Bills Owner Defends McDermott Firing, Raises More Questions

One of the NFL’s most publicly reserved team owners stepped out of the shadows Wednesday to attempt to explain a highly debated head-coaching change, but ended up just amplifying already-growing questions surrounding the franchise. 

Bills owner Terry Pegula ended a long public silence by appearing with newly promoted president of football operations Brandon Beane to detail Monday’s firing of head coach Sean McDermott. While both executives went out of their way to praise McDermott’s nine-year run that included eight playoff appearances, Pegula said he made the decision to fire him after the Bills’ overtime loss Saturday to the Broncos in the divisional playoff round.

“I felt like we hit the proverbial playoff wall,” Pegula said. “I just sensed in the locker room, ‘Where do we go from here, with what we have?’ That was the basis for my decision.

“It was, ‘Where does the leadership of the team, on the field and in the locker room, go from that moment—another playoff failure?’ That’s why I decided Sean had to leave,” he said. 

Pegula, however, declined to say whether he would have made the same choice regarding McDermott had the Bills advanced to the AFC championship game or the Super Bowl. Notably, the Bills-Broncos game came down in large part to a highly controversial interception by Denver in overtime—one that Pegula insisted Wednesday was still a legal catch by Bills receiver Brandin Cooks. 

Rising Scrutiny

Though the Bills are still just one of six NFL teams with a head-coaching opening (a total of 10 teams made head coaching changes this cycle), none of the others have the pedigree of recent success that Buffalo does, nor the level of talent of Bills quarterback and 2024 NFL Most Valuable Player Josh Allen. The superstar player did not have a role in McDermott’s firing, Pegula said, but will have input on the next head coach. 

That, in return, raises the big question of whether the next Bills coach will have immediate expectations of reaching the Super Bowl after the team’s repeated issues in the playoffs. Pegula said the next head coach will not have “Super Bowl or bust” expectations. 

“It’s not an easy decision [to change coaches] with that success. But what is success?” Pegula said. “Is it being in the playoffs seven years in a row with no Super Bowl?”

In a dizzying turn during the nearly hourlong press conference, Pegula said the Bills’ 2024 draft selection of wide receiver Keon Coleman was made foremost on the recommendation of coaches, including McDermott, and not Beane. Minutes later, however, Beane said he led the decision to draft Coleman. 

Pegula, answering reporters’ questions for the first time since June 2020, said much of his recent absence from public appearances has stemmed from attending to his wife, Kim, who suffered a cardiac arrest in June 2022. The owner, however, said he intends to be more accessible to fans and media in the future

“I think that’s a possibility in the future. … I can’t even watch my daughter play tennis,” Pegula said, referring to Jessica Pegula, the No. 6-ranked women’s player in the world. “We have issues in the family. But I can see me being more available.”

Big Contrast From Hockey

The leadership transition now unfolding with the Bills is the exact inverse of the Sabres, also owned by Pegula. Last month, Pegula dismissed longtime Sabres GM Kevyn Adams, and under successor Jarmo Kekäläinen, the long-struggling NHL franchise has since been essentially reborn—and with incumbent coach Lindy Ruff. 

Since Dec. 9, the Sabres are 16–3–1, leading the NHL in wins in that stretch, and are now in line to claim a playoff spot for the first time since 2011.