Bills owner throws Sean McDermott under the bus twice during disastrous presser

Mike Moraitis

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Bills owner throws Sean McDermott under the bus twice during disastrous presser image

The Buffalo Bills' first press conference in the wake of the firing of head coach Sean McDermott was nothing short of a disaster.

The presser, which featured both owner Terry Pegula and general manager Brandon Beane, saw McDermott get thrown under the bus twice and it was clear Pegula was doing his best to protect Beane, who should have been fired, also.

One instance was Pegula placing the blame for drafting wide receiver Keon Coleman on the shoulders of McDermott and not Beane.

"The coaching staff pushed to pick Keon," Pegula said. "That was Brandon being a team player... He's taken heat over it. I'm here to tell you the true story."

But wait, there's more.

When speaking on the Bills' playoff struggles that featured no trips to the Super Bowl on McDermott's watch, Pegula said those failures came despite a "great roster."

“Great roster. Good coaching. No Super Bowls… how do we overcome this? One year after another. I just couldn’t see us doing that with Sean (McDermott). That’s why I relieved him," Pegula said.

Whether Coleman was McDermott's and the coaching staff's choice or not, it's a terrible look for Pegula to be putting the blame on his former head coach.

Not to mention, Pegula's answer indicates Beane could have prevented the Coleman pick, and given the fact that he didn't, Beane deserves blame, also.

We'd also like to point out that Coleman is still on the roster and has to watch his owner point fingers for who screwed up with drafting him.

That's obviously not going to sit well with the young wide receiver, and it certainly won't help his confidence, either. The chances of Coleman getting moved this offseason just increased exponentially.

When it comes to the "great roster" remark: you've got to be kidding me.

Nobody is going to say the Bills' roster is bad, but Beane regularly made terrible free-agent signings and draft picks. Perhaps his biggest crime was failing to give Josh Allen sufficient weapons to throw to.

What all of this tells us is that Pegula places zero blame on Beane, which is troubling because the owner clearly hasn't identified a big part of Buffalo's problem.

Instead, Pegula promoted the problem.

We want to be optimistic about the future in Buffalo, but this press conference sent us in the opposite direction.

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Staff Writer