The decision to fire coach Sean McDermott and to promote G.M. Brandon Beane shows that owner Terry Pegula resolved the “coaching” vs. “talent” question by concluding that the roster was good enough to get farther than the divisional round of the 2025 playoffs.
Veteran Bills reporter Vic Carucci of WGRZ.com has posted a story with a nugget that sheds more light on the internal assessment of whether McDermott had the tools he needed.
Advertisement
From Carucci: “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.”
This is what happens when ownership views the coach and the General Manager as not being joined at the hip. If the position from the top is that both succeed or both fail, there’s never a debate about whether the G.M. has, or hasn’t, given the coach what he needs to thrive. In those situations, ownership expects them to work together.
An either-or environment opens the door to something that happens commonly during NFL games. As the coach is on the sideline, doing his job to the best of his ability, one or more people in proximity to the owner can criticize anything and everything the coach does and doesn’t do.
Those three hours per week are the most important. And the coach can’t defend himself while he’s being judged in real time by others who envision a path to saving themselves (or, as the case may be, advancing their interests) by blaming it all on the coach.
Advertisement
Carucci’s reporting indirectly confirms that something like this happened in Buffalo. It was two against one, and the two didn’t want to hear McDermott’s belief that he didn’t have enough talent to get the team to where others expected him to take it.
And so McDermott is gone. While the presence of quarterback Josh Allen makes the Bills job attractive, the next coach needs to take the job with eyes wide open. It’ll be on him to take the Bills over the top.
Of course, if the next coach doesn’t get it done, Beane will get some blame for hiring the wrong coach. The better approach would be for Pegula to make it clear to Beane and whomever he hires that they’ll be running a three-legged race. Either they both get to the finish line, or they both fall flat on their faces.
If the next coach will instead be the next guy to take the fall if the Bills fail, the Bills may not be able to get the best coach for the job. That’s what the Giants recently experienced in trying to hire John Harbaugh.
Advertisement
Harbaugh didn’t want to answer to G.M. Joe Schoen. Harbaugh wanted to have (and got) a direct pipeline to those who run the show, making it easier for him to make his case (if he feels compelled to make it) that the roster is lacking.
Of course, there’s currently no other candidate with the kind of leverage Harbaugh had. Whoever gets the job will be working for, and answering to, Beane. And if the coach concludes the roster isn’t good enough, his best move will be to keep that opinion to himself.
