Bills GM Brandon Beane dives into Boogie Basham trade, decision to wait on Von Miller

Brandon Beane ultimately thinks the move to trade defensive end Boogie Basham to the New York Giants was necessary, but that didn’t make it easy for the Buffalo Bills general manager.
“We try to make the roster as competitive as we could,” Beane said on Wednesday. “That’s one of the discussions that was very tough, especially a guy that is still young (25), two years left on his deal. But we tried to go with where we thought the best group was, and so obviously (Giants General Manager) Joe (Schoen) knows him.”
Beane said a few teams reached out once they knew the Bills would listen to offers. Schoen’s familiarity (he is a former Bills executive) led to the Giants reaching out as well, Beane said, and a deal was made – the Bills acquired a 2025 sixth-round pick for Basham and a '25 seventh-rounder.
The trade was hard on Beane.
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“You never want that to not work when you draft a guy as high (second round) as we did Boogie, but that’s the nature of the business,” Beane said. “These are people, and sometimes it doesn’t mesh at the right time. Boogie is a great person and just like we have with some other players, we wish them the best, and he can still play and hopefully this next stop will be a good one for him.”
During a press conference, Beane went through some of the different decisions to build the Bills’ roster for this season and he delved into trading away Basham.
One factor was the balance of giving a player time to develop to their potential while also juggling a competitive roster. There’s no exact science.
“It's hard. You do have to make sure you give them enough time,” Beane said. “And you weigh those heavily. I didn't do a good job with (former Bills offensive lineman) Wyatt Teller. We moved too quick on that. And listen, Boogie could go and have a great career and I'm seriously happy for Wyatt. I hate it didn't work here. And again, that's on me.”
So, he will continue to self-scout.
“I'll look at everything that we do here, from how we valued them, the time we spent with the player through the process, everything we learned about these players through the scouting process,” Beane said. “What we did here when we onboarded them – everything.
“Any one of those that doesn't work out, I'm going to beat myself up more than anybody else. And so, I hate they don't work, nothing's perfect and hopefully keep that to a minimum.”
Beane did acknowledge that he’s been on the opposite end of a case like this, too, given the nature of the league.
“Sometimes I’ve been around a player where it didn’t work out somewhere else, they came to you, and they thrived,” Beane said. “(Defensive tackle) Jordan Phillips was a second-round pick in Miami, we got him here, and I think he’s played his best football here.”
It’s the second year in a row Beane has traded away a former second-round pick, with Cody Ford going to Arizona in late August 2022. In looking at both the Ford and Basham moves, Beane noted that Ford’s Bills career was impacted by injuries, and that the two cases were not parallel.
“In Boogie's case, it's just a competitive group, and he could have very easily made this roster,” Beane said. “It wasn't a clear decision, and sometimes you have to make these. You're making a call, and you're doing the best with the data you have now. I don't think there's anything from there.”
Another hard decision for Beane was on pass rusher Von Miller. Miller, who tore his ACL last Thanksgiving, will start the season on the reserve/physically unable to perform list, a decision that was rooted in caution.
“Yes. Very tough,” Beane said. “Debated round and round a little bit but ultimately, long season and we want Von for the stretch run.”
Miller will miss four games and is first eligible to come back in Week 5 against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London. Beane is “hopeful” Miller will be set to go then, but didn’t want to speak too soon. Miller had also been optimistic he’d be good to go for the start of the season.
“He’s trending up and I think it was a chance he would have been practicing soon, kind of working his way but he’s not quite there,” Beane said. “And the closer we got, don’t think he would have been ready to immediately start the season, and so we’re just going to try to play it smart. Give him a little extra time so that he’s truly ready to go.”
Beane indicated that the decision was also tough on Miller, who is fiercely competitive.
“Von was ready – he’s ready to play ball – and you can ultimately put that one on me,” Beane said.