESPN praised the work Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane put together.
The former world-wide leader produced a list of winners and losers during free agency. The Bills appeared on the positive side of the ledger.
Here’s the breakdown:
As usual, the Bills seem to have a coherent, thoughtful plan for the free-agent period. They’ve done a few reasonable deals to retain players, including center Mitch Morse (two years, $19.5 million), cornerback Siran Neal (three years, $9 million) and Isaiah McKenzie (two years, $4.4 million), who should step into the slot receiver role about to be vacated by Cole Beasley.
The Bills don’t have a ton of cap space, but I also like the moves they’ve made outside the organization. Bringing in Rodger Saffold III from the Titans gives Buffalo a solid starting guard and a replacement for Daryl Williams, who was cut one year into his three-year extension. DaQuan Jones’ two-year, $14 million deal nets Buffalo the third defensive tackle it needed after losing Harrison Phillips to the Vikings.
Brandon Beane & Co. have generally been content to shop in the middle class of free agency for the majority of the GM’s tenure. It has usually worked. Sean McDermott and his coaching staff deserve plenty of credit for getting more out of players in Buffalo than their former organizations, but the Bills continue to make the sort of reasonable moves they employed to climb to the top of the AFC East.
Along with the Bills, a few individual players and some other teams including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Cleveland Browns, were named winners.
Team wise, losers included the Jacksonville Jaguars, Dallas Cowboys, Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins.
Moving forward, Buffalo will look toward the 2022 NFL draft to further improve their roster. Aside from the cornerback position, the Bills will have another shot at taking the best player on the board when they pick, the exact plan Beane likes to have every April.
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