ORCHARD PARK, NY. (WKBW) — Buffalo Bills Owner Terry Pegula and General Manager/President of Football Operations Brandon Beane addressed the media on Wednesday morning.
It was one of the most highly anticipated press conferences, just days after the team fired nine-year head coach Sean McDermott.
The questions ranged from the decision to fire McDermott, to looking back on comments Beane made about the wide receiver room this summer, and Pegula's reasoning as to why McDermott was the one to lose his job, and not Beane.
Here are five takeaways from this nearly hour-long press conference.
The Decision
The big question on everyone's mind is what was the reasoning for McDermott's firing? Owner Terry Pegula said the decision was his and his alone.
"My decision to bring in a new coach was based on the results of our game in Denver," Pegula said. "I walked over to Josh, he didn't even acknowledge I was there. The first thing I said to him was that it was a catch. We all know what I'm talking about. He didn't acknowledge me. He just sat there sobbing. He had given everything he had to try to win that game. I saw the pain in Josh's face at his presser. And I felt his pain. I know we can do better, and I know we will get better."
After years of coming up just short of the ultimate goal, Pegula had enough and thought it was time for a change.
Why McDermott leaves, Beane stays
As the Bills ended their 2025-2026 season, the injuries in large part led to a lot of "shuffling" you saw this lineup take every week.
"I mean, look at the injuries we had this year, where we're down guys on the practice squad contributing in big games," said Pegula. "You don't do that without talent in the front office."
Beane is in charge of assembling that roster every season, and McDermott is in charge of getting that roster to perform every week.
A lot of that success in getting an injury-riddled roster to win 12 games in the regular season and the organization's first road playoff win since 1992 falls on McDermott's coaching. But alas, Pegula felt that McDermott should be the one to shoulder the blame for another "Super Bowl-less" season.
"Again, I go back to 5-2-3-2-2-2-6 [the seeding Buffalo was their last seven trips to the playoffs]," Pegula said. "Great roster, good coaching, no Super Bowl appearance, and I can emphasize that if I can put you all in that room after the game, how do we overcome this? It's been one year after another, and it was the sense of how do we overcome this, and I just couldn't see us doing that with Sean. That's why I relieved him."
The "Power Play"
Since news broke of McDermott's firing, many have speculated that for a duration of time, there was a "power struggle" between McDermott and Beane as this team tried to save its season.
Rumors that Beane had the ear of Pegula and ownership more than McDermott, and communication between the three had started to "dissolve," were addressed by Beane and Pegula in a lengthy response.
Reporter: "The perception from the fan base out there is that this was some kind of power play made by you, to still be here and Sean not."
Pegula: "I'm the kind of guy, if I sense you're on a power play, you're out. I don't like power play people. We have an organization that we work together, but any sense at all that he was on a power play, he would have been gone."
Beane: "That's hurtful to even hear that or say that...For somebody to question my character like that, it's BS. And I've never done that. If you'll remember. In 2023, there was an article written on Sean. Who stood up in front of every one of you guys and defended him and his family and everything he's done here? And then we went to Kansas City, and we won that game. And I went down to Jeff Mazurek and said, give me a game ball. I'm going to show everyone that this team has his back. I've done nothing but have everyone's back, and for someone to question my character, my integrity. That's where I draw the line."
WATCH: What's next for the Buffalo Bills? Terry Pegula and Brandon Beane discuss firing Sean McDermott, end of the season
Coaching search update
So with McDermott gone, we now move forward with the head coach search. Under his additional role as President of Football Operations, Beane will lead the search and told reporters Wednesday it is a full open search.
That being said, leaks have been reported, and a short list of candidates includes Brian Daboll, Joe Brady, Grant Udinski, Anthony Lynn, Lou Anarumo, and Anthony Weaver.
For a while, the desire from the fan base that the organization move on from McDermott would be to bring in an "offensive-minded" head coach. Beane spoke on where they are as a front office, as this process is in its beginning stages.
"We'll definitely give those guys every chance, but we gotta be careful," Beane said. "This is a bigger job than just a play caller and a schemer. I think we've seen where guys have been excellent play callers, but they got to the head coach seat, and they couldn't handle the adversity, the conflict management. It's a CEO job. So we gotta make sure we get the leadership, the CEO part, so not far enough down the road, I mean, we haven't even started to know that, but I get your question."
So while rumors on potential candidates continue to come in, there's no concrete update from Beane or the front office.
Keon Coleman
It was probably expected that Beane would have to take some questions about the wide receiver room he assembled this season. The unit was under constant scrutiny for not having "enough playmakers" to elevate Josh Allen and the rest of this offense.
Beane was first asked if he regretted that infamous WGR 550 interview with Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase in which he defended the criticism many fans had about that position group.
He told reporters on Wednesday that back then, he felt the need to defend the group but did not want that interview to come off as condescending.
Then he was asked more about the way he handled the free agent market for wide receivers and the draft process, with Keon Coleman being used as an example. Before Beane could start to answer, Pegula spoke up.
"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 his 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."
It was perhaps the most surprising part of the nearly hour-long press conference, putting Beane in a very tough position to defend his 2024 second round draft pick.
"He's been here 2 years, has 2 years left on his deal. It's up to us to continue to work with him and develop him. His issues have not been on the field. They've just been maturity things that he owns. I give him credit. He owns. He doesn't make excuses, which I appreciate. And you know, the crazy thing is, at this time last year, we kind of went through where he was trending up. He had the injury. He busted his tail, had a great offseason. You guys were at training camp. He had an excellent camp; no matter who he went against, made a bunch of plays. The Ravens game obviously ends up with 100 and whatever yards, and you're like, man, this kid's gonna take off. But some of the maturity stuff got in the way, and you can naturally lose confidence in teammates or coaches, and that's understandable. It's up to us, and he and I had this conversation, and I'm sure he did with his coaches as well on the way out of, all right, you got to hit the reset again and attack this offseason the way you did attack training camp. And don't let these maturity issues get in the way of your playing time and your production on this team. So that's where we're at with Keon Coleman, but we still believe in Keon Coleman here, and it's up to us to develop his talent."
You can watch the full press conference below.
