NFL
By: Randall Slifer
The Buffalo Bills just made a surprising move this week and fired Sean McDermott after their loss against the Denver Broncos in the Divisional Round. There were some head-scratching losses this year, which led to Buffalo not winning the AFC East for the first time in 5 years. All of Buffalo looked at the 2025 schedule and knew this was the year Buffalo would gain the 1-seed and earn a week of rest.
Buffalo lost to the Falcons, the Davis Mills Texans, and the Dolphins while the Eagles and the Patriots were at home. Buffalo had opportunities to win the division up until week 17, only to fall short and sit on the 6th seed. The 6th seed meant Buffalo had to travel to Jacksonville and Denver, arguably the two toughest teams to face in the AFC. The Patriots were fortunate enough to host the Chargers without an offensive line, and the Texans, in which CJ Stroud literally threw the game away.
Why fire McDermott and not Brandon Beane?
This is the most-discussed part of the issue. Why would Buffalo fire McDermott when the roster wasn’t really built to win a championship? Over the past two years, I have said that Buffalo has exceeded expectations for how far they have gotten in each season. After Stefon Diggs forced a trade out of Buffalo, Brandon Beane was forced into an early rebuild.
The trade of Stefon Diggs added 2 million to the cap, which was already at -40M that year. For the past two years, Brandon Beane has had to start the season by restructuring and cutting to get cap-compliant, then pick up players. It was constant nickel-and-diming for players to fill the roles while the organization catches up on the cap moves they made in the early 2020’s.
The cap was rough because Brandon Beane rostered a Super Bowl-caliber team from 2020 to 2023. He needed to restructure and kick some salary down the road, because the window was still open for Buffalo, and they needed a couple more shots at winning the Super Bowl. After all the attempts to win the Super Bowl, Buffalo did not reach one.
During that time, Buffalo consistently ranked among the league’s top defenses in the regular season, only to let teams score 30 points in the playoffs. While scoring 30 points, according to Kevin Siracuse (@kevin_siracuse), the last time a Buffalo Bills defensive end recorded a sack in a postseason loss was in 2020. That was 6 years ago. Sean McDermott’s defense has not played well in the postseason, while Josh Allen is one of the best postseason performers in the history of the NFL. The Buffalo Bills have accomplished so much during McDermott’s tenure, but being a defensive-minded head coach and having that kind of postseason defense is so glaring that it seems to be forgotten because everyone wants to get their pitchforks out for Brandon Beane.
Brandon Beane is no Saint.
Brandon Beane has missed countless times in the draft and free agency. He doesn’t know how to draft in the 1st and 2nd round, and for some reason, he covets those picks. He has made up for it in day 3 picks, but it is fair to say that those hits are more like doubles, instead of home runs.
The most controversial move Brandon Beane made, in hindsight, was signing Von Miller. Brandon Beane built a Super Bowl-winning roster, and if Von Miller had stayed healthy, that team was championship-bound. It was a good move, but it did come with risks, which played out in front of everyone.
Brandon Beane also had his infamous radio show call, during which he was angry that everyone was talking about the wide receiver room and how it wasn’t a good group for Josh Allen. Brandon Beane doubled down, and he was wrong. He put too much stock into Keon Coleman, and he failed miserably.
Anyone who is not related to Terry Pegula or in his office 5 days a week will not know who had what hand in roster construction. We know McDermott has defensive archetypes he wants for his scheme, and I am comfortable saying he had his hands in a handful of defensive draft picks. Players like Ed Oliver, Greg Rousseau, Landon Jackson, TJ Sanders, DeWayne Carter, and AJ Epenesa are all in McDermott’s style of defensive line. One player that does not fit his type? Deone Walker.
The big question mark is why Brandon Beane was promoted. This will take a while to figure out, but I have spoken with some sources about the Buffalo Bills’ game plan. Folks believe Brandon Beane’s promotion to President of Football Operations signals a more vertical hierarchy, which could work out in the Buffalo Bills’ fans’ favor.
Buffalo wanted to retain Assistant GM, Terrance Gray. He was a hot name to watch for the GM positions, and Buffalo potentially made a move to keep him. If they build the hierarchy of Pegula to Beane, Beane to Gray, and Gray to the new HC, this alleviates roster construction from Beane and gives it to Gray and the latest HC. This can change the whole philosophy of this new Bills iteration, which needs to win a championship as soon as possible.
Why Now?
Now, the biggest confusion of all this is the timing. Why did they fire Sean McDermott after this year? As noted above, yes, the fact that the Patriots won the AFC East and had to take a much easier road to the Super Bowl is very noticeable. My problem is, if Brandon Beane had issues rostering the team these past two years, why doesn’t Sean McDermott get any slack for it, too?
This year was arguably Sean McDermott’s best coaching year in the past 5 years. The defense had some duct tape on it, and he made it work numbers. McDermott led the league with the number 1 pass defense, featuring Tre White and Jordan Poyer in the backfield. The rushing defense was absolutely atrocious, and McDermott got Shaq Thompson to be a true MIKE Linebacker and help stop that horrific nosebleed of run defense. Ed Oliver and Michael Hoecht going down on the defensive line was devastating to that line’s production.
McDermott and the Buffalo Bills earned their first away postseason win in 33 years. They also managed to do it in what was arguably the best rostered team in the AFC. The Jacksonville Jaguars were on a heater, and Trevor Lawrence was playing mistake-free football. Sean McDermott got two turnovers against the Jaguars, which led to a hard-fought victory.
Sean McDermott deserved one more year in Buffalo to try and win a Super Bowl in the new stadium. The expectation was there, and Buffalo next year will look much more like a Super Bowl team than the last two years. The Buffalo Bills organization must have thought this was the end, and that change was needed now. Josh Allen will be playing Football at the age of 30, and, as much as Buffalo wants to ignore it, his game will not translate like Aaron Rodgers’ or Tom Brady’s. Buffalo needs to win a championship in the next five years. If they do not win a championship by the time Josh Allen is 35, Buffalo may have thrown away a Hall-of-Fame career with potentially one of the most talented players ever to throw a football.
The biggest fear for all of Buffalo is deciding who will be the next head coach of the Buffalo Bills. Sean McDermott got Buffalo out of the hellscape they had in a 17-year drought, and everyone is afraid to go back to it. The head coaching market is not as solid as it was last year, but there are some great names to watch this cycle. Buffalo should already have 3 names on their watchlist before they even fired McDermott, so they should really be casting a small net, not a large one.
Do I trust Brandon Beane to make the right hire for the new head coach? Pegula is putting a lot into Brandon Beane’s stock. The new stadium will be unveiled next year, and Pegula’s pockets depend on the hire. Everyone will spend all their money next year because the stadium is a shiny new object that everyone is excited to see. What if the coaching hire stinks from year one? Pegula’s profits will plummet after year one of a 2.1+ BILLION dollar stadium.
I think all of Buffalo is sad to see Sean McDermott go. Everyone loves him, and he saved the team. Change is tough, but sometimes it is needed. When Andy Reid left Philadelphia, both teams went on to win Super Bowls. When the Broncos fired John Fox, Gary Kubiak led them to a Super Bowl. The scariest part of it all is that there is no room for error in this hiring cycle, and they need to get it right. As Always, Go Bills.
