Example A:

At the draft, the Bills selected a threat to starting quarterback Josh Allen in Jake Fromm.

Example B:

Matt Barkley better be on his toes, the Bills now have Jake Fromm.

It’s easy to see that one of these comes from a national perspective while the other is from a more localized one.

While discussing his reasoning for why he decided to select Fromm with Buffalo’s fifth-round pick at the 2020 NFL Draft with ESPN, Beane set the record straight.

The GM was asked about the “message” he’s sending to Allen via picking Fromm.

“No, there’s no message at all,” Beane said. “We believe in Josh.

“That’s been the whole goal, to add weapons. We didn’t score enough points last year and that starts with me. Giving him and [offensive coordinator] Brian Daboll as much, as many weapons as we can. Adding Fromm was just… a guy that we had on our board that we really thought had a great college career and he’s very smart. He’ll add to the competition to backup Josh, but Josh is our entrenched starter.”

Locally there was no thought of Allen being dethroned by Fromm in the short term. Beane sent a message to the rest of the NFL that the Bills do trust Allen, making sure both narratives reflect one another. But Beane can’t be totally shy to the thought of Fromm.

If Allen struggles, even if Fromm is a fifth-round pick, eventually there will be clamor for him to start. It might not be in 2020, but there’s a chance that Fromm and Allen are connected for at least another year or two beyond next season.

With the additions the Bills made this offseason, such as Stefon Diggs and Zack Moss, there’s plenty of talent around Allen now. No reason for him to take any sort of step back in Year 3. So the foundation is set for Allen to improve… but now there’s also one for Fromm.

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