After their recent success, who knew the Bills organization was just as dysfunctional as other teams in the AFC East?
On Wednesday morning, Bills owner Terry Pegula and general manager Brandon Beane spoke with reporters for about an hour two days after coach Sean McDermott was fired.
Shortly after it began, people began to see why Pegula hasn’t spoken to the Buffalo media since 2019. He threw McDermott under the bus several times. The most egregious part of the press conference came when Beane was asked about drafting wide receiver Keon Coleman.
Not only did Pegula interrupt Beane’s answer, but he also undermined several members of the Bills organization and McDermott.
“Can I interrupt? I’ll address the Keon situation,” Pegula said. “The coaching staff pushed to draft Keon.
“I’m not saying Brandon wouldn’t have drafted him, but he wasn’t his next choice. That was Brandon being a team player and taking advice of this coaching staff who felt strongly about the player. He’s taken, for some reason, heat over it and not saying a word about it, but I’m here to tell you the true story.”
Beane later clarified that Coleman was his pick.
“Terry’s point was that we might have had a different order of personnel versus coaching, and I went that way,” Beane said. “But ultimately, I’m not turning a pick for a player that I don’t think we can succeed with. So don’t misunderstand that.”
The Bills drafted Coleman with the first pick in the second round of the 2024 draft. However, he has suffered through two mediocre seasons. Coleman was a healthy scratch for four games during the 2025 season and the team disciplined him in November.
Pegula has little issue with throwing McDermott and his coaching staff under the bus. What does that say about offensive coordinator Joe Brady, who is expected to interview for the coaching position?
This press conference was very similar to October, when Jets owner Woody Johnson not only publicly threw Justin Fields under the bus following a 0-7 start, but also put the bus in reverse and ran over Fields again and again.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Pegula also explained why he fired McDermott following the loss to the Broncos in the AFC Divisional Round. Pegula says he didn’t consider firing McDermott until after the game.
“If I can take you into that locker room, I feel like we hit the preverbal playoff wall,” Pegula said. “Thirteen seconds, missed field goals, the catch. I just sensed in that locker room, where do we go from here with what we have, and that was the basis for my decision.”
What is Pegula talking about? McDermott went 98-50 in his nine years with Buffalo. His naysayers would say McDermott was 8-8 in his eight playoff appearances. However, the Bills have a 73-27 record since 2020, the best in the NFL during that span.
Several Bills players also showed their displeasure on social media about McDermott’s firing.
“This s–t here is so stupid, honestly sickening,” Bills defensive tackle Jordan Phillips said on his Instagram. “The best coach I’ve ever been around.”
Phillips should know because he spent his first four seasons with the Dolphins, the same organization that hasn’t won a playoff game since 2000. He also played with the Giants, Cardinals and Cowboys.
Safety Damar Hamlin and other players also thanked McDermott and were surprised by the move.
The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, but Pegula and the Bills should know this. They are the same organization that had a 17-year playoff drought (1999-2016) until McDermott led Buffalo to a playoff berth in his first season in 2017.
If anything, McDermott, along with Josh Allen, should have been praised for just getting the Bills to the playoffs.
Buffalo, with Beane in charge as the GM, hasn’t put a good enough team around Allen and the Bills took a step back this year. As noted by Benjamin Solak of ESPN, the Bills have drafted 56 players since selecting Allen in 2018. Only two of them, running back James Cook and tight end Dawson Knox, have made it to the Pro Bowl.
Allen is the single reason the Bills have escaped the mediocrity the Jets and Dolphins have endured for much of the last 25 years. Having an elite quarterback has masked a lot of the Bills’ issues, including ownership.
