Bills GM Accuses Josh Allen of Rejecting Team Friendly Deal Like Patrick Mahomes That Could’ve Built a Super Bowl Roster

Ever since Brandon Beane took over as the Bills‘ GM, the team’s draft picks have kept getting better. Brandon knows how to find talent and turn them into key pieces of a championship team. Over his 8 years of career, he never missed a chance to improve the roster whenever he could. Beane’s been doing cap gymnastics for years now, pulling every lever possible to keep Buffalo in the fight. But here’s the thing: building a Super Bowl roster takes more than just draft picks and lucky breaks.

Sometimes, it may take give-and-take, especially from your franchise QB, because it’s generally the highest-paid position on a roster. In March, Josh Allen signed a new six-year deal worth $330 million with $250 million guaranteed. Now, after almost two months, GM Brandon Beane has opened up about how that deal might have influenced the team’s ability to build a Super Bowl-caliber roster. Talking about Josh Allen’s contract and how those discussions went, Beane shared that the team initially considered doing something similar to Patrick Mahomes‘ 10-year deal. But Allen and his agents weren’t too keen on that kind of long-term setup.

In conversation with Rick Eisen, Beane explained that this was already the second extension they’ve done with him. The first came right after the 2020 season. And even back then, when Mahomes had just signed that massive 10-year deal, Allen’s camp wasn’t really into going that long. “… We gave him you know, Mahomes had done like a 10-year deal. He and his agents were not really up for that length of a deal,” said Brandon. “…But I would say at that time we did a six-year extension with him and we said ‘Listen if it if things get out of whack and you’re playing to the level we know you can play at we will look at it and we’ll we’ll make an adjustment for you,” added him. 

Well, considering Mahomes’ 10-year deal has helped the Chiefs manage their salary cap in a big way, it’s understandable why the Bills would have wanted to do something similar with Allen. By signing a super-long-term contract, Mahomes gave the Chiefs flexibility. Instead of loading up all the money in the first few years, they spread their salary and bonuses out over a whole decade. That means the team doesn’t have to take a huge cap hit in any single season. On top of that, they could sign new talent that would probably make their Super Bowl-winning roster.

Josh Allen thinks otherwise…

While Brandon Beane didn’t directly point to Allen as rejecting a team-friendly deal, he did subtly suggest a contrast between Mahomes‘ team-friendly contract and Allen’s deal. This year, Allen brought home the MVP for the first time. So, even though a contract extension wasn’t originally on the table, Pegula still rewarded him with one. 

Josh Allen viewed his new deal as an opportunity to help create some cap space for the team in the short term. In an interview following the signing, he shared, “I understood the impact of getting an extension done, creating some cap space. I’ve had a big contract before, and it doesn’t really change how I live my life. But I know that, again, this opens up some space for cap and signing some free agents. I think we’ve been having a pretty good free-agent run so far.“

The Buffalo brass began extension talks as soon as the offseason kicked off. The QB’s new deal placed Josh Allen among the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league. He made sure that the restructuring gave the team some flexibility with their cap space. “I wasn’t looking to absolutely kill them at every chance I could. And I told my agent that,” said this year’s MVP. “I was like, if it has any impact on the cap, let’s figure out a way to not do that. Both sides were willing to move and change different things. And it was a pretty calm-mannered negotiation, is what I can say from both sides.“

To wrap things up, there’s a clear contrast between what Beane and Allen had to say about the contract situation. Beane hinted at a more team-friendly deal. Like Mahomes’ long-term one, it could’ve given the Bills more room to play with the salary cap. But Allen, on the other hand, made it clear that while he wanted to get paid. The 28-year-old wanted a deal that helped him secure his future while also giving the Bills a shot at building a strong roster. In the end, both sides made it work, with Allen doing his part to keep the team’s future in mind while still locking in his financial security.

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