The Buffalo Bills find themselves in quite the predicament after their season came to an end this past Saturday. They lost in the divisional round against the Denver Broncos in an overtime heartbreaker and instead of reviewing what went wrong as a team and front office, Terry Pegula made the decision to make a big change and fired Sean McDermott.
Pegula confirmed in Wednesday's press conference that he was the one who indeed relieved McDermott which now puts the Bills in a spot to look for their next head coach. The move to fire McDermott caught a lot of people by shock and surprise, simply because of the timing and because there were thoughts on maybe McDermott was the wrong person to fire.
General manager and new President of Football Operations for the Bills, Brandon Beane, is now in a spot where he has to prove that he was worthy of the promotion he got and show that it was the coaching staff from this decade that was stopping the Bills from making the Super Bowl.
With this bold move by the Bills to fire McDermott when they did, we take a look at other bold predictions that the Bills could pull off this offseason.
Bold predictions for Bills' 2026 offseason
1.) Brandon Beane goes heavy on defense again in NFL Draft
It is certainly fair to say that wide receiver is the weakest point of the roster for the Bills. However, this defense was a complete mess from start to finish this season, especially against the run. Last offseason, Beane invested a lot into the defense in both free agency and the draft.
In the draft, they only used three picks on offensive players and the other six on defense. While free agency can change some things, it would not be a surprise if the Bills went heavy on defense to bring in even more talent to improve this run defense. Not to mention, they are set to lose players like DaQuan Jones, Joey Bosa, and A.J. Epenesa to free agency.
2.) New coaching staff features Brian Daboll, Davis Webb, and Jim Schwartz
The Bills’ head coaching search is currently underway and there are so many directions that they could take. A name that has been linked as a favorite to land the job is Brian Daboll, who was with the Bills as their offensive coordinator in the early Josh Allen years. According to Dianna Russini, if Daboll does not land the head coaching job in Buffalo then he will end up with the Titans as their offensive coordinator.
While Beane has said that this search is a “100% open search” per Sal Capaccio, it would not be surprising at all if Daboll is named as McDermott’s replacement as head coach in Buffalo.
In addition, Davis Webb who was a backup for Josh Allen in the early 2020s, is now the Broncos' offensive pass coordinator and has been getting a ton of buzz as a potential head coach as early as this year. Webb was a player for the Bills when Daboll was the OC in Buffalo, so bringing in Webb as the OC would make a lot of sense.
As for Jim Schwartz, he is currently the defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns and the defense for the Browns is the only strong point of their team. If Schwartz doesn't land the HC job with the Browns and decides to not return, the Bills could have the opportunity to bring him back to Buffalo, where he was the defensive coordinator in 2014 and created a great defense for the Bills.
3.) Bills do major clean up with their salary cap
The Bills have a tough salary cap situation on their hands. A lot of their money is invested in a small group of players, which could explain the lack of proven talent the last couple of seasons. However, if the Bills are bold enough to make a head coaching change when they did, maybe they will make some bold roster changes that could help them clean up the salary cap.
Who knows what that looks like, but it would not be surprising to see Buffalo make some unpopular moves to create salary cap room.
4.) Bills trade Keon Coleman as part of package for star WR
Has Keon Coleman played his last down in Buffalo? It is a possibility, but he’s only had two seasons with the Bills and still has two more years left on his rookie contract. At the same time, he has not proven to be the playmaker that Buffalo wanted him to be. Even at Pegula and Beane’s press conference, Pegula mentioned how it was the coaching staff that wanted to draft Coleman.
Well, that coaching staff could be out soon officially and if that’s the case, it would make sense to trade Coleman. If that's the case, then the Bills could put Coleman as part of a package that they could trade for a star wide receiver. Who that wideout is would be the interesting part.
Maybe it's someone like A.J. Brown or Justin Jefferson. With Brown, there is a good chance that he is done in Philadelphia and could be on another team. Jeremy Fowler from ESPN wrote how NFL executives, coaches and scouts listed a prediction of the Bills trading for Coleman.
As far as Jefferson, this is a very bold prediction but the Vikings do have a major problem at quarterback. Who knows if Jefferson would want to stay considering the fact that Minnesota needs to find an upgrade at quarterback while Jefferson is in his prime.
The Bills and Vikings made a trade back in 2020 that brought Stefon Diggs to Buffalo, so there is history between these teams. However, it would take an absolute haul for Jefferson to be traded, and that's if Minnesota was even willing to listen.