Bills Salty Toward Bengals? Buffalo GM Didn't 'Want to Suck' to Draft Ja'Marr Chase, Joe Burrow

Is Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane finding ways to cope after Sunday's AFC Divisional loss to Ja'Marr Chase and the Cincinnati Bengals?

Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane doesn't want to risk having any down years in order to secure top talent through the draft.

After all, the Bills have built themselves into one of the AFC's elite with mininal high draft selections, as only quarterback Josh Allen and defensive tackle Ed Oliver are the only two top-10 selections Beane has made since his arrival to Orchard Park in 2017.

But doing some due diligence in the NFL cellar seems to have paid off for the Cincinnati Bengals, who cruised by the Bills for a 27-10 win in the AFC Divisional. The team was able to go from a playoff laughingstock to a perennial contender in the matter of a few seasons.

Yet even as Cincinnati advance to the AFC Championship, Beane is still somehow glad he was never in the Bengals' shoes despite the fact that they're the ones who are win away from making back-to-back Super Bowl appearances while the Bills sit at home coping after another early postseason exit.

"I don't want to suck bad enough to have to get Ja’Marr Chase," Beane said. "He’s a heck of a talent. I'd love to have him. But you gotta go through some lean years to do that."

For a second there, it's almost as if Beane did admit he'd want to be in the Bengals' shoes, as their 4-11-1 record in 2020 helped secure a high draft spot before selecting Chase at No. 5 overall that following April. "Sucking" was essentially the only way any team could acquire the star-studded receiver early in the 2020 draft.

And while likely not his intention, Beane's comments come off as a slight diss to the Bengals and their forgettable past, as they had not won a playoff game since 1990 before the team selected quarterback Joe Burrow with the No. 1 overall pick in 2020. In his second season at the helm, he led Cincinnati to its first playoff win in over 30 years and its first Super Bowl appearance since 1998. 

Burrow and Chase are both still playing on rookie deals, which gives the Bengals some financial flexibility. But despite having to pay Allen and Stefon Diggs the elite money they're deserving of, everything was in the Bills' favor and they still didn't capitalize. No time for excuses now.

"They right now are on the advantage of a rookie quarterback contract," Beane said. "They had some lean years. ... They were able to get Burrow at (No. 1). Those guys are on their rookie deals. We're paying Stefon Diggs a pretty hefty number we're paying Josh Allen a pretty hefty number."

Intentionally or not, the Bills and Bengals seem to have quite the rivalry brewing in the AFC, one that should provide even more juicy comments in the seasons to come.

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You can follow Zach Dimmitt on Twitter at @ZachDimmitt7

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