The Buffalo Bills should seriously consider extending Spencer Brown before the 2025 offseason

If there’s one thing that drives Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott, it’s developing players they drafted themselves. The duo officially started building the Buffalo Bills in 2018 due to Beane being hired after the 2017 NFL Draft. It’s not often that the Bills front office doesn’t trust a player drafted under their regime. The focus is on continuity and growth within the organization. While Buffalo isn’t afraid to add talent from outside, they’ve only had two big successes under Beane (trading for Stefon Diggs and signing future Hall of Famer Von Miller).

One of the players drafted in 2021 under this leadership is offensive tackle Spencer Brown. Drafted out of Northern Iowa, Brown had a lot of potential but was a bit of a disappointment early in his career. He struggled with multiple injuries and was never the best pass blocker. Coming into last season, Brown needed a big step forward for the Bills offensive line. There was even a chance that when the Bills signed veteran Brandon Shell (before he unexpectedly retired just before the season began), Brown could have lost a starting role for the Bills.

However, thanks to the work of offensive line coach Aaron Kromer, the Bills had one of the best offensive lines last season in helping keep Josh Allen off the ground, which included an improvement in Brown’s play. Additionally, Brown had already been a solid run blocker, but he was able to help the Bills run their first true ground attack that didn’t feature Josh Allen as the leader.

Despite Brown’s first two seasons being very difficult, he showed Bills fans what he could bring to this offensive line. Now, the Bills management will have to make a decision on whether or not to rehire Brown.

The front office is in a strange situation with Brown. Two seasons of underachieving and injury issues, but then he had his own type of season last year as an overall blocker. Since Brown did not have a fifth-year option on his contract, the 2024 season is a contract year for him. Players who enter a season with a contract year tend to have their best year possible because they obviously want to be paid well.

If the Bills want to avoid paying Brown more if he has another breakout season in 2024, they’ll need to reach an agreement before or during the season at some point. If Buffalo decides to wait and see if Brown can play at the same level again, and then he becomes one of the best offensive linemen in the game, that will put the Bills in a tough spot to bring him back, meaning Beane will potentially have to bring in a new starter to protect Allen.