The Buffalo Bills believe they have built a Super Bowl contender. That is the primary reason why head coach Sean McDermott was fired, and it's the primary reason why the team is not letting general manager Brandon Beane go anywhere.
The Bills have moved on from McDermott, but they're sticking with the architect of the roster. General manager Brandon Beane came to the Bills as a package deal, in a way, with McDermott after their run with the Carolina Panthers together. And now, after all their years together, Beane is going to be helping lead a brand-new coaching search to get this team over the hump.
You can't fault the Bills for not wanting to blow the whole thing up from the top down, but is Beane really deserving of sticking around?
Bills make it clear that GM Brandon Beane is not going anywhere after new report
The Bills are retaining GM Brandon Beane, who will help lead the team's first coaching search since 2017.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 19, 2026
Given how long this duo has been working together, you absolutely can't say that Sean McDermott is the scapegoat for the Bills after their latest failure in the NFL postseason. It has been the same story year after year during the Josh Allen era, and the head coach has to face the music.
Part of the reason there is so much frustration is because the Bills do have such a solid all-around roster. Nobody in the NFL has a perfect roster, but the Bills have to feel like they've put plenty of talent on the field for McDermott to win with in recent years, and it's not Beane's fault that they couldn't finish the job.
Are there areas of the roster that could have been better this year? Absolutely. However, this is not just about the Bills losing in the playoffs against the Broncos on Saturday, it's about them not getting the job done consistently over the last five years.
They gave McDermott a lot of chances to win with a phenomenal roster, and it didn't happen. And the organization is believing that Beane can put together another great roster with Allen at the quarterback position, and another head coach is going to be able to get them over the hump.
In combination with a new stadium for the team next season, the job opening should be attractive to the biggest of big-name head coach candidates out there. Even the idea of luring Mike Tomlin back to the sidelines shouldn't be considered out of the question.
John Harbaugh might be regretting his decision to accept the Giants' job as quickly as he did.
The presence of a holdover GM is often a turn-off for some head coach candidates, but Beane has proven he will throw whatever assets are available to him to upgrade this Bills roster. And that's the kind of GM almost any and every head coach candidate will want to work with.