The clock is ticking on a contract extension between the Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen in 2021.
According to general manager Brandon Beane, a deal needs to be completed in the next few weeks. In an appearance on WGR-550′s Howard and Jeremy Show, Beane talked about the potential deadline.
“At the end of the day, we’ll probably put a deadline on it at some point here in preseason,” said Beane. “I don’t like to carry that stuff into the season. We haven’t put a specific date on it, it’s just... I think Adam Begnini asked me about it last week. It was an interesting question I didn’t mind. It was, ‘Is there any momentum?’ There’s no momentum to getting a deal done until you all of a sudden feel it’s there. We’ll work with his reps. Hopefully we can get something done this year, but if not we’ll be excited. Josh knows, he and I have had great conversations this spring and summer about it. He’ll play it out this year if we can’t get something done and I promised him if we can’t that we’ll pick it up as soon as we get to next offseason and we’ll try again.”
Allen, 25, is still under contract for the next two seasons, but Buffalo would ideally like to get something done sooner rather than later with the quarterback after his breakout season in 2020. The quarterback finished second in MVP voting after completing 69.2 percent of his passes for 4,544 yards. Between the air and ground, Allen accounted for 45 touchdowns in the regular season while helping lead the team to their first AFC Championship game appearance since the early 90s.
Although both sides sound as though they want a deal done in the near future, Beane explained the variables that make completing the deal so difficult.
“I think it’s just like anything,” added Beane. “When you do a negotiation like this there’s a lot of variables and I call it the structure of the deal. There’s a lot of variables when you do a contract like this and there are going to be things very important to the club for us to do a deal two years early we would want X, Y and Z. And then on their end, there’s some things that are very important to them. So it’s just being able to get on the same page where they can give us some things that we need on our end that allow us the flexibility with our cap amongst other things and then us being able to give them some things that would be very important to Josh. Those are how you get deals done when you can do that. Sometimes there are just some obstacles that you can’t work out right now and you have to postpone it and again we’ll see here soon. We’re in August so I’d say we’re down to a few weeks to either get this done or delay it and try it again in 2022.”
Allen, to his credit, does not seem worried about his deal. At the start of training camp, the quarterback touched upon the topic.
“Whether it happens or it doesn’t happen, it’s not going to change my approach to be the best teammate, the best leader I can be for this team and this organization,” Allen stated. “My focus is completely on the field.”
Whether it happens in the next few weeks or next year, Allen will be among the highest paid quarterbacks in the NFL in the near future.
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