Sean McDermott may have been the scapegoat, but that does not mean that general manager Brandon Beane is wholly out of the fire just yet. After another season in which the heavily hyped Buffalo Bills failed to make the Super Bowl, Beane somehow got a promotion instead of being shown the door like his contemporary.
A lot has been made about the situation at wide receiver. And make no mistake about it, all-everything quarterback Josh Allen needed a lot more help than he got. But the real issue Beane faces – the one keeping this team from ever really getting over the hump – is figuring out how to fix the pass rush.
Brandon Beane needs toresolve pass rush before receiver issues
2025’s Failures Rest on Beane
McDermott may have put in his best coaching effort by the time the 2025 season was over, but he had enough negative marks against him to justify his firing. All that said, the Bills should have been in a better position to contend, but their roster was woefully thin across the board.
That falls solely on the shoulders of Beane. The same Brandon Beane who chewed out radio personalities at the start of the season, lamenting the criticism levied toward the wide receiver group. The same Brandon Beane who made no significant, impactful move at the trade deadline when the team, the city, were crying out for one.
Beane put this team in a position where it needed their star player to be superhuman. And when he wasn’t, they fell short against a team that was simply better from top to bottom in the Denver Broncos. McDermott did the best with what he had, and Allen fell short on several throws, but Beane’s failure rings loudest. He needs to rectify that to justify his promotion to the head of football operations while McDermott was given his pink slip.
The Offense is Flawed, but Elite
Stats can be deceptive since they don’t tell the whole story. On the surface, the Bills offense is one you could hardly complain about. They finished fourth in the NFL in yards per game (376.3), first in the NFL in rushing yards per game (159.6), and fourth in points per game (28.3). Even the highly criticized passing offense finish 15th with 216.6 yards per game.
But if you watch the games, the struggles were apparent. Receivers who couldn’t separate. No discernable downfield passing game. A tendency to become one-dimensional in terms of the rushing attack. Questionable playcalling from new head coach (previously, offensive coordinator) Joe Brady.
Still, it is hard to argue with the results because of the one common denominator: Josh Allen. Since 2021, the Bills are first in total points per game at 28.5. They have the third-most passing touchdowns (159), second-most rushing touchdowns (119), and are first in total touchdowns by a mile (291).
Even when they are visibly flawed, as they were turning the ball over five times against the Denver Broncos in the AFC Divisional Round, they still put up 30 points. In the NFL playoffs, 30 points should be more than enough to win 99% of games.
The final point to prove that the offense doesn’t need “fixing,” rather complimenting: the Bills since 2020 are first in playoff points per game with 29.6 per contest. Yet in the biggest games, that isn’t enough to get the job done when it would have been for teams like the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs.
The Pass Rush is the Real Issue
The reason the Bills can’t get it done is because of the defense. Collectively, they have given up 33.2 points per game as a unit since 2020. In this past regular season, the team finished 20th in sacks and 27th in hurries. Only Joey Bosa really managed to find success in terms of win rate, though the team finished 27th in the NFL in that regard.
For all of his success pressuring the quarterback, Bosa finish with just five sacks. That was good enough for second on the team, with Greg Rousseau leading the way with a whopping seven sacks.
The defense is full of flaws, especially when you get so far down the depth chart at linebacker and defensive back. But the simple fact of the matter is that a much more effective pass rush mitigates those issues.
How many times did Denver QB Bo Nix make a big play because pressure was nowhere to be found? If Beane remains pat in terms of defensive personnel, the new defensive coordinator is going to have to find ways to generate more pressure.
Every Super Bowl champion going back to 2020 either had a game-wrecker (Chris Jones, Von Miller) or a dominant defensive line as a whole (Philadelphia, Tampa Bay). The Bills don’t need a great defense to get over the hump, they simply need one who gets more than one stop per game.
The Bills haven't had an upper-echelon pass rusher in a long time. In fact, since 2016, they have only had two players with more than 10 sacks - Lorenzo Alexander (12.5 sacks) in 2016 and Leonard Floyd (10.5) in 2023. That elite pass rusher has been missing for far too long and is the biggest issue facing Beane and the Bills.
Now is the Time to Act
For Beane, there are a few potential options out there. Maxx Crosby and the Las Vegas Raiders have been rumored to be on the outs for a while. It wasn’t long ago that Myles Garrett’s name was being floated on the trade block before he re-signed with the Cleveland Browns.
Beane needs to expend all the assets available to him and put this team in a position to win now. Give up the farm for a difference-maker like Crosby or Garrett, and it can transform the defense. Most importantly, it takes pressure off of Allen to be perfect on every drive. That’s the formula for a winner.