{"id":699475,"date":"2026-01-23T18:10:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T18:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/699475\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T18:10:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T18:10:18","slug":"buffalo-bills-give-gm-brandon-beane-more-power-why-and-whats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/699475\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffalo Bills give GM Brandon Beane more power. Why and what’s next?"},"content":{"rendered":"

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills<\/a> sat at 6-2 on the other side of the Nov. 4 NFL trade deadline.<\/p>\n

Despite general manager Brandon Beane trying to get a trade done to improve the roster, nothing came together.<\/p>\n

He was asked at his post-deadline news conference if he believes the team has a championship roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cYep,\u201d Beane said in response.<\/p>\n

Four days later, the Bills put up the team\u2019s worst performance of the season against the Miami Dolphins<\/a>, falling 30-13, and losing a crucial AFC East matchup.<\/p>\n

After the game, coach Sean McDermott was asked a similar question to the one that was presented to Beane. \u201cBrandon said he believed this is a championship-caliber roster, after a performance like that, what\u2019s your confidence level that is the case?\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of concurring with Beane or publicly sharing his support of the on-field talent, McDermott focused on his feelings toward the players. \u201cI love these players,\u201d McDermott responded. \u201cI love these players. I do. Love the guys in that locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just over two months later, McDermott has been fired after the team lost to the Denver Broncos<\/a> in overtime, 33-30, in the divisional round. The loss marked another year falling short of making or winning a Super Bowl, despite the Bills advancing to the divisional round in seven of McDermott\u2019s nine seasons and playing in two AFC Championship Games (both games lost to the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In Wednesday\u2019s news conference with Bills owner Terry Pegula, Beane said that while the team fell short of that championship bar, \u201cit doesn\u2019t mean that we didn\u2019t have the opportunity or have a team that could have gotten it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

A statement released by the team — that included a typo in the first sentence — marked the only acknowledgment of McDermott\u2019s time with the team. The coach\u2019s photo and biography were swiftly removed from the team coaches page of the website. And it took almost two full business days for the team to release a thank you message to the coach.<\/p>\n

But the Bills not only retained their general manager, but they promoted him to president of football operations, in which he\u2019ll oversee the entire football side of the organization with the new head coach reporting to him. McDermott and Beane previously reported to Pegula separately.<\/p>\n

Pegula said he personally made the decision to fire McDermott. Beane, 49, did enough to convince Pegula that he was the leader to remain; his vision of the organization will be used moving forward instead of the previous partnership with McDermott.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go back to 5, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2, 6,\u201d Pegula said, naming the last seven seeds the team landed in the postseason under McDermott. \u201cGreat roster, good coaching, no Super Bowl appearance. … It\u2019s been one year after another and that was the sense of how do we overcome this. And I just couldn\u2019t see us doing that with Sean, that\u2019s why I relieved him. It\u2019s not an easy decision, trust me, we\u2019ve had success. But what is success? Is success being in the playoffs seven years in a row with no Super Bowl appearance?\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowing whether Pegula\u2019s move was the right one won\u2019t come for some time, and the owner acknowledged there was risk. A new coach is still to be hired, and that coach will undoubtedly have to battle high expectations from the get-go in the first season.<\/p>\n

What we do know is that Beane is now responsible for the football direction of the organization that fired its coach in order to get to and win a Super Bowl with quarterback Josh Allen<\/a>, who turns 30 in May.<\/p>\n

So what does it all mean and what\u2019s next?<\/p>\n

How the Bills got here<\/p>\n

Beane was hired on May 9, 2017, after former GM Doug Whaley was fired and months after McDermott had been hired in January of that year. Beane had previously worked his way up through the Carolina Panthers<\/a> organization for almost two decades, serving in a variety of roles.<\/p>\n

McDermott and the coaching staff had a role on the draft and free agency decisions, and that was something Pegula wanted to emphasize during Wednesday\u2019s news conference. The pair, with then-offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, will always be given the credit of drafting and developing Allen, despite Pegula giving Beane the credit for that. (Of note, Daboll interviewed for the Bills\u2019 head coaching job on Thursday.)<\/p>\n

With Allen emerging as the Bills\u2019 franchise quarterback, everything has revolved around him getting the Bills to a Super Bowl — and winning it. It was Allen\u2019s tears after the loss to the Broncos Saturday that cemented Pegula\u2019s decision to fire McDermott.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Allen] just sat there sobbing, he was listless,\u201d Pegula said. \u201cHe had given everything he had to try to win that game. And looking around, so did all the other players on the team. … I know we can do better, and I know we will get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good will was developed by draft success and retooling a roster in need of it after an 18-year playoff drought, and Beane\u2019s philosophy of \u201cDraft, Develop and Re-sign,\u201d was emphasized. Some of that has worked out, while others haven\u2019t lived up to expectations.<\/p>\n

Though, the debate of the Bills\u2019 roster talent versus the ability of the coach who led the team for nine seasons is not as cut and dry. Does the lack of consistent pass rush fall on the coach — or the general manager who has tried to patch the spot time and time again? It\u2019s something Pegula admitted he doesn\u2019t have answers for.<\/p>\n

There are complexities to the roster development and the team\u2019s success with injuries and position-by-position discussions to be had. McDermott came into the organization with a rigid culture, but later became more flexible and adapted to his players. His defenses struggled in the biggest games (28.9 points per game in playoff losses compared to 18.5 in wins).<\/p>\n

But there were seven straight playoff seasons, and a culture was built with players showing an outpouring of support for the coach in the 24 hours after his dismissal, while others such as defensive tackle Jordan Phillips<\/a> bluntly said they disagreed with the move.<\/p>\n

In the meanwhile, Beane\u2019s public image took a hit when he went on local radio station WGR550 after last April\u2019s draft and aggressively disagreed with comments criticizing the team\u2019s approach at wide receiver. Beane said he regrets the pressure that put on the players. During the season, there was the deadline, and in December, McDermott publicly stated his disappointment in the team losing developmental corner Ja\u2019Marcus Ingram as the team attempted to upgrade the roster by bringing in veteran cornerback Darius Slay<\/a>, something that Beane said was decided with the coaching staff. The coach also, unprompted, brought up trade acquisitions other teams made when previewing opponents, such as the Jaguars adding receiver Jakobi Meyers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Beane said disagreements over the years were normal, but the breadcrumbs of disconnect were there. Unless changes in mindset are made, the philosophies that Beane has had, however, will remain. He has maintained against going all-in for one year, instead, preferring an approach of trying to stay in contention year after year. There have been gambles that haven\u2019t paid off — signing Von Miller<\/a> to a six-year, $120 million deal that was derailed by injuries and off-field issues — and those that have — trading a first-round pick for Stefon Diggs<\/a> in 2020.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for Beane, the Bills?<\/p>\n

Beane often emphasizes how he is trying to improve the roster at every point throughout the year. With the new arrangement, he\u2019s going to have even more power to tweak the football operations side as he sees fit, while still describing the relationship with the new coach as a marriage.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I\u2019ll lean to their way, and sometimes my gut tells me I want to stick with how I see it,\u201d Beane said. \u201cBut we\u2019ll work together. Nothing is really gonna change from that standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen will be involved in the coaching search, along with Beane, Pegula, his daughter, Laura Pegula, director of business operations Pete Guelli and assistant general managers Brian Gaine and Terrance Gray. The search is a wide open one, per Beane, and just beginning. Beane also said that they are not necessarily looking for an offensive-minded coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a bigger job than just a playcaller and schemer. I think we\u2019ve seen where guys have been excellent playcallers, but they\u2019ve got to the head coach seat and they couldn\u2019t handle the adversity, the conflict management … it\u2019s a CEO job. It really is. … We\u2019ve got to make sure we get the leadership, the CEO part.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are many questions still to answer, but the pressure is undoubtedly on whoever is hired to pair with Beane to get this right, and quickly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills sat at 6-2 on the other side of the Nov. 4 NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[215,214,53,87297,2086,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-699475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-bills","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-buffalo-bills","11":"tag-buffalo-bills-sports-football-team-team-statscom-324","12":"tag-buffalobills","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115945762199415842","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}