For weeks, there was a distant drumbeat about Sean McDermott’s job being on the line this postseason.
For the first time in six years, his Buffalo Bills did not win the AFC East championship. Their tournament bracket appeared wide open, with Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow not making the playoffs. They have reigning MVP Josh Allen, after all.
National pundits put McDermott on notice: Reach the Super Bowl, or dust off that resume. Yet there was no reporting on the matter, just opinions about what Bills owner Terry Pegula should do, what seemed apropos of league norms, what sounded right.
The announcement Monday morning wasn’t a mammoth surprise. Eight years with Allen as your quarterback and only two trips to the AFC Championship Game, and big changes are plausible. But that it actually happened stunned Buffalo and the NFL at large, perhaps most notably with the additional news that general manager Brandon Beane was promoted to director of football operations.
To sort through the massive overhaul at One Bills Drive, The Athletic national NFL writer Mike Jones and Bills reporter Tim Graham share their thoughts on what transpired.
Graham: Technically, the Bills did regress this season. After winning five straight division crowns, the New England Patriots passed them in the standings and then advanced to the AFC title game. This is particularly painful to Bills fans, who suffered through 17 straight years without the postseason at the same time Bill Belichick and Tom Brady dominated. Two coaches removed from Belichick, and the Patriots are favorites to return to the Super Bowl already. The Bills, meanwhile, were forced to go on the road as a wild card and got eliminated Saturday by the Denver Broncos.
I get it. Buffalo’s front office is nervous about squandering the services of a likely Hall of Fame quarterback and joining the 1990s Bills as prolific failures. But to fire the coach who built a winning culture from the ashes, who ended a 17-year playoff famine, who went 98-50 in the regular season and who reached the playoffs in all but one of his nine seasons, while promoting the general manager who joined the organization at almost the same time, is a head scratcher. Sure, Beane shares credit for all of the above, but also blame for the regression. Why blame one and reward the other?
Jones: I know there had been rumblings. I know there were frustrations, and seeing New England leapfrog Buffalo despite roster limitations, which signals that things can only go up from here for the long-time nemesis, definitely created angst at Bills headquarters. But at the same time, there were plenty around the league who thought McDermott would be safe after he and the Bills defeated Jacksonville and reached the divisional round.
Graham: I was among them. One of the biggest knocks McDermott and Allen faced was being winless on the road in the postseason. The comeback victory in Jacksonville changed the tenor of that conversation, and all the angst about Buffalo’s perceived shortcomings was alleviated by the way they won so unflinchingly. Or so I thought.
Jones: But then, two days after that season-ending loss to Denver, McDermott is out. That definitely got the attention of peers around the league. And then when news broke that Beane received a promotion, eyebrows raised even further.
The questions I repeatedly heard from coaches and talent evaluators around the league centered on this: How does McDermott, who still managed to guide the Bills to the second round of the playoffs for a seventh straight season and eighth in the last nine despite limitations on both offense and defense become the fall guy, but the man who constructed that flawed roster (full of miscalculations and failed projections at wide receiver and bad gambles at pass rusher) receive a promotion?
Criticize McDermott if you wish. In the biggest games, you could sense the tension that engulfed him and spilled over to his players, causing all kinds of gaffes. And maybe that lack of poise (also a deficient clutch gene?) would have prevented McDermott from ever getting the Bills over the hump. But shouldn’t the guy who repeatedly swung and missed on talent acquisition have also received the pink slip?
Graham: Bills fans used to call him “Big Baller Beane,” but that feels like eons ago. The guy who made a bunch of trades to move up in the draft order and select Allen at No. 7and then still land Pro Bowl linebacker Tremaine Edmunds at No. 16, the guy who traded for Stefon Diggs, the guy who signed future Hall of Fame edge rusher Von Miller, that Beane seems like a distant memory.
Beane hasn’t drafted exceptionally well aside from the most important position in the game. He has picked quality players here and there, but after the 2018 class, he has selected just two Pro Bowlers — running back James Cook and tight end Dawson Knox, as an alternate — out of 56 prospects. And Beane was reluctant to give Cook an extension this summer, leading Cook to stage a hold-in at training camp to get Beane to the table. Cook proceeded to lead the NFL in rushing. He has gained 3,179 yards from scrimmage and scored 32 TDs the past two seasons. Not bad for a guy who had to back Beane into a corner to get what he felt he deserved.
What really torqued Bills fans and erased much of Beane’s goodwill was his insistence on stocking the roster with mediocre receivers. Allen won the 2024 MVP because the world saw him accomplish so much without much of a supporting cast. Trying it a second straight season, however, proved disastrous. In a bizarre interview with the team’s flagship radio station after the draft, Beane led with his chin and ripped the morning co-hosts as know-nothings because they criticized him for not doing enough at receiver. That interview is now mocked for its hubris because the Bills had more healthy scratches at wideout in 2025 than they had playmakers. Joshua Palmer, Keon Coleman, Curtis Samuel, Elijah Moore … The group was beige.
And if Beane was going to use whatever resources he saved at receiver along their inferior pass rush, fine. Then where are the game-changers? They don’t exist.
Brandon Beane (right) earned the trust of Bills owner Terry Pegula and got promoted as coach Sean McDermott was fired. (Tina MacIntyre-Yee / Imagn Images)
Jones: So how did Beane convince the Pegulas to look past his missteps as a talent evaluator and conclude that McDermott was solely responsible for the Bills’ playoff shortcomings? Are they prepared to invest more in the wide receiver and pass-rushing units than they did for McDermott? It will be hard for any coach to overcome the same limitations.
Graham: I believe Beane earned Pegula’s trust by watching the games with him in the owners’ suite. This was the Bills’ worst roster since they started winning AFC East championships six years ago. The fact that Mahomes, Jackson and Burrow weren’t in the way sounds like a glorious opportunity — and it was — but you also could argue that the Bills personnel wasn’t good enough to capitalize on such a wonderful set of circumstances. Buffalo was thin at key positions and hampered by injuries in addition to their deficiencies at receiver and D-line. Depth was not there.
Also weird about the decision to fire McDermott is how Buffalo lost Saturday. Are we to believe that McDermott lost his job because Allen committed two really bad turnovers and misfired at wide-open receivers? Or because two special-teamers disguised as defensive backs, barely on the 53-man roster, had to play because of injuries and Sean Payton exploited them? Or because the NFL can’t decide what a catch is and awarded Denver a crushing, overtime interception?
Jones: This breakup definitely went deeper than just the outcome of Saturday’s game. I know the nature of the job positions the GM to have the ear of the owner more than the coach does, so during all of those hours spent watching games together, the GM can drop seeds of discontent with the job the coach is doing. But do you have any idea where the rift between McDermott and Beane began? They worked together in what looked like a strong partnership for years, but things soured at some point. When?
Graham: They were as close as peanut butter and jelly when they arrived. I recall interviewing their parents for those life-and-times profiles you write when a team hires important people. McDermott’s and Beane’s mothers asked me the same question: Do you think they’ll succeed? I didn’t want their first impression of me to be somebody who will patronize them or tell them something just so they feel good about their boys’ big breaks. Moms see through that. So I told them, “I don’t know if it will work. But someday the Bills will win a Super Bowl, and when they do, we will look back on how it all began, and this is what it will have looked like.”
I firmly believe the best coach-GM relationships are founded on shared stakes; no one has leverage or gets preferential treatment over the other. They’re in it together, win or lose. Somewhere along the way, McDermott and Beane obviously became untethered, and then their relationship became untenable. Throughout the season, we heard McDermott take backhanded shots at his roster by going out of his way to praise opponents who had what he didn’t, by bemoaning the botched Darius Slay waiver claim, by emphasizing trades other clubs made while Beane executed none. All that must’ve gotten under Beane’s skin. And then the owner applied starkly different standards on how to handle them.
Jones: Another question is what type of head coach are they looking for now? Most veteran coaches will want a say in personnel, but with Beane being elevated to president of football operations, it seems unlikely that the coach would have any type of final say on personnel.
If they go with familiarity, do you think Brian Daboll or Joe Brady can produce better results? Daboll was great as an offensive coordinator, but couldn’t compete with a young Giants roster. Brady has had bright spots as a coordinator, but outside of dominating in the run game, the Bills had limitations on his watch as well.
Graham: That’s a great point about control, Mike. The decision to promote Beane to director of football operations and lead the search would eliminate some candidates. They’re too late for John Harbaugh, but, to use him as an example, he insisted on reporting directly to New York Giants ownership and not to GM Joe Schoen, a former Beane lieutenant with the Bills, by the way.
The concept of a “Super Bowl-winning coach” to take Buffalo over the hump doesn’t seem to fit that construct. Not many Lombardi Trophy winners are unwillingly unemployed, and most will want control. We’re talking Jon Gruden, Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll. Maybe Doug Pedersen or Mike McCarthy would be happy simply to have a job, but is that who they’d want?
Daboll, Brady, a coach on the career ropes or a first-time head coach would possess no such leverage. Daboll and Allen got along famously. Broncos offensive assistant Davis Webb was the third quarterback at the time and another Allen confidant. Daboll and Davis would make an intriguing HC-OC combo.
You have to think the Bills go with an offensive-minded head coach. Others who likely wouldn’t demand enhanced control include Mike McDaniel, Arthur Smith, Kliff Kingsbury, Klint Kubiak and Grant Udinski, to name a few.
Among the six remaining vacancies, where do you think this vacancy ranks in terms of attractiveness? Do you think any of the three coaches who already filled openings regret not waiting?
Jones: Counting down from sixth-best to the top choice, I — based on the opinions of aspiring head coaches that I’ve talked to at length about these openings — rank them like this:
6. Arizona — Murky quarterback situation with Kyler Murray seemingly on his way out and the best hope is drafting the third-best quarterback in the draft, and a really shaky defense.
5. Cleveland — Another unsettling quarterback situation. Does Sheduer Sanders have what it takes? Will there be pressure to give Deshaun Watson another shot? Limited offensive weapons, offensive line in need of retooling, bright GM, but meddlesome owner. Bright spot: Talented defense.
4. Las Vegas — Yes, they have the top pick of the draft, which positions you to take Fernando Mendoza, but who’s going to block for him? Mark Davis doesn’t want to spend money. They didn’t take advantage of $90 million in cap space last season. Not a strong launching pad for a new coach. Even Super Bowl champ Pete Carroll couldn’t get it done.
3. Pittsburgh — One of the most stable franchises in the league, the Steelers are looking for only their fourth coach since 1969. This team needs to embark on a total teardown and rebuild, but ownership has a track record of patience.
2. Buffalo — Playoff meltdown aside, Josh Allen is one of the best quarterbacks of his generation. That’s a gigantic building block.
1. Baltimore — Lamar Jackson, some talented pieces on offense and an impactful defense that’s a piece or two away from a strong rebound to the elite ranks. Support from ownership, track record of successful drafting.