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Marcel Louis-JacquesESPN
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane isn’t rushing to get a deal done with quarterback Josh Allen — although he said he’s confident a deal will eventually get done.
Speaking with reporters Tuesday, Beane said he had spoken with the NFL’s MVP runner-up from a season ago about extending his contract, which is entering the fourth year of Allen’s rookie deal. However, Beane said he doesn’t expect a deal to get done until at least after next week’s NFL draft, and perhaps well into the spring or summer.
“There’s no rush, we’ll have some kind of conversation,” Beane said. “Listen, we would love to get Josh extended. No doubt. It has to be a number that works for him and works for us. That’s been my conversation with them and they know the same. We’re all on the same page. Josh wants to be here.”
Allen emerged as one of the NFL’s premier quarterbacks last season, passing for 4,544 yards and 37 touchdowns in 2020, adding eight rushing touchdowns and a receiving touchdown while leading the Bills to an AFC Championship Game appearance.
The Wyoming product has made it clear that he wants to play out his career in Buffalo and didn’t seem deterred by the possibility of contract negotiations extending into next year.
“When it happens, it happens,” Allen told NFL Network’s Kyle Brandt earlier this month. “They will iron out the details, and if we can get to something soon, I’d obviously love to be locked down in Buffalo for a very long time. It’s a place that I call home. I love being there.”
Allen would represent Beane’s largest extension of his tenure with the Bills, after Beane successfully extended left tackle Dion Dawkins and cornerback Tre’Davious White last offseason. The former Carolina Panthers assistant GM likened his current situation to the one he faced in Carolina with then-quarterback Cam Newton.
“We tried in Carolina to get Cam Newton done at this time and it didn’t work,” Beane said. “We just weren’t on the same page with his agent on where the value is to where we saw it. So we said, ‘Hey, no hard feelings, we’re all on the same page here.’ We pushed pause. He played that season and then after that season we got it done pretty quick that next offseason.
“We were all on the same page. I guess what I’m saying is you can’t force it. It happens when it happens.”
Spotrac lists Allen’s market value at $168,634,492 over four years — an average annual value of $42.1 million, which would place him behind only Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Beane previously said Allen’s extension will likely follow the same timeline as White’s — he was extended in early September 2020. Either way, it appears Allen’s next contract is not a matter of if but when.
“If it happens this year, great,” Beane said. “If it doesn’t, I’ll be very positive that we’ll get it done next year.”