Source: my gut. Yeah, that’s all I’m basing this on.
There are a few of things that point to Beane being the one to have picked up the phone and making the call:
The Bills have been shredded through the air the first two weeks. Benford has struggled in the new defensive scheme, Igbinosun is as grabby as advertised, and Alford hasn’t looked great. In short, Buffalo may need a guy like Porter Jr to make it to the Super Bowl–Allen can’t carry the team for 17 more games. The defense is going to have to stop opposing offenses more regularly.
Beane has to be feeling the pressure. He won whatever power struggle with McDermott and is now watching Allen storm through the first two games. If the Bills fall short again this season due to the secondary being dominated by opposing offenses, Pegula may look around for someone new to blame.
The Bills have allegedly been linked to any number of high profile trades over the past few years. Beane would probably call it due diligence and he absolutely should be checking in on the availability of talented players. The article says the Steelers haven’t received a serious offer and that sounds exactly like Beane’s MO.
Any lack of seriousness on Beane’s part would likely be due in large to the $32 million average that Porter is projected to be worth. It looks like the Bills have about $5 million in cap space right now with relatively few levers left to pull.
Didn’t Joey Porter Sr get fined for flipping off the Bills’ stadium while he was with Miami. If it was him (I could be misremembering) it would be glorious for fate to force him to root for Buffalo.