ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane went home Tuesday as "mad as any other fan."
Beane made it clear in Wednesday's news conference that despite the Bills not making a trade before the deadline at 4 p.m. ET the day prior, it wasn't for a lack of desire.
"Unfortunately, it takes two to tango and we tried on quite a few," Beane said. "And a lot was just, yeah, we're not moving, and some was, we ran into a couple teams in our division were trading and couldn't get a lot of interest there."
He later added, "Candidly, I would have lost money [Tuesday] on the Bills doing a move, if we were in Vegas."
It marked the first time since 2021 that Beane did not make an in-season trade despite there being eight trades on Tuesday, tied for the second most on any deadline day dating back to 1990 (10 trades in 2022). There were 18 total trades from Oct. 1 to trade deadline day, tied with 2022 and 2024 for the most in that time period, per ESPN Research.
Buffalo was in a difficult position with its salary cap, sitting at around $3.3 million after restructuring nickel corner Taron Johnson's contract on Monday to create an extra $1.75 million in cap space, and had discussions with other players to do more restructuring if deals had come together.. The general manager noted that after Monday at 4 p.m., they were unable to change contracts of potential trade candidates so the trading team could have taken on more of the money.
Considering the long-term impact of a move became another barrier for Beane.
"I mean, my job is to not be reckless with this role," Beane said. "It's not fantasy football. It's not. Fantasy football is awesome for what all it brings to our game, but this is not fantasy. There are so many ramifications of cost and draft picks."
The desire to trade came amid the Bills dealing with a number of injuries, especially along the defensive line, including defensive end Michael Hoecht suffering a season-ending torn right Achilles and defensive tackle Ed Oliver (left biceps) out indefinitely, and some real question marks at the wide receiver position.
Despite the recent injuries woes and tested wide receiver group, the Bills will look to continue a recent history of dominance against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, CBS). The Bills have seven straight wins, including playoffs, vs. the Dolphins, tied for the longest win streak against Miami in their all-time series (won seven straight games from 2018-21).
The matchup will mark the start of a second half of a season that the Bills hope ends in a Super Bowl title.
Coming off the lack of deadline moves, Beane said he believes the Bills have a championship roster. However, Beane did say that they can only "afford so many injuries," amidst a week with a lengthy list of players banged up, and when it comes to the difficulty of trying to improve he discussed the pros and cons of adding, specifically at wide receiver.
"It's not as easy as, 'Hey, trade for receiver X, drop him in and he's just going to run with the rest of them,'" Beane said. "...We've obviously traded for wide receivers before. I've been here, this is season nine, right? We're usually very active. I'm always active. You put a lot of work in. Sometimes you look back, when you go home last night, like damn, that was a waste of time."
This offseason, the Bills added WR free agents Joshua Palmer (who missed the past two games with ankle/knee injuries), but has been limited in practice, and Elijah Moore, and drafted Kaden Prather in the seventh round, who was waived (injured) before ultimately leaving the team with an injury settlement.
Quarterback Josh Allen has averaged 7.3 air yards per attempt, the lowest of his career, and targeted 20-plus yards on a career-low 10.8% of throws. Of his total yards, 51.5% have come from yards after catch, his second straight year with over half his yards coming as yards after the catch (2024, 56.4%). The biggest passing game success has come when the tight ends get heavily involved, notably Dalton Kincaid, who has two 100-plus yard performances.
But the Bills' reality for this season is the ground game has been their strength, while seeking a balanced offense, and that is the team's formula for success. Running back James Cook II (second in the NFL with 867 rushing yards) missed Wednesday's practice with an ankle injury.
Buffalo leads the NFL with 161.5 rushing yards per game.
Whether this group will be enough -- when needing to lean on the passing game -- remains to be seen.
"I'm just kind of locked in on what's going on here," Allen said. "I trust Beane and what he's got, what's going on. I know, I can figure, maybe the outside perspective of people aren't too happy. But again, I trust Beane, I trust the players on this roster."
For the immediate future, Allen has been spectacular against the Dolphins, going 13-2 in the regular season as a starter and has recorded multiple passing and rushing touchdowns in 14 of those 15 games. With the bye out of the way, the Bills will be relying on recent draft picks and players who started the season in backup roles to continue to play without the reinforcements that might have come at the trade deadline.
"I believe in Brandon. Listen, I believe in his staff. And as a coach and a coaching staff, you're always looking for those quality players that you feel like can exponentially increase your odds of winning. I think any coach or coaching staff would say that," McDermott said.
"... I love our team. I believe we can win, and the reason is we've got guys who are buying into playing as a team, playing for one another. We've got a culture that's ripe and a coaching staff that knows how to develop players. Do we have some holes due to some injuries? We do, and it's frustrating. But that's also where young guys have to step up."