Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishThe 2025 NFL Draft wasn’t even over for 48 hours for the Bills to jump back into the spotlight. But this time, it was over some fiery comments made by general manager Brandon Beane during a scheduled post-draft interview on WGR Sports Radio 550 in Buffalo on Monday morning.In the segment ahead of Beane’s appearance, ‘The Jeremy & Joe Show’ hosted by Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase had been discussing the notion of drafting a receiver and the Bills declining to do so in 2025 relative to how their peers throughout the NFL address the position. Beane, who heard the end of the segment while on hold for his spot, took exception and jumped right into it after the initial greeting once on the air.“I was just listening to the last few minutes of your show before I came on, waiting on here. Sounds like 2018 all over with you guys,” Beane started. “Well, you guys were b—-ing in 2018 about Josh Allen. You guys wanted Josh Rosen, and now you guys are b—-ing that we don’t have a receiver. I don’t get it.”“We just scored 30 points in a row for eight straight games. A year ago? I get you guys asking why we didn’t have receivers. But I don’t understand it now. You just saw us lead the league in points when you add all the postseason. No one scored more points than the Buffalo Bills, including the Super Bowl champions. You just saw us do it without Stefon Diggs. How is this group not better than last year’s group? I don’t… our job is to score points and win games. Where do we need to get better? Defense, we did that. So I get it, you’ve got to have a show, and you’ve got to have something to bitch about, but b—-ing about wide receiver is one of the dumbest arguments I’ve heard.”White, who has been a morning show host at WGR for over two decades, maintained that they did give the Bills credit throughout the program about their results from the weekend.“Okay, I mean, I wish you had listened to the two hours and 25 minutes before that because there’s plenty of things we do like about your draft,” White said.Beane continued, defending their offensive prowess in 2024.“Let’s be realistic. Our job is not fantasy football to trot out the best receivers. We’ve got Josh Allen. The first thing you’ve got to do is protect him. You can’t have everything. You can’t have Pro Bowl wide receivers and have a Pro Bowl offensive line and an All-Pro quarterback and three great running backs,” Beane said. “Like, sure, I’d love to play fantasy football, but there’s one football, Jeremy. There’s one ball. You can’t give it to so many people. That’s where I’m like, I don’t understand this narrative. I felt it from a couple of reporters in the [news conference] like, our job is to score points. It doesn’t matter what receivers, what quarterback… if you score points at the level that we scored, that is winning football.”White agreed with Beane’s notion that scoring points equates to winning football, and responded to the rest by discussing it in a matter of market efficiency, saying that with the ever-growing costs at wide receiver in free agency, continuing to supplement the position with cost-controlled rookie deals to keep the offense among one of the league’s elite was the root of the discussion before Beane was on the air.“Well it could be, for sure. You want to do that anywhere. Just like corner is as well, which we did that. Or defensive line, defensive tackle in particular,” Beane said.“Listen, if there was a guy when we picked at the first round, that we’re like ‘Yes, this guy is dynamic, he’s gonna fit here, here,’ we would have turned it in. In the second round, we would have done it; we went up and got T.J. [Sanders]. We weren’t dodging receiver. We were going in, ‘Hey we had the guys stacked where it was.’ I didn’t think it was the deepest class, I’ll say that. But yeah, if it would have worked out, I would have gladly done it. But I’m trying to make sure we’ve got the best team, not the best receiving corps.”“If that’s the case, it seems a little odd to be upset at people that think adding receiver made sense,” White responded. “You just kind of made the point there, that if it had lined up on the board, you would have done it.”“Yeah, best players,” the GM said.Beane’s final point before the conversation moved on was that you can’t go into a draft zoomed in at only one position “unless you’ve got a major hole there,” and then backed up their belief in the group of Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, Joshua Palmer and Curtis Samuel, saying they believe the Palmer signing helped them upgrade their receiver group, and also pointing out that tight end Dalton Kincaid should be factored into the equation.White replied that they often talk about Kincaid in relation to the entire offensive picture.As the conversation had de-escalated, Beane got to the core of his frustration.“I got the questions last year. ‘Hey, you moved on from Stefon Diggs, what are you doing?’ I totally understood that. And I just said, ‘We’ll have to see, we’re going to have to show it.’ I guess where I don’t understand is we just showed it [in 2024] with the way we want to run our offense, and the way we want to do things, that that formula can work as well.”Thoughts on Beane’s commentsAlthough the comments were attention-grabbing and Beane was certainly more fired up than he usually is in an interview setting, above all else, this may have been a simple case of miscommunication due to Beane hearing the end of a previous segment while on hold waiting for his interview to begin. When you listen to the entire interaction, I didn’t hear a lot of areas where the two sides were coming from totally different viewpoints.Throughout the offseason, Beane has consistently pointed out their 2024 offensive success, and this may have just been his thought to defend his players rather than let a talking point spin out of control in the quiet months before training camp in July. But both sides acknowledged the point of market efficiency in building the receiver room, and other positions, through the draft due to the rising costs for extensions and in free agency.I think the key moment was when Beane insinuated they were open to taking a receiver early, potentially with players that could have given them what they were looking for. However, it’s fair to say the value and type of receiver they potentially would have liked didn’t line up this year.At that point in the conversation, it was very clear that the two sides were mostly on the same page. If the right receiver was there, and atop their board, there was a chance they’d be on the team over a defensive player. It wasn’t the receiver or bust notion that perhaps Beane assumed that the hosts meant, which could have been what led to a spicy start to the conversation.Looking at the draft class can provide needed context, too. While there were receivers available this year that would have warranted one of their top three picks, it wasn’t a great year to match what the Bills needed for their receiver room early in the draft.Tetairoa McMillan was a classic X-receiver, and they already have that in Keon Coleman. Emeka Egbuka is a pretty close match, skill and role-wise, to Khalil Shakir. Jayden Higgins was another X-receiver type. Luther Burden III is a slot receiver, which again, matches Shakir, who they have signed through 2029. Tre Harris and Jack Bech also didn’t offer them a different skill set than what they already have on the roster. Jaylin Noel, another slot receiver.In the first three rounds, there were only two clear matches of skill set to what they could have used this year that didn’t duplicate a previous investment. Speed, separation and the ability to win vertically with a home base at Z receiver was the likely lean. The first match was Texas wide receiver Matthew Golden, who went No. 23 to Green Bay and was off the board well ahead of the Bills’ top pick at No. 30. The other was Kyle Williams of Washington State, who went to the Patriots at pick No. 69, and following the Bills trade up to select T.J. Sanders at No. 41, it dropped their next best selection from No. 62 to 72. Had they not made that deal, it’s conceivable that Williams would be a Bills player right now.Beane’s assertion that it wasn’t a particularly deep draft at receiver is a good indication of why they didn’t address it until the seventh round, too. Regardless, Beane’s comments did solidify that they were open to drafting a potential fifth receiver to join their group in 2025; it just didn’t work out, which is sometimes the case when 31 other teams are drafting players to improve their rosters.So, in all, it was mostly two people who were saying the same things and acknowledging the same things that went right for the team in 2024, despite the way the conversation began with a few crossed wires.But it brings us to the receiver room, a place they can still look to add before training camp begins in July.Who’s left that they could sign?Elijah Moore — Moore somehow just turned 25 in March and has a strong bank of NFL experience despite his age. He would best fit as a slot receiver but has shown he can also play on the outside. On the downside, Moore, according to Pro Football Focus, has only 18 career special teams snaps in four years. Under Beane, the Bills have shown a real preference for signing players in their mid-20s to one-year prove-it deals who the team had a strong draft grade coming out of college. Look no further than the team signing wide receiver Laviska Shenault earlier this offseason. Plus, Moore reportedly visited the Bills on Monday, according to FOXSports.Diontae Johnson — Johnson will turn 29 in July and would have a perfect offensive skill set for what the Bills would likely want. He even has some special teams experience, returning punts early in his career — a role the Bills could desire him to do. However, Johnson went from the Steelers, to the Panthers, to the Ravens, to the Texans and back to the Ravens all in a span of one season last year. There could be some obvious concerns about his fit within the locker room that could get the Bills to avoid it altogether.Amari Cooper — The Bills left the door open on a potential return for Cooper, who turns 31 in June, though I’m not sure there’s a great path to playing time should he come back as the potential WR5. They signed Palmer to take over the role that Cooper just vacated, and Cooper doesn’t have the versatility to be a slot receiver in the scheme. He also does not play any special teams.Keenan Allen — At this point, the 33-year-old Allen is primarily a slot receiver who could help round out the group while giving occasional snaps outside. However, the special teams piece isn’t there, and that could be important. The last time he took more than 15 special teams snaps in a season was in 2014.Robert Woods — Many moons ago, Woods was the Bills’ 2013 second-round pick and after leaving as a free agent in 2017, he went on to have an excellent career as a starter for the Rams. Now, possibly in his last year, a late-career Bills reunion would make sense if they wanted a veteran. Woods can play both as a slot receiver and on the boundary. He has a lot of special teams experience in his résumé, and he’s a good locker room fit. Woods turned 33 in March.Tyler Boyd — Turning 31 in November, Boyd would have the same sort of role that Allen would, as mostly a slot-only player, though with some ability to play on the boundary. And much like Allen, Boyd is not a special teams asset. But Boyd may have a little more juice to separate in the open field than the other three on this list.Who would be the best addition?If the Bills were to add another receiver with the idea of them pushing Shenault for the fifth receiver job, one of two things would need to happen. Either the Bills would need to feel good about someone else as a return specialist for the 53-man roster, or the player who replaces Shenault would need to offer a significant special teams function.With those things in mind, Moore would make the most sense because he has some role versatility, he’s younger with more upside, and the Bills have some other contenders to return kickoffs on punts who could make the team. Of the older players, Woods would make a lot of sense for both his versatility and special teams experience. Boyd and Allen also seem like two options, as they have a similar role capability to Moore, perhaps not with as fresh legs as Moore.(Top photo of Brandon Beane: Bryan Bennett / Getty Images)
Keep Reading
