Quote:MSN
by Matt Warren

Bills GM Brandon Beane taken aback by criticism in NFLPA survey...

The NFLPA released results from their anonymous survey of nearly 1700 players this week. The Buffalo Bills slotted in the bottom third overall, with some serious concerns about their travel accommodations and some less-than-rosy reactions to head coach Sean McDermott.

No doubt timed specifically to embarrass underperforming NFL teams right before free agency, the players’ union also happened to release this information while decision-makers for all the NFL teams are in Indianapolis for the NFL’s annual Scouting Combine, ensuring reporters would get a chance to ask questions.

Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane spoke with ESPN beat reporter Alaina Getzenberg in Indy on Wednesday afternoon and expressed surprise. Beane shared specifics about the team’s flights, which garnered a dead-last F-minus in voting from players, pulling back the curtain on the decision-making process.

“We put a lot of our players up [in first or business class] on the outbound [flights], we don’t put as many on the return, because depending on when we get back, some of the coaches are up there working on breaking down this film, getting ready for the next week,” Beane said. “So, if anyone’s complaining about not being up there, it couldn’t be on the outbound and maybe would be more on the return.”

He also mentioned that since some coaches head directly to the facility upon landing, they can sometimes receive preference on the return flights. The implication is that players will get to go home and rest while the coaches are going to push through.

Beane also mentioned that the team uses different planes based on the length of the trip, with more space for longer trips. It would seem that players may want to revisit that difference.

“Unfortunately, you can’t put every player up there, which could lead some to be frustrated,” Beane said. “But I would say that at the end of the day, we have open dialogue. This is something I can’t say [has] come to our attention. [Head coach] Sean [McDermott] does a great job of having leadership councils, talking about things that we want in the locker room or how we do things at training camp or sometimes even input on the schedule.”

One of the complaints listed in the survey about McDermott was that he was only “moderately receptive” to his players’ feedback, ranking him 27th among the NFLPA voters. In a separate area of the report, the continued dissatisfaction in the travel arrangements was a source of frustration after the players brought it up in last year’s survey.

“Issues that players previously raised in yearly report card surveys have not been addressed and thus have become greater concerns to the players with the passage of time,” read the opening of the Bills’ overview.

As Beane noted, he’s not sure how many people actually are having a problem. The NFLPA didn’t release team-by-team numbers on voting instead saying that “1,695 of our players provided information to one another”, a number that averages out to roughly 53 players per team. Beane noted that the actual number of NFLPA members in each locker room is higher than that over the course of a year including the practice squad and midseason signings.

“My question is how many people actually completed this survey?” asked Beane. “This is the problem when you do anonymous surveys. Are we talking about six people, 12 people? You’re talking about we have 70-something players when you count our practice squad and beyond. So, it’s really hard to ascertain who gave the F-minus for their plane travel.”

Beane hopes the leaders in the locker room can come voice some specific concerns to the organization, instead of relying on the survey to do the work.

“Ultimately, we love feedback, but we’re not getting that in the building. So, that would be the most constructive way, for us, would be, so we could have that dialogue and explain this is the biggest plane we can get and it’s only going to fit so many people up front,” said Beane.

Notably Beane didn’t mention how other teams handle the travel situation on flights. The Bills are hardly alone in having beefy NFL dudes in the back of a plane, so why are some teams happy with the travel arrangements while others aren’t? What are the teams like the Miami Dolphins doing to earn an A+ rating from their players? How are the Las Vegas Raiders, Minnesota Vikings, Washington Commanders, new Orleans Saints, and Denver Broncos receiving A grades?

It’s not likely we are going to get any Bills players on record any time soon, but Beane and McDermott could still do some more press from the Combine. We’ll see if they keep getting asked about it or it will die away until 12 months from now when the next report is released.

Union?  Don't mind it.  These insanely rich white men need some oversight.  Otherwise...they would just care about getting richer and not worry about who gets screwed in the process, 

(03-01-2025, 09:59 AM)PantherFan007 Wrote: Very interesting information and I don't doubt much of it.  But, at the same time, I have to ask myself, is this rating because the team has sucked so bad the past several years, and would it have been higher had the team made the playoffs during that same time?

(03-01-2025, 10:34 AM)Ladypanther Wrote:

(03-01-2025, 09:59 AM)PantherFan007 Wrote: Very interesting information and I don't doubt much of it.  But, at the same time, I have to ask myself, is this rating because the team has sucked so bad the past several years, and would it have been higher had the team made the playoffs during that same time?

It is not supposed to have anything to do about wins and losses. It is not just a coincidence that bad owners have teams with bad records.