Brandon Beane’s offseason gambles paying off for Bills

The 2024 season was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Bills.

After all, they’d either cut, let walk or traded several veterans, including Jordan Poyer, Tre White, Gabe Davis, Stefon Diggs and Mitch Morse—all of whom were crucial parts in the Bills’ recent playoff years.

Several in the national media had predicted the Bills not only wouldn’t win the AFC East but wouldn’t reach the playoffs whatsoever.

Don’t look now, but the Bills are 5-2 after seven weeks and have a stronghold on the AFC East that, barring a big run from either the Jets or Dolphins, will lead them to their fifth consecutive division crown.

But where would the Bills be had they kept some of the aforementioned veterans around? How have these veteran losses affected the Bills so far this season?

Let’s review how the big-name veterans who are no longer with the Bills are faring with their new teams this season:

Jordan Poyer

New Team: Miami Dolphins
2024 PFF Grade: 39.7  (84^th of 85 safeties)
Analysis: To say 33-year-old safety Jordan Poyer has struggled in Miami would be an understatement.  Although he has started all five games he’s been active for (he missed one game due to injury), Poyer’s coverage skills have diminished increasingly over the past couple years and he now ranks 6^th worse for safeties in the league.

Although he was a leader on the field, Taylor Rapp and Damar Hamlin have done an adequate job at safety for the Bills this season and the Bills aren’t missing the aging Poyer.

Tre White

New Team: LA Rams
2024 PFF Grade: 50.2  (101st of 105)
Analysis: After starting the first four games of the season for the Rams, White has been a healthy scratch in their past two games. His 49.3 PFF coverage grade is 5th-worst in the league.

After a torn ACL and achilles tear, the former Bills Mafia favorite is a shell of his former self. 

Let’s face it, there wouldn’t be room for White in the 2024 Bills secondary. Christian Benford and Rasul Douglas have been rock solid for the Bills and an overpaid, oft-injured White would have taken a roster spot from a more deserving player.  

Gabe Davis

New Team: Jacksonville Jaguars
2024 PFF Grade: 55.2  (106^th of 125)
Analysis: A change in scenery didn’t help Davis’ catch percentage. His 51.4 catch rate is the lowest of his career and his PFF receiving grade of 56.6 is among the worst in the NFL.

Davis also averages a career low 31.0 yards per game.

Walking from “Big Game Gabe” was the right move for the Bills.

Stefon Diggs

New Team: Houston Texans
2024 PFF Grade: 77.2 (18^th of 125)
Analysis: Unlike the other Bills’ veteran losses this offseason, Diggs is still in the prime of his career.  His trade to the Texans wasn’t related to his production (although he did disappear in the second half of the 2023 season), but more about his tendency to be a team distraction.

Diggs is having a good season in Houston and his production should increase with WR1 Nico Collins being injured.

However, his 77.2 PFF grade is the lowest of his 10-year career.

In hindsight, it was time to move on from Stefon Diggs.  And the team’s “everybody eats” mentality has proven to be a locker room unifier.

Mitch Morse

New Team: Jacksonville Jaguars
2024 PFF Grade: 63.6 (22nd of 38)
Analysis: Mitch Morse is still a solid starting center in the NFL. The time was right for him to move on from the Bills, considering his concussion history and the fact that the Bills had a bonafide veteran center in Connor McGovern already on the team.

McGovern’s PFF grade of 68.1 is higher than Morse’s 63.6 and the Bills offensive line hasn’t missed a beat.

This past spring after the announcement of all the key veteran departures, there was a macabre feeling among Bills Mafia. 

How would this team rebound? Is the Super Bowl window still open?

Although there have been a few hiccups in the wide receiver position, the move to bring in veteran Amari Cooper hopefully squashes the idea that the Bills shouldn’t have traded Stefon Diggs.

Bills GM Brandon Beane admitted that these veteran cuts would hurt the Bills’ faithful, but they were the best move for a team that had to stay ahead of the salary cap and get younger, and the player departures proved to do this.