AFC Notes: Bills, Broncos, Patriots

Bills

Bills GM Brandon Beane explained how the process went in terms of securing QB Josh Allen in this year’s draft during a recent interview with Jason La Canfora.

“Last August we started flipping on the film of these guys from the previous season,” Beane said. “Josh Allen at Wyoming and [Josh] Rosen from the previous year at UCLA and [Sam] Darnold and all of those guys, and getting to know Baker [Mayfield] and Mason Rudolph and Lamar [Jackson]. You’re going, ‘Man there are a lot of different flavors here.’ It’s going to be kind of, ‘What do you want?”

The Bills had to make some trades to be in position to get Allen, as it became clear they weren’t getting a quarterback prospect at No. 21 or No. 22 overall.

“Here’s the thing, we knew 21 and 22 wasn’t going to get a guy that we really felt great about,” Beane said, “but the thing was, and what I didn’t know at the combine, was how many we liked. Did we like one? Did we like two? Because I liked more than one on film, but really, some of these guys, going into the combine, I hadn’t spent any time with to get to know them. Sean and I are really big on culture and fit, and obviously, at that position of all positions, the intangibles matter so much.

“So I was not willing to go up — unless you are going to tell me I could go up to one — to go up but so high until I knew how many we liked and where we needed to get to. If we liked three, unless you can get into the top three, you can’t do it. If you like two, getting to three doesn’t help you. So it wasn’t really until we visited with all of these guys in March. And by the end of March I had a good feeling about how many we really liked.”

Beane says Allen’s game against Colorado State really stood to him in terms of showing he can lead to a team to victory.

“It was a snow game,” Beane said. “In the first half it rained and in second half it snowed, and he was not only their running game and throwing game, he was their whole offense and he willed that team to victory. His stats, if you look at his stats, they look terrible. But if you watch the tape, that’s where you see a guy that carried his team to victory.”

According to Beane, he spoke to a number of teams on draft day before trading up with the Buccaneers to get Allen.

“Until you have your name on the clock,” Beane said, “and they have agreed and they’ve called the league office, and said this trade is official, you never know. And I even had in my head, with Tampa there — [GM] Jason Licht came from Arizona and he and [Cardinals GM] Steve Keim are very close — so even as we were making the trade with them I was worried until you know, hey, they’ve called the league office and we’ve called the league office and we’ve both said that these trade parameters are good and it’s the Buffalo Bills’ pick. … Until they told us that I didn’t take a deep breath and say, ‘Okay, we’ve got our guy.”

Broncos

Broncos HC Vance Joseph said previously that he expects the team to use two-three “main” backs this season.

“We want two or three guys to be our main core backs,” Joseph said, via the Denver Post.

Devontae Booker figures to be in the driver seat to be team’s No. 1 running back, but Joseph made it clear that he’ll have to earn it.

“He’s got to come out and work and earn the right to be the (first) guy,” Joseph said. “He understands that with C.J. gone, it’s a wide open race. He’s a good football player, but we want more from him, obviously.”

Patriots

Former Patriots DE James Harrison said he wanted to hate QB Tom Brady, but he came away with the belief that Brady is the “ultimate teammate and person.”

“I wanted to hate this dude,” Harrison said, via NBC Boston. “The whole time I’m playing in Pittsburgh I’m like, I hate Brady. Everyone’s like ‘oh he’s such a great guy, he’s such a nice guy.’ We got LeGarrette [Blount] and I’m like ‘what’s up with Tom Brady?’ He’s like ‘oh man he’s such a great guy’ and I’m like “stop lying to me.”