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On the path to making the biggest decision responsible for building a Super Bowl contender, the Buffalo Bills held a draft meeting in 2018 that lasted 17 hours.
Joe Schoen was one of the select few people with a seat at the table as the Bills painstakingly combed through the top quarterbacks — Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, Josh Rosen and Lamar Jackson — in that year’s class. Four years later, Schoen will be running the draft, and much more, for the Giants.
The Giants’ hope is that their mistake to bypass Allen with the No. 2 pick in 2018 is more than just the Bills’ good fortune. It also could pay delayed dividends because Schoen, their new general manager, knows how to identify the right quarterback — and how to be bold enough to go get him.
“Joe was a big part of the process,” Bills GM Brandon Beane said. “He was there every step of the way. He did all the evaluation. He gave his honest opinion on how he saw each quarterback. His opinion was very valued, and then ultimately I had to make the decision.”
That’s the biggest difference now.
Schoen is going from a voice in the room — which, in the case of that one marathon meeting, included Bills owner Terry Pegula, Beane, head coach Sean McDermott and offensive coordinator (and Giants head-coach candidate) Brian Daboll — to the decision-maker.
The first-time GM won’t be eased into his quarterback decision. It is believed Schoen told the Giants he can make things work with Daniel Jones, but he will have to decide by March whether to pursue a veteran free agent to compete with Jones. He will have to decide by April whether to replace Jones with a rookie. He will have to decide by May whether to exercise Jones’ fifth-year option at $21.8 million guaranteed for 2023.
“There are no magic eyes that any of us have,” Beane said. “It’s about doing the work. The Giants will never have to worry that Joe didn’t invest the time in scouting a player, college or pro. He’s run free-agent meetings. He’s run draft meetings. There’s nothing from a personnel standpoint that he hasn’t seen.”
Five years after he was national scout for the Dolphins when they drafted Ryan Tannehill in the first round, Schoen traveled to do a live scouting evaluation of Allen during the fall of 2017, when the quarterback was starring at Wyoming. He accompanied Beane to the Senior Bowl, where Allen reportedly came across as timid in his first impression. He was the point contact coordinating the itinerary and expectations on a visit to Laramie, Wyo. He was included in conversations during Allen’s private visit to Buffalo just 10 days before the draft.
As incumbent quarterback Tyrod Taylor surprisingly led the Bills into the 2017 playoffs, Beane traded away three veterans — Sammy Watkins, Ronald Darby and Marcel Dareus — between August and October to load up on draft picks. Stuck with the No. 21 and No. 22 picks, the Bills later traded Cordy Glenn to move up to No. 12 from No. 21 and then traded up again on draft night, when Allen began to slip into range.
Schoen’s job during the first round was to work the phones for possible trades in case a prearranged Bills-Broncos deal fell through, according to Beane last year on “The Cris Collinsworth Podcast.” That’s exactly what happened when the Giants selected running back Saquon Barkley over their Plan B option — Broncos target Bradley Chubb — and Allen. The Bills couldn’t secure Allen at No. 5, but did at No. 7.
“He is going to value everyone’s input,” Beane said. “He will be very collaborative through the draft process. That staff there will see real quickly what Joe’s skill set is, and I think they will follow along real quickly once he lays out the vision.”
With time ticking away to prepare for Buffalo’s playoff game Sunday against the Chiefs, Allen was walking the halls at the Bills facility Friday trying to find Schoen before he got started with the Giants. Why?
“Probably to bust his chops more than anything,” quipped Beane. “No, to congratulate him. Joe was the first person to reach out to Josh, so they formed a bond.”
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