On Monday, the Bills made the surprising decision to simultaneously fire Sean McDermott and promote general manager Brandon Beane, giving the latter even more power within the organization.
The firing of McDermott comes after he coached the team for nine seasons, leading the Bills to eight playoff appearances and a postseason win in six straight seasons. Ultimately, his failure to win or make a Super Bowl with Josh Allen at quarterback led to his demise.
It’s the promotion of Beane and the chilly nature of how the Bills have treated the firing that stands out most, between the typo in owner Terry Pegula’s statement to barely acknowledging all the success McDermott achieved in Buffalo. After much criticism and a long delay, the Bills finally put out a “thank you” post for Sean on social media on Tuesday afternoon.
According to multiple reports, tension emerged between McDermott and the front office because McDermott expressed concerns with the talent level on the team’s roster.
Ian Rapoport reported for NFL Network, “My understanding is McDermott himself had some questions about how much talent the Bills had, I’m not sure that sat well in the building considering most teams believe they are stocked full of talent.”
Vic Carucci of WGRZ similarly wrote, “Despite the common outside view that Josh Allen’s supporting cast was what has mainly held the Bills back in their Super Bowl quest, Beane managed to convince Pegula that coaching was the primary culprit. … 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.”
Publicly, McDermott has notably been complimentary of the Jaguars’ midseason acquisition of Jakobi Meyers in press conferences, the kind of move the Bills front office didn’t pull off and left the team too reliant on castoff receivers in the postseason. Beane previously was defensive of his lack of moves at the receiver position last spring. Though that and the team’s flawed roster came back to bite on the field, it’s apparent that Bills ownership took Beane’s side over McDermott’s, leading Buffalo to make McDermott the scapegoat and retain Beane.
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