ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — It was a different role for Brandon Beane.

Oh, the Bills general manager gets all manner of media facetime in and around the NFL Draft.

But this was different.

On Friday, the sixth-year GM had to take a turn as faux head coach.

When Buffalo opened its three-day rookie minicamp, Sean McDermott was absent due to illness.

Thus, Beane had to assume that role and talk about opening day.

“IT’S A HARD one because these guys haven’t been playing football … a lot of them,” he said. “Some of them were not at an all-star game. Some of them weren’t in playoffs, some of their seasons ended a long time ago and so you try and warn them the best you can, ‘Get in shape.’

“We already had a few guys that are cramping and getting treatment. It’s hard, and the other part of it is you’ve got quite a wide range of skill sets. You’ve got guys trying out versus a first-round pick, sometimes, and at different positions. It’s a harder evaluation for sure.”

Beane added, “The main thing is, teach them some things and see what they can learn, process, all that stuff. Some of the tryout guys, we do have serious interest. We’re definitely evaluating some of these other guys and part of that is how are they mentally fitting? Is this going to be a big adjustment or are they picking it up pretty quick?”

Last year, two rookie camp invitees — defensive end Kingsley Jonathan and cornerback Ja’Marcus Ingram — not only made the practice squad, but also saw some game action on the 53-man roster. Indeed, at the end of this past weekend’s rookie camp, three players who were invited to try out were signed by the team to the 90-player offseason squad.

OF COURSE, in his normal administrative role, he was also asked about 2023’s schedule and particularly the Bills’ bye week, No. 13, one short of the latest possible. Buffalo, playing in London this year, had the option to take its bye after that game in Week 6, but Beane, the front office and coaching staff opted for the later date.

“If the London game was midseason or later, we probably would have taken it there,” he said. “But being Week 5, we decided, ‘Hey, if you can give us a home game on one side of it, which we got home (games) on both sides (of the London trip), we would rather do that and get that break later in the season.

“The last couple years we’ve had those Thanksgiving games, so we’ve tried to work out what we call a mini-bye around that, but this year getting the bye late, we liked that setup.”

Beane admitted, when looking at the schedule, he’s concerned about three main things. He looks at the season-opener (Sept. 11 at the Jets), the divisional games and the date of the bye week.

“I did look to see when we played (at) the Dolphins this year to see if we had to go in the scorching heat or not,” Beane said of what turned out to be the final regular-season game in January. “I was excited to see that it was a little bit later in the year.”

NEXT UP for the Bills are the voluntary Organized Team Activities (OTAs), a 10-workout stretch scattered between May 22 and June 8.

(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)