Bills GM Brandon Beane Meets With The Media At Training Camp! | Buffalo Bills

Bills GM Brandon Beane Meets With The Media At Training Camp! | Buffalo Bills

What’s up, John? How’s your golf game? Not good. Didn’t improve. Can you believe it? I have that effect on people. You want lessons? Let me know. We won the championship. Well, there’s a protest. I heard. Yeah, we’re looking into it. You guys had like seven guys on your team. What was your um what has been your communication up to this point with James and obviously we know now he’s here practicing. Can you kind of take us through the timeline of getting here? Yeah, I mean nothing’s really, you know, James and his his representatives and Kevin Mig myself, you know, speaking kind of for both of us because sometimes Kevin’s having the conversation with them, sometimes it’s it’s me, sometimes it’s a just an email, whatever it is. But, um, no, when when James came in for the mandatory camp, you know, we we spoke. We’ve always had a good a good relationship. And as I’ve said all along, I I love James Cook. Uh, I want nothing more. Uh, you know how I am. I want to draft, develop, resign our own. It is a business. We have to fit it in. Not only uh cash, but cap. and and sometimes it’s not you can look at it and say well you know you go to this website or whatever they could fit them in if they did this and this but we also have to look at 26 27 and beyond because you can walk yourself into one of those years where you’re like oh man there’s not a lot of guys we can take down in those years we would have to trade or cut someone that we wouldn’t want to lose. So it’s not only 2025 when we’re doing a deal with him or any other player. So, all those things have to make sense for us to fit it in. But, love James. Um, you know, he looks good. You can tell he’s been working. I thought he looked good in in June camp. And, um, I think everyone knows I’m going to have an open dialogue with with, you know, the players. That’s just who I am. And, and we’ll we’ll let the business take care of itself. What does it say to you that he’s here on the field doing every drill? I mean, there’s people out there, even last night, national reporters saying, “Well, he could hold in or something like that.” He’s here. He’s doing everything. What does it say to you? James is a is a competitive dude. He’s a stud. He’s a great teammate. Like he he wants to be here. He loves ball. So many of the things that we learned about James through the scouting process. And it’s been fun to watch him grow and mature um on and off the field. He’s just he’s got a calmness to them. Of course, who doesn’t want to get paid? And and that’s the hard part of this job is I do want to pay them all. I mean, I really do. especially the ones that you’re they’re working hard. They’re producing on the field. Their teammates love them. The fans love them. Like James fits Buffalo and but sometimes, you know, you can’t get on the same page or sometimes you’re trying to fit it in or, you know, there’s times guys have left here that we really wanted. We just couldn’t we couldn’t make it work. And but I I can tell you I’m hopeful when we’re sitting here at next year’s training camp that James Cook is out there practicing uh you know and still representing the red, white, and blue. You drafted a lot of guys on defense. This is like another step in the in the offse. A big step. What’s it like for you to watch him out there first day of camp? You know, a big group of guys you brought in. Yeah, I mean it’s it’s exciting. Um it’s different here. When I say here, not not in Rochester in 2025 because of the rules. I mean, I was literally talking with Ryan Nielson yesterday. We were talking about even how the conditioning test has changed where these guys come off vacation and they’re running like 16 to 20 gers and then the next morning, I mean, I remember with John Fox, like these guys would go down and John would have like a goal line period at some point the first day of practice. I mean, these guys were on a beach five days ago potentially and now they’re they’re clashing. So, it’s it’s for the better. You know, it’s kind of an extension of OTAA’s mandatory camp, but it’s good to have everybody. It’s a different purpose when you’re here. Guys know it’s, you know, I’m closing in on kind of the first big test, which is preseason game one. Um, even the the red and blue game that we do over there, we we we do some live stuff to simulate game type situations. How concerned are you with Dawson Knox and Spencer? Yeah, I mean, listen, uh, you’d love to have, we got 91. You’d love to have all 91 fresh, ready to go. Dawson was training the other day and tweaked it. He knows his body and so he’ll do everything. And he knows this offense. He knows this team. He and Josh have a, you know, you know, a great rapport together. So, you know, until he’s back out there, you always have some some concern. But I feel that the medical team and him have a good idea of what it’s going to take and hopefully get him back out there sooner rather than later. And Spencer the same, you know, um back flared up a little bit on him. We want to be cautious. You know, it’s it’s always different now versus in season. Now you’re going to try to be more cautious. You get in season, you’re like, “Hey, I think I can get them out. I think I can get out there. Maybe I I can only do a Friday practice and play in the game.” Uh, so I think we have to realize it’s July the whatever it is 23rd today. Let’s don’t rush something and constantly have a setback. So, uh, hopefully we’ll get him back out there soon. Josh said he was finding his language going Mike D. I know you’re Mike D. How do you deal how have you dealt with that? And how how do you think this this team deals with the additional scrutiny? The good thing, John, is I don’t have to worry about my language ever. You know that, right? Um, no, it’s, you know, we want to be, you know, with this thing, you know, there’s always, we’re always doing stuff miked up. It’s the way of the world. So, I think you’re kind of used to it in some ways. And I think, as you guys know, our team, the Buffalo Bills, we want to be authentic. We we’re not, we got nothing to hide. We’re, you know, we want to make this a very positive experience. And um will there be an intrusive thing here or there? Of course. But it’s all in the preseason and I don’t expect any issues or anything like that. And we’ll all we’ll all work together and and make sure it’s a good product for our fans. That’s what we want. It’s a it’s an inside look at our team, our staff, and how we how we do things and how we develop a team, how we pair down a roster to go play a 17 hopefully a 17 plus game season. get you better. I mean I mean it seems it could the worst case best case scenario is it’s not a distraction. Worst case it is a distraction. How does this get this team better? Well there’s always things John I mean I think um you know I think coming out here with fans is good because you’re competing people are cheering. I mean and guys I don’t care who it is. I don’t care if your parents are out there or your neighbors out there watching you play pickup basketball. You don’t want him to think you’re a loser or that you got beat on a rep. And so you’re gonna play your, you know what, off every day. And so sometimes, you know, when we had the the years we couldn’t come here due to co, those were long stretches from when we reported to camp till the first game. And so I think it’s good here that we have fans. It keeps it fresh. Guys are coming out there and and they don’t want to lose. And you see guys celebrating in the end zone like it’s like it’s a real game. whether the offense or defense made a play. What was it like navigating the negotiation with TJ Sanders given the holding pattern with second round picks and your reaction to getting that deal done in time for him to be on the field? Yeah, I mean it’s it’s very important. Um, you know, he’s technically the first hold out we’ve had since I’ve been here, even though it was just while we were working out. And um, no, I busted his agents chops. I said, “Of course you had to do this.” you know, I was trying to keep a clean record here, but um Drew Rosenhouse, we’ve had a long time relationship and it was tough. You know, I think the union was, you know, putting a lot of stipulations on the agents to meet a certain meet some certain markers uh with the fourth year guarantee and the percentages and where they wanted them to go and but you know, he and Kevin Migink did a great job and and got it done and and TJ was in Buffalo, which was great. Sometimes these guys are somewhere else. You got to get them on the plane. We got it done last Thursday night at, I don’t know, 9, 9:30 and TJ was, you know, text me at 7 a.m. I’m in the building. Tell me when you’re ready to come up and sign this thing and roll. So, I’m glad to have him and and uh he did a good job this summer of keeping himself ready to go and and ready for an NFL training camp. It’s been a couple years since we’ve seen a fully healthy Trey White at camp. You know, he wasn’t here last year, then before that. You know, rehab from injuries. Just what’s it like for you to see him out there fully healthy, you know, being himself? Yeah, I think I find myself as a fan today. Um Trey made a play. I think it was on Elijah Moore and knocked the ball down and he came back over there and was standing to me and I don’t ever cheer for either side. I’m just kind of watching it. But I was like, I see a 27. And he was like, man, it’s good to be home. I’m around family. And it just it resonates with you. like we’re all more comfortable when we’re around people you know we trust and we enjoy being around and I think Trey um you know embodies that and you know the business part we were talking about it with James the business part stinks sometimes it really does we did not want to part ways with Trey White for any reason last year but the business got in the way we had to get our cap in order and make a lot of tough moves including including J uh Trey but um it’s fun to see him I see him confident I bet you He’s going to, you know, I’m never going to bet against Trey White. I bet you we’re going to consistently see him continue to do that. And he knows there’s good competition, too, that, you know, that brings out the best in all of us. So, it’s going to be fun to watch, you know, the DBs. Obviously, Christian has solid solidified himself over there. Um, but it’s going to be fun. And if something happens to one of them, I feel we’ve got a good group. whoever it is that’s that doesn’t win that starting job opposite him will be ready when their numbers call. Where do you stand if punter made a move yesterday and have one right now but you can stick with one or where do you think things stand there? Yeah, we hated to make the move. I wanted to continue that with uh with Jake, you know, and unfortunately due to some of the injuries uh that Josh asked me about a while ago, you know, your hand kind of gets forced. you’re trying to prevent a domino effect of getting thin and in that case we signed a tight end and and so you know you’re you’re looking where do you get a spot and you don’t get a freebie so that’s where we had to go. Doesn’t mean we wouldn’t bring him back at some point. Um and I think Brad knows that like Brad knows he’s he’s still got to compete and show his his best and and earn that spot here. Hey Brandon, last year you set a franchise record for points, no sacks, no But what can the offense do to be better? What do you think has to happen to make it better? That’s a great question. Um, you know, I don’t I don’t know what’s maybe we didn’t hit connect on as many deep balls. You know, we took some shots, but that may be an area. But I I mean if you can it’s hard to replicate the the those few turnovers and all the and to score that many points usually when you’re scoring points you’re you’re you’re ripping the ball around and there’s going to be some tip balls some you know a sack fumble here or there and you know what Joe Brady and Josh and and and all of our offensive offense did with the ball was remarkable. you know, that’s we can’t expect that. You know, we hope it’s there from a turn, you know, lack of turnovers this year, but you know, sometimes the ball bounces your way too and I think, you know, it did for the most part, but I think just continue to hone in on the skill on the fine-tuned details. Um, be as balanced as we can. You know, I thought we were pretty balanced last year, but be as balanced. We got some new pieces that we’ve added and a Josh Palmer, Elijah Moore. Um, same running backs, you know, the tight ends. We added a Jackson Halls to the group, but there there’s a lot of stability, but there’s still a few new pieces. And, you know, hopefully Keon uh will take off in year two. Curtis Samuel was a little dinged up a little bit. Thought he had a good spring. Hopefully all that, if we can get continuity there, you know, we can come out of the gates fast. What’s something you’ve noticed about the maturity that Josh Allen is bringing into his eighth season? Yeah, I mean he’s um I was literally talking to Ronald Curry a while ago. One of you know Josh as we know is super competitive and you know there’s always we don’t have officials out here. We do a little bit, but there’s not a lot of flags and and there’s probably some tugs on some plays that are incomplete that, you know, as a quarterback, he wants to complete those. And, you know, you see him giving a little sign, but he’s not like mouth them back. You know, he’s he’s kind of like, I know I would have got that in there. The rest would have called that if if he did that. I just you see a calm, confident dude. He knows what he has to do in the off season. He’s always prepared when he shows up. He’s not he’s not coming here unprepared. and and I think his teammates when he’s in the huddle, you know, they’re as calm as ever just having Josh Allen in there. Has anything changed from the team perspective on Maxwell Harrison with the civil suit from earlier this month? No. No. You know, uh, Katherine, that’s it’s frustrating. I think I reiterated that after the draft. It’s frustrating because, you know, in the legal world, you can’t sit there and say things back and forth. You got to let it go. But this happened to this young man, you know, over four years ago. He gave up his phone like to prove some of his he took polygraph test. Like this kid didn’t run from anything. He answered every single thing. We did that. We have to remember in society that people can make accusations and do things and and I have no idea what what the agenda is there. But I can tell you uh every stone we we turned over, every door we look behind. This is a very good young man. A young man you would let in your house you would let watch your kids hang out with whoever. Like he is genuinely a good person. He’s got sisters. Uh he’s got a mother. He’s got a great family. Raised the right way. I’ve met I’ve met his parents. I’ve met his his his close family. You know, I would feel terrible if that someone said that about one of my sons. And I think we need to remember in the world like sometimes these guys I’m not going to get into it, but we see these accusations. Sometimes these guys can be victims too. They make a lot of money. And I just want to make sure nobody rarely do people defend them. And that’s hard for me in this seat sometimes because I’ve seen it. We’ve had it here with a player here a few years ago that’s no longer here that was wrongly accused and it’s frustrating and everyone should anyone that’s met Maxwell Harrison genuinely knows what a great young man he is. Um, I know it’s only day one of training camp. The season hasn’t started yet, but is this franchise? As much success as you’ve had, the one thing that’s been hanging over the franchise is you can’t get to that ultimate game. I know it’s day one, but I mean, how how better suited is this team, do you think, um, to overcome that hump and and and get through? Yeah, I mean, I think we’ve said it before, John. Um, ultimately you got to go out and do it. You do, but every time you get knocked down, like we have a group of competitive dudes, and I’m talking about Shawn McDermott, Joe Brady, Bobby Babich, Josh Allen, Terrell Bernard, like Ed Ol. You go down the list of of the players that have been here through through the some of these painful moments. And you know, I’m just I’m a firm believer that you keep swinging the sword, you keep fighting, you do not give in, you work harder, like you use that frustration. And I can tell you, of course, Josh Allen was happy to win the MVP. Who who wouldn’t be? But he would trade that all day, every day to hoist that that Lombardi. And you know, he’s he’s the tip of the spear for us. And and we believe in that. His teammates believe in that. and we believe in this coaching staff and and we believe in our organization and the plan and um I sat in you know some of the initial meetings yesterday with Shawn and I thought you know his message Terry Pagula had a great message Sean had a great message and you know now it’s just a matter of this is a new team we got to form that bond that’s why we love coming up here get away eliminate distractions here for two and a half weeks and then take it home finish the preseason out pair it down to 53 and and and kind of start that journey. What did it do for Delton to spend much of his off season in Orchard Park working? Yeah, I mean um he exactly exemplifies what I was just talking about about our team like Dalton had a really, you know, really strong finish to his rookie year and then last year was was sailing along, has the injury, plays through it, doesn’t want to complain about it. you know, maybe people question, you know, what’s his talent level or things like that and they don’t understand the toughness that he fought through and um you know, the the ball that that landed on the turf in Kansas City like I mean that that eats it. He’s a competitor and he doesn’t he wants the thing about Dalton is he wants that opportunity again and and no one in this building doubts uh no one’s going to not try and give him that opportunity again. starting with Joe Brady, starting with Josh Allen, like he’s going to get his opportunities. We need Dalton Concaid to go where we where we’re trying to go and and exciting. It was exciting to see his work ethic this off season and what he did even even when we broke for the summer like he for the most part still hung around and um no, I’m I’m excited for him. He’s getting he’s getting better and better and and I think he’ll he’ll be ready to roll once it’s time to get going. Brandon, I asked Josh about having all 10 offensive linemen back from last year, main guys, which is pretty rare, but you extrapolate that out. The offense pretty rare having very few guys gone. I think Amari and M really the only ones who left the roster. How does that happen from your seat? Because it’s got to be pretty rare that you’ve seen as well to have that many guys that few change over on that side of the Yeah, I mean, you want continuity the best you can. It’s hard in this business. Um, I don’t know if we’ve had in my this is my 28th season in the league starting. I don’t know that we’ve had I’ve been on a team that’s had that many returning O line. Let’s just start there. I don’t even know how many times we had all the same backs back, you know. I mean, all the way down to Darren Evans and Frank Gore. Like, literally um all of them. You’re right. It’s you know, we lost Quinton Morris and um you know, we drafted Jackson Halls and and signed Lu. But yeah, you love continuity. It helps you get on the same, you know, the same page of music quicker. And I think that that can help us, but it we can’t rest on our laurels. Like, we still have to find ways to get better. People are going to study us, watch what we do. And so, that’s the task of of Joe Brady and his staff is to come up with new wrinkles, new looks, new ways to attack the different teams that we’re going to face. How have you seen? How do you feel is like maybe some competition for that back? Yeah, I mean we we got a lot of confidence in Mitch. We really do. Um I know you know that people were maybe mentioning well you know certain days Mike went with it. Like we’re we’re trying to ultimately we want as much competition as we can. We want to give as many people as many opportunities as we can. Um but at the same time Mitch has been here two full seasons with us. you go back to 2021 and uh if Josh went down in a game, we’re very confident in him last year. If he went down now, we’d be very confident in Mitch. At the same time, we want to give, you know, Mike and and Shane opportunities to show what they can do. And, you know, ultimately, like at every position, um, you know, the best man will will hold that job. But we have a lot of confidence in Mitch. Where do you stand right now on potential conversations with extension. Yeah, I mean like anything we we got multiple guys. We talked about about James and and love Connor. Um similar comment to to James. I would love for, you know, next year at this time, you know, for Conor McGovern to still be, you know, wearing the Bills uniform. And um he did a great job year one and his transition to center for us. Obviously played guard before that. Um Josh has got a lot of confidence. Aaron Cromemer and Joe. Um, you know, I’ll keep the business part, you know, in house, but love Connor. Glad he’s back for another year and and we’ll see where that goes. How have you seen Joe Brady evolve? Um, Joe is uh, you know, Joe is just uh, I I don’t know about Evolve, but you just feel his confidence and his energy even more. I mean, Joe went through a tough deal in Carolina. You know, Joe was the was the hot name coming out of LSU. Carolina hires him and things didn’t work out there well and I’m sure he would take ownership in in his role in that. I don’t think it was all on Joe by any means. Um but it it was fun to get Joe in here and and I’d heard good things about him from the people I knew in Carolina when we you know brought him here to be our QB coach. And um I just think he you know it’s another year. It’s you know the more years you go through these things you develop battle scars and you learn. And I would like to think you guys may disagree but I would like to think you know I know more now than I knew in 2017 2018. You just learn from some of your I call it laps around the track and you can’t expedite it. And so I um I see a confident yet hungry guy like you know Joe wants to win that title too. And you know the thing about Joe that is very hard is when you make the playoffs you know he had people calling his name and that can be a distraction. And Joe was I mean if you’re a fan here you would love Joe Brady how he handles it. Like he is not like putting things off. He’s not holding up a staff meeting. He’s not waiting to draw up plays for, you know, that that Ravens playoff game or or the Chiefs. Like, he is all in on the Buffalo Bills. Um to the point when he was the quarterback coach, like he turned down interviews for an OC because we were still playing. He he is dialed in for the Buffalo Bills. And um I’ve seen people not handle it as as well in my time. And and it’s hard. It’s I don’t blame him, but I think he’s got a unique approach with the guys. He kind of walks around and, you know, he’s got this swagger to him. He’ll have his headphones on sometimes, but he also knows when to get firm. And I think that’s some of what makes good coaches is guys who um know when to kid and, you know, he’s he’s still doing what Matt Collins did walking around here barefooted and and you know, players love that like he’s he’s a part of him, but he also knows when to put his thumb down and say, “Hey, that wasn’t good enough.” And and so it’s it’s been fun to watch his maturation. Brandon, the continuity that was mentioned on the offensive side of the ball, obviously defensively is much different. Uh, when you’re integrating, you know, so many players from your draft class and free agents onto that side of the ball. What are the keys in seeing that come together in time for the first month of the season? Yeah, I mean, it’s time on task. Uh, you hope that, you know, you can stay healthy, you know, guys that, you know, missing reps together. It’s not just their reps, it’s their reps. This is a true team game. 11 on 111. It’s not tennis, golf. So, not only are they missing their reps, they’re missing their rep reps next to their teammate. And it can be sometimes it can be just those simple nuances. You don’t even have to say anything. You can just give your teammate the look or whatever signal it is. So, um it’s really just time on task going through some things. There’s going to be some ups and downs. Um but hopefully we work through those here through the preeason. And you know, it’s on us to pick the right group to make this roster. I think there’s going to be a lot of competition at some of those spots. Uh, which is fun. It’s it’s fun and um but it it just takes time. Thank you guys.

Buffalo Bills General Manager Brandon Beane meets with the media on the first day of Training Camp. Topics Include: James Cook being present at camp, being featured on HBO’s Hard Knocks, and competition at training camp.

Subscribe to the Buffalo Bills YT Channel: https://bufbills.co/2Yhjq9j
For More Bills NFL Action: https://bufbills.co/3sWlvc3

#BuffaloBills #Bills #NFL

For more Bills action: https://www.buffalobills.com/
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BuffaloBills/
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buffalobills/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/buffalobills
Follow us on TikTok: https://bufbills.co/TikTok