The Buffalo Bills poached their newly appointed general manager Brandon Beane from the Carolina Panthers, just as they did with head coach Sean McDermott, who surely must have had some influence in the hiring of Beane. This along with the familiarity among the two men, as well as all the sweeping changes that have come in the short time that McDermott has been in Buffalo, will surely have people questioning whether it’s the Bills head coach that is really in charge at One Bills Drive. That remains to be seen, as apparently, the Bills are set to publicly declare that Beane will be in charge of the team’s final roster, reports NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Source: New #Bills GM Brandon Beane does have control of the 53-man roster. He’ll work closely with coach Sean McDermott.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 10, 2017
It’s interesting that Rapoport says Beane will “work closely” with McDermott. This again supports that inordinate amount of perceived power that the first-year head coach has been given by team owners Terry and Kim Pegula.
Vic Carucci of The Buffalo News added some insights in relation to the report from Rapoport.
T. Pegula will say Friday Beane controls #Bills' 53-man roster, per @RapSheet. But they'll follow #Chiefs' model w coach making final call.
— Vic Carucci (@viccarucci) May 10, 2017
Told #Bills' setup will pretty much replicate #Chiefs'. GM John Dorsey has a say in the 53-man roster, but Andy Reid makes final calls.
— Vic Carucci (@viccarucci) May 10, 2017
As Carucci points out, the Kansas City Chiefs have a similar organizational setup as the Bills will apparently have, which is interesting because McDermott is part of Kansas City head coach Andy Reid’s coaching tree, with the two men having worked together as members of the Philadelphia Eagles. It would be remiss not to mention though that Reid is an ultra successful head coach, who’s been in charge on sidelines since 1998, while again, the 2017 season will be McDermott first as the head man. The Seattle Seahawks also follow a similar power structure with head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider. And, of course, we all know who run’s the show for the New England Patriots.
It appears that it’s a growing trend around the NFL to give head coaches more power than in years past, but it’s interesting that the Bills would go this route with a coach that is making these sorts of the decisions for the first time ever. And especially when the Bills essentially became a laughing stock towards the end of Doug Whaley’s tenure, because no one, including even him at times, seemed to know exactly what the extent of his powers were.
But as our Jeff Hunter put it: “I really think ‘final say’ is a semantic difference. One won't make a decision without heavy input from the other.”