Buffalo Rumblings
The Buffalo Bills moved on from head coach Sean McDermott on Monday, just days after the team’s latest playoff exit. It came as a shock to Bills Mafia and reporters alike, who had been digging for information for weeks on the status of the head coach.
Now that some of the dust has settled and before general manager and new Bills president of football operations Brandon Beane meets the media this week, we are starting to get word on what exactly happened. Some of it is speculation. Some of it is genuine reporting. Let us sift it all out.
I had been hearing more about this heading into the 2025 season than I had in the past. While most people assumed the pair of Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott were in lockstep because of their history in Carolina, their personalities were never 100% in sync. That isn’t the same as saying there was a rift, but it opened the door that they weren’t a package deal and you could move on from one and keep the other.
There apparently was a divergence opening behind the scenes, too. Vic Carucci of WGRZ has a good connection with the ownership side of the organization and wrote this Tuesday morning.
“I’m told that during a meeting held five weeks ago between McDermott, Beane and Pegula, the coach pointed out what the roster lacked to win a Super Bowl. I don’t know the specifics McDermott mentioned, but I’m told neither Beane nor Pegula was pleased with McDermott’s assessment.”
I wish we had more details to work with regarding the roster disagreement. Five weeks ago puts us in mid-December, well after the trade deadline.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Network was on the Rich Eisen Show Monday discussing the football relationship, as well.
“Certainly with Sean McDermott there were some frustrations that he had and you saw it in terms of certain players who were inactive on game days, kind if a revolving door at wide receiver and whatnot. But ultimately Terry Pegula not only decided to pick, essentially, Brandon Beane over Sean McDermott, he promoted Brandon Beane. He gave him a larger title. Brandon Beane is now going to lead the search for a new head coach and also the coaching staff is now going to report to Beane.”
Taking that information, I also think two more things are clear. Terry Pegula and Brandon Beane share a football vision for the franchise and they feel Sean McDermott didn’t buy in or couldn’t develop the talent to get there.
“Sean McDermott did have significant say over personnel. They were on a horizontal plane in terms of both reporting directly to Terry Pegula.
Nine years is a long time in the NFL and with Josh Allen’s prime, the team had bites at the apple and couldn’t get it done.
Pelissero reported that was a defining factor in...
