Niagara Falls, NY – Happy Monday. Okay, so we know who the Super Bowl teams are, but they’re going to talk about the game 80 million ways between today and actual kickoff. So, congrats to the New England Patriots and congrats to the Seattle Seahawks. I want to talk to you about the Buffalo Bills. All the talk in the greater Buffalo area the last week has been about the firing of Sean McDermott, the reasons why, and the really weird press conference featuring the owner and the GM.
McDermott Had to Go
First off, I do understand that McDermott had to go. There’s no doubt about it in my mind, and it’s not because I don’t like the guy. It’s about a couple of philosophies.
I pay attention to a lot of sports, and people I know pay attention to other sports. A friend of mine from Belgium pays attention to cycling because Beligium is supposedly very good at it, and we were talking soccer. He quoted something from the president of the Belgian Cycling Federation to me. The quote goes: “The coach that gets you from 10th in the world to 5th in the world might not be the same guy that gets you to 3rd, and you might have to accept that you need a whole new person to get you to 1st.”
That is unfortunately the case here with McDermott. I think he’s had a great run with the team, but I think at this stage in his career, he’s taken a team as far as he can take it. And I say “at this stage in his career” because similar things have happened to other coaches. Like a Pete Carroll, who was poor with the Jets, went to college to rebuild himself, came back and took Seattle to a Super Bowl. Or the current coach of the Patriots, Mike Vrabel, who got fired in Tennessee but ended up in the Super Bowl with the Patriots. Or the previous Patriots coach, Bill Belichick, who had a decent stint in Cleveland but couldn’t get over the hump, went back and was an assistant for a few years until the opportunity came with the Patriots, and then he got his rings.
I think McDermott needs to go somewhere fresh, maybe as a DC even, add a couple more tricks to his toolbox, and then he’ll be ready for a future opportunity.
How It Happened
How this happened is really the problem. Usually, when a head coach is fired, the GM that came in with him is also fired. Everybody knows in football it’s the GM-Head Coach-QB trinity. The GM is usually hired, he picks his coach, they work together to draft their quarterback, and if it all goes well, they’re married to each other.
They found their quarterback in Josh Allen. They were struggling, and it looked like McDermott wasn’t getting it done, but usually you also send out the GM and start afresh. Maybe you give the quarterback a say, tell him he’s still the franchise. That didn’t happen here. Brandon Beane got promoted to Director of Football Operations—he’s not even just the GM anymore. So it looks like it was a clear power play, with Beane winning total control and drop-kicking McDermott out the door.
That is like watching a father say, “I’m going to keep John in the will, and I’m taking David out.” It’s shocking. So obviously, Beane sold all the failures on the coach and took no responsibility himself, which is weird because the GM has a lot of say in drafting, construction, and signings. It’s not like the coach can be the one offering contracts; he can advocate, but he doesn’t have contract power. He might say, “I want to keep this guy,” and the GM says, “No, it’s not financially feasible, he’s got to go.”
That Press Conference
That press conference—if you haven’t seen it, I suggest you watch it, or at least the highlights. It was wild. It was like Terry Pegula, the owner, saying, “Brandon Beane is my son, and he’s right and everybody else is wrong.” You watch him throw a current player, in the second year of a four-year contract, under the bus, saying, “Well, he hasn’t worked out.” Like, how is Keon Coleman supposed to come back to practice knowing the new president of football operations and the owner think he’s done? How is anybody supposed to have faith in the system when it’s been made pretty clear you’ll be thrown under the bus?
For all the failures of this team, one thing that has come out in reports is that McDermott clearly said to Beane going into this year that this team was still not constructed to win a Super Bowl. And if there’s any one thing noted about this team, it would still be a consistent, dominant pass rush and a number-one receiver—which was a problem last year, too.
And then you watch Pegula take questions directed at Beane and say, “Well, no, no, it’s not his fault, it’s this and that.” It just sounded like a father trying to protect his son. I’m like, what is going on here?
And then you have the whole, “I have to be sure that we’ve made the right call, but you know we’ll find out if this is the right choice or not,” which is the worst quote and just had jaws on the floor. It didn’t instill any confidence in what was going on.
After years in the wilderness, the Bills have been a consistent playoff team and Super Bowl contender. They gouged people—absolutely gouged them—for this new stadium and boondoggled the state to pay for it. And now they’ve just fired their head coach, and people are wondering, “Are we going back to the bad old days, just as this new stadium is being built and all these prices are going up?“
We will find out. But it’ll be very interesting to see who they hire—who they think can take them to the mountaintop.
Come back tomorrow for Ben Whitney, I got nothing funny riffs about him
