When the Buffalo Bills decided to move on from former head coach Sean McDermott earlier this week, it became one of the most significant moments in Buffalo sports history. After the seismic decision to remove a head coach who had been to the playoffs in eight of the previous nine seasons, they followed up with one of the more memorable news conferences of the last 20 years.
Bills owner Terry Pegula and general manager Brandon Beane, who is fresh off getting a promotion that assures the new coaching staff will report directly to Beane, met with the media for a whopping 53 minutes on Wednesday.
With so many things covered, The Athletic’s Joe Buscaglia and Tim Graham provide what stood out and what they took away from what will be a news conference Bills fans won’t soon forget.
Joe Buscaglia: So, Tim, where do we even start? There is just so much to unpack. Even listening back for a second time, there are still so many little parcels that I didn’t clock originally that were a bit of a “whoa” combined with things that were said previously during the news conference.
I suppose we begin with the decision to fire McDermott, since that’s what got Pegula in the door. What was your biggest takeaway?
Tim Graham: No, hang on. We’ll get to that. And Beane pushing back on current and former players angry at the decision. And what this means for Josh Allen. And so much more. But we have unlimited bandwidth, courtesy of The Athletic. Give me a couple “whoa” moments. I’m too curious now.
Buscaglia: Well, it kind of goes hand in hand with the McDermott conversation. It was like the big Keyser Soze reveal at the end of “The Usual Suspects.” OK, maybe not that far, but when Pegula originally led off with him making the decision to fire McDermott when he saw the locker room, that was one thing. He was speaking to the emotions of the room, which I get. But while boasting about the state of the roster, he downplayed the job of the coaching staff in getting them to the playoffs in the first place. Then, near the end of the news conference, when asked how he delineates coaching versus roster construction when things fall short, his response was even more perplexing.
“That’s a hard question to answer,” Pegula said. “I don’t know how to answer that.”
Yet, he did know how to answer that, and that’s why he felt firing McDermott was the right thing to do. That was one of the “whoa” moments for me.
Graham: Pegula was asked the same question about six different ways because he couldn’t articulate such a crucial point. How, despite McDermott and Beane both starting in 2017 and having essentially the same record of success and failure, does Pegula scan the emotional scene inside the morose visitors’ locker room and think “McDermott has to go” and then give Beane a promotion that involves a total restructuring of football operations?
We’ll get to the explanation that the decision was fueled strictly on emotion — another wild discovery, if true — but entering Wednesday morning’s news conference, all anybody wanted to know was why Pegula maintained such starkly different standards for the coach and the GM. But he failed to explain over and again. To make such a significant change to your franchise, dumping the man I believe was most responsible for turning the culture of laughingstock into a perennial contender, without being able to distinguish the value of one role over the other, must be terrifying to Bills fans, who now must hope these men make the right choice on McDermott’s replacement.
Buscaglia: The timing also didn’t make a ton of sense, which was another part of the “whoa” revelations. Pegula said he made the decision upon seeing the scene in the locker room on Saturday night. The abrupt end to his press conference was a question about how it took 36 hours for them to inform McDermott of their decision, and whether or not he wavered. Pegula said, “I didn’t go back on it.” So, knowing what Pegula knew, rather than allowing McDermott to talk to the team in person on Sunday after nine long years, they waited until Monday morning, after the players had left the building to their offseason homes, to give McDermott the verdict. Maybe not a crazy revelation, but more of a “Why did they choose to do it like that?” to add to the pile.
Graham: The front office also allowed McDermott to conduct exit interviews with players on Sunday. Granted, Beane said he didn’t know anything about the decision to fire McDermott until Monday morning. In other words, Beane was “not privy.” We’ve heard that from a Bills GM before.
But then, how did Beane and COO Pete Guelli get promotions so fast? By 10:30 a.m., the Bills announced Beane had added president of football operations to his title and COO Pete Guelli had been promoted to president of business operations. You don’t become an NFL president without going through a lot of league protocols. New contracts had to be drawn up. All on the fly? I don’t buy it.
Terry Pegula said Josh Allen’s emotional reaction to the playoff loss to Denver led to his decision to fire Sean McDermott. (Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
Buscaglia: I thought of one more thing, and then I swear I’m done and we can move on to another piece of this news conference. When Pegula gave his introductory notes, he made sure to exclaim “That was a catch,” to which you wisely led off the question portion asking why McDermott was fired for a bad officiating mistake. Then, later on, when Beane was asked what led to the team falling short with what he called a “championship roster,” before Beane could even respond, Pegula blurted out “A bad call!” It’s just very confusing messaging. Does McDermott get fired if that call goes their way?
Graham: So he agreed with McDermott, who went about as scorched earth as a religious man can about the NFL refusing to take a longer look at what was virtually a simultaneous catch between Bills receiver Brandin Cooks and Broncos cornerback Ja’Quan McMillan.
Pegula’s emotions upon walking into that locker room are easy to understand. We were allowed inside shortly after and saw the raw sadness. Veteran reporters compared notes about the last time we’d seen a losing locker room so devastated and struggled to come up with answers. But for the owner of the team to make a potentially franchise-altering decision in that moment is troubling to me. Based on what Pegula told us Wednesday, a major part of his rationale was witnessing how demoralized and upset Josh Allen was, how the quarterback didn’t even acknowledge him when Pegula tried to speak to him.
And this is what I can’t get past: Does McDermott still have his job if Allen isn’t crying after the game, or if Allen chats for a moment with the owner? Allen had a terrible game, and to lose in overtime on what the team believes was a blown call would make any player depressed and unresponsive. Pegula later was asked if McDermott’s job would’ve been safe had Buffalo advanced to the AFC Championship Game and lost, but Pegula wouldn’t answer it. A reasonable mind can conclude that one controversial call going the other team’s way cost the coach with the best winning percentage in Bills history his job.
Buscaglia: It’s all certainly up for discussion, with confusing and contradictory answers. Let’s get into what I thought was one of the most memorable parts of today’s proceedings, with Beane responding to the fan base’s perception that he made a power play to get McDermott out of Buffalo. That perception is part of the reason why fans are struggling with their trust in the franchise at the moment. Pegula interrupted Beane’s answer initially.
“I’m the kind of guy that, if I sense that you’re on a power play, you’re out. I don’t like power play people,” Pegula said. “We have an organization, that we work together. But, any sense at all that he was on a power play, he would’ve been gone, because that’s not my kind of person.”
Beane went on to passionately defend his character once Pegula finished his statement. What did you make of that exchange, Tim?
Graham: Reaction has been pretty lopsided in McDermott’s favor the past few days. I think the team failed to read the room. Big Baller Beane used to be preferred in any either-or debate with McDermott, but the tenor shifted. In my year-end mailbag last year, the overwhelming number of questions and criticisms were about Beane’s inability to build a Super Bowl roster. That was three months before his fateful WGR 550-AM interview.
Current and former players seemed to side with McDermott when emoting Monday. Nickel back Taron Johnson posted “smh” before deleting it. Defensive tackle Jordan Phillips called the decision “sickening.” Pro Bowl guard Richie Incognito wrote of McDermott: “He challenged them and told the truth. Accountability made them uncomfortable. You don’t win a Super Bowl unless everyone, including the GM, lives up to the standard.” Pro Bowl running back LeSean McCoy called out Beane for “non-talented rosters and absolutely NO HELP for Josh on offense or defense.”
Popular former Bills receiver Stevie Johnson suggested Beane was Judas Iscariot. Fans have piled on with references to Brutus, Benedict Arnold and Littlefinger.
Beane’s reputation needs considerable restoration over what has happened.
Buscaglia: The one person we haven’t heard from throughout all this, and who will ultimately be the biggest deciding factor if firing McDermott was the right move, is Josh Allen. Allen has yet to speak with reporters since his emotional news conference in Denver. The biggest wonder about all of this is how this impacts Allen and what he thinks about McDermott being let go.
Graham: I’m curious how Allen feels about his demeanor being declared a reason that compelled Pegula to fire their head coach.
Buscaglia: From everything that I’ve known of their relationship over the last eight seasons, McDermott and Allen have had a strong bond, especially so over the last couple of years. I thought it was somewhat telling that, when Pegula was asked what Allen thought about the move, he said the “conversation will stay private.” This is pure speculation, but that’s usually not indicative of full support of the move. Allen is the glue holding the show together and the reason why coaching candidates would want to come to Buffalo. And according to Pegula, Allen will be part of the team selecting a new coach.
I just wonder what the ramifications of how everything went down will impact the most important entity in the franchise. If the Bills, in any way, begin to alienate Allen, it will be an unmitigated disaster. It’s why it’s such a pressing thing to nail this head coaching hire, because not only are the Bills running out of prime Josh Allen years, but so is Josh Allen. If there ever comes a day when Allen begins to wonder, with how things are run, if his best chances of a championship are elsewhere, that, too, is a catastrophe.
That’s not to say it’s where things are, because Allen is intensely devoted to Buffalo and has made that abundantly clear every time he’s been asked about it. There is a special bond between Allen and the city of Buffalo. However, when you make this stark a change, all things must be considered.
Graham: This move puts added pressure on Allen and gives him quasi-ownership of the organization’s future. Pegula said Allen will be involved in selecting the next coach. There will be significant consideration given to keep Allen happy, a dynamic that has been in play for many years. Beane and McDermott were willing to name backup quarterback Davis Webb, at the time with zero coaching experience, Buffalo’s quarterbacks coach when Brian Daboll left for the New York Giants job and took Shea Tierney with him.
Allen never used excuses and certainly wouldn’t point fingers at McDermott, regardless; Allen isn’t that kind of guy. But now having a hand in influencing the Bills’ leadership will leave no place for Beane or Allen to hide.
The next coach will have to win a lot of games merely to be regarded as a lateral move, and in some ways, you can argue that matching McDermott’s record will be considered pointless. But if the Bills push farther in the tournament, reach the Super Bowl and actually win it, then all of this will be moot.
