For weeks speculation insisted that linebacker Matt Milano would be leaving Buffalo this offseason.
Comments made by Brandon Beane didn’t help feelings, either. The GM said at the end of the season that Milano “deserves” to test free agency and in the past when Beane has said that, players left.
But then a four-year extension he signed with the Bills on Thursday said otherwise.
It just goes to show that sometimes we never really know what’s going on in the mind of person, even if reports tell us another thing. After signing on the dotted line, the 26-year-old reaffirmed his actions.
Speaking via video conference, Milano said he never really felt a need to leave Orchard Park.
“I told my agent. I love Buffalo. I love what they got going on there. Let’s make something happen. It’s something I want to be a part of,” Milano said.
Since joining the Bills in 2017 via a fifth-round draft pick, Milano has watched Buffalo’s front office build a winning team from the ground up. Along the way he built relationships with his folks in the building as well.
According to Milano, it was a bit of a combination that convinced him he didn’t want to leave.
Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott inherited a team that hadn’t made the postseason in two decades, the Bills cracked that curse… and then some. Just last season Buffalo finished one game short of the Super Bowl.
Because the Bills were so close, Milano said he knew he couldn’t stomach watching the team that drafted him potentially do so in the future without being there for the ride.
“I just want to see it through the finish line. I’m not guaranteeing anything, but to see where we were last year and how close we came and to be on the other side of that somewhere else and to see that happen again… I don’t want that to happen so I’m glad I have that chance again for the next four years,” Milano said.
Milano is the latest of the team’s first draft class under McDermott to sign a long-term extension. Cornerback Tre’Davious White and offensive lineman Dion Dawkins did as well.
But even veterans who joined the team in 2017, such as safeties Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer, also followed suit and the Bills’ core group of players are here to stay.
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