CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Brandon Beane’s first house in Buffalo had a pool and an indoor basketball court that the previous owners installed.
The trades and free-agent deals executed in the Bills’ front office under Beane might have helped Dan Morgan and Joe Schoen on their paths to becoming general managers. But it was on Beane’s halfcourt setup in the basement where the three talent evaluators — all of whom got their start in Carolina — would let off some steam and scratch their competitive itches.
Schoen, the New York Giants’ GM, talked Beane into putting a hardwood court — featuring the Bills’ logo — over the concrete flooring. The 3-on-3 games were not for the meek and mild.
“Dan and I are super competitive. Beane is too, obviously,” Schoen said. “Dan is so big and strong that if you go into the lane on him, you’re gonna get knocked about 10 feet the other way. I’m a Division III athlete and he’s a Butkus Award winner, so I’ve dang near gone into the wall.”
Morgan left Buffalo — and the basketball and racquetball games he’d play with Beane — in 2021 to become the Panthers’ assistant GM under Scott Fitterer. Schoen remained as Beane’s assistant GM until leaving in 2022 to succeed Dave Gettleman.
“We’re best of friends but uber-competitive and want to win at everything,” Schoen said. “It’s a great relationship. The three of us had a lot of fun working together.”
A lot of players have flowed up and down the Charlotte-to-Buffalo pipeline since Beane and Bills coach Sean McDermott left Charlotte in 2017. But Sunday marks the first time the teams have met since Morgan was promoted to replace Fitterer in 2024.
“It’s crazy how things come full circle,” Morgan said last week in his office at Bank of America Stadium.
When the Panthers drafted Morgan, a Miami linebacker, in the first round in 2001, Beane was working in the team’s football operations department. Morgan always enjoyed talking with the Panthers’ young scouts and other staffers, including Beane.
“We didn’t run the streets together,” Beane said. “But we had good conversations, good laughs sitting there in the equipment room with Jackie Miles and Donnie Toner.”
Morgan became a fixture in the middle of the Panthers’ defense, setting a Super Bowl record with 18 tackles in the 32-29 loss to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston in February 2004.
By the time Morgan retired and took a position as a Seattle Seahawks’ scouting intern in 2010, Beane had moved into the Panthers’ scouting department. Beane appreciated how Morgan worked his way up the scouting ladder in Seattle.
“Dan didn’t need to do this. He had plenty of money from his playing days. When you hear he’s doing what every other guy does to get in the league, you got a lot of respect for how he did this,” Beane said in a phone interview. “This was not John Elway or somebody getting put to the top of the totem pole. He had to go to a new team that didn’t know him — the GM or the staff — and go prove himself just like the rest of us did.”
Schoen, a Panthers scout from 2001-07, also respected Morgan’s grind.
“You’re talking about a guy that was a first-round pick that had three first kids and is married, and drove across the country to make $40,000 a year,” Schoen said. “Talk about sacrificing a lot to come up the right way. Dan Morgan’s picking people up at the airport for the Seattle Seahawks.”
Dan Morgan has been with the Panthers since 2021 when he was the assistant GM. (Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)
Beane was Gettleman’s assistant GM during the Panthers’ Super Bowl season of 2015 and stayed in Carolina for 19 years before heading to Buffalo. One of Beane’s first hires was Schoen before bringing Morgan to western New York in 2018 as director of player personnel.
Morgan moved into the neighborhood where Beane and Schoen lived, and they would hang out together with their wives, all of whom had grown up in western North Carolina. (Hayley Beane and Marie Schoen were born in the same hospital in Shelby; Ashleigh Morgan is from Asheville.)
“It was like old times here. It was kinda cool,” Beane said. “It was a good working relationship in the office. But we go home, the wives enjoyed hanging out. So we’d grill out or go grab a bite.”
The Bills made the playoffs twice in Morgan’s three seasons in Buffalo, including a berth in the AFC Championship during the COVID season of 2020.
Morgan recalled scrolling through X in a conference room in 2020 and seeing a post from Minnesota Vikings receiver Stefon Diggs saying, “it’s time for a new beginning.”
Morgan told Beane and Schoen, who were the only others in the room due to social distancing restrictions, the Bills should think about trading for Diggs. “And all of us were like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it,’” Morgan said. “It literally happened pretty quick after that.”
Schoen said Morgan brought an aggressive philosophy to Buffalo from Seattle, where GM John Schneider had a long history for making draft-weekend trades. “Dan was always an idea guy and he was always aggressive with his thoughts,” Schoen said. “I appreciated that.”
Morgan, who oversaw the Bills’ college and pro scouting, was high on defensive end Greg Rousseau, the Bills’ first-round pick in 2021 who had 25 sacks over his first four seasons. Morgan also pounded the table for cornerback Dane Jackson, a seventh-rounder who didn’t pan out in Buffalo or Carolina.
Beane said he liked how convicted Morgan was when he liked a player.
“Our motto is: Do the work and say your piece. Some guys do the work and they kind of wait to see how the room’s kinda leaning, then they might pipe in,” Beane said. “Dan’s not afraid to go 1-on-6, 1-on-5. I’ve heard it’s part of the reason (Panthers owner) Dave Tepper always liked him. He’s not a yes man, for sure. That’s not who Dan is. And I think that’s important.”
When Morgan was introduced as the Panthers’ GM alongside head coach Dave Canales on Feb. 1 2024, he famously said the Panthers needed more dogs — players who were passionate about football and winning.
Beane uses a similar phrase in his scouting meetings.
“We’re always looking for tough dudes. Not necessarily law-breaking, tough dudes, (but) dudes that bring an edge,” Beane said. “I thought really with some of the guys they brought in in free agency — the (Tre’von) Moehrig kid – and some of their drafted players, that’s definitely a similar thing (as the Bills).”
Beane said there’s a fine line between adding good character guys to the locker room, but not filling it with “all choir boys, either.” He believes Morgan shares that view.
“He wants a certain level of toughness, which I think he’s done a really good job of getting that O-line (right),” Beane added. “I’ve watched their film. They’re really playing as good as they’ve played in years, and that’s a credit to him and the coaches.”
Morgan said his background with Beane and Schoen makes them easy to call when seeking feedback or discussing potential trades. “It’s like calling your best friend and you can bounce stuff off them, literally anything,” he said.
Two years after the Panthers turned down two first-round picks from the L.A. Rams for edge rusher Brian Burns when Fitterer was GM and Morgan was the assistant, Morgan and Schoen swung a deal that sent Burns to the Giants, albeit for a far smaller return. The Panthers received second- and fifth-round picks (plus a swap of fifth-round selections) for Burns, who’s tied for the league lead with nine sacks.
Morgan executed a trade with Buffalo during the 2024 draft when Beane was looking to move out of the end of the first round to add value later in the draft. Morgan took wideout Xavier Legette with the 32nd pick.
Beane said there’s built-in trust when dealing with Morgan or Schoen. “Nobody’s trying to screw somebody,” he said. “(It’s) like, ‘Hey, let’s just get down in the dirt. Do you wanna do something or not?’”
Beane is heading to the Carolinas early this weekend to scout Alabama’s game at South Carolina, where his son, Wes, is a recruiting intern for Shane Beamer. (Another son, Tyson, is a scouting assistant for the Giants.)
If he gets to Charlotte early enough Saturday night, Beane hopes to meet up with Morgan. They two will talk football and catch up over a beer. There will be no basketball this weekend. In fact, Beane sold the house with the indoor court.
“It was a cool house if you’ve got kids,” he said. “It’s not a cool house if it’s just you and your wife.”