The Beane and McDermott Regime Brings Glory Back to Buffalo

The six-year partnership of Bills general manager, Brandon Beane and head coach, Sean McDermott has been one of the best in the franchise’s 63-year existence.  The duo from the Carolina Panthers have rejuvenated a once-lost Bills franchise who’d fallen off the NFL landscape after their fruitful 1990’s Super Bowl run and experienced one of the biggest playoff droughts in sport’s history.

The marriage of Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane to the city of Buffalo has brought once-in-a generation kind of success to a city whose fans were wondering, not too long ago, if their beloved Bills would be relocating to a different metropolis, let alone sniffing the playoffs ever again.  All this recent success, however, has been overshadowed by heartache for many Bills fans.

The recent playoff disappointment for the Bills after the 2021 and 2022 seasons has left many to wonder if Sean McDermott has what it takes to get the Bills over the hump and into the Super Bowl. Many have criticized the conservative nature in which the Bills handled the last 13-seconds of the 2021 divisional round loss to the Chiefs and even more blamed McDermott for the entire Bills team coming out flat in the divisional round loss to the Cincinnati Bengals after the 2022 season.

For many Hall of Fame, Super Bowl-winning head coaches, it took time to reach the Super Bowl and win it. Andy Reid has now won two Super Bowls with the Chiefs, but it came after 20 seasons of “coming close” before he finally won his first at the age of 61 in 2019. The same can be said for legendary coaches Tom Landry (12 seasons), Don Shula (10 seasons) and Bill Cowher (14 seasons)—all Hall of Fame Coaches and all had to wait to hoist their first Lombardi Trophy.

Although there have been no Super Bowl championships yet, it’s important to remember that the Beane/McDermott duo have brought glory back to Buffalo and the franchise has experienced many “first in a long times” including:

The first playoff appearance in 17 seasons (2017—lost to Jacksonville)

The first AFC East championship in 25 seasons (2020)

The first playoff victory in 25 seasons (2020—beat Indianapolis)

The first AFC Championship appearance in 27 years (1993)

In fact, the Bills stretch from 2019-2022 is the third best four-year stretch in team history—the other two were Super Bowl years.

If we compare the six seasons that Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott have been in Buffalo (2017-2022) to the six seasons before they were in Buffalo (2011-2016), you’ll see on of the best turnarounds in the NFL.  The Bills were 62-97 from 2011-2016—a .438 winning percentage and with Beane/McDermott under the helm, Buffalo’s winning percentage increases to .639, a .201 percent increase.  That’s INCLUDING going 15-17 in the regime’s first two seasons. 

Most of the success of the McDermott and Beane duo can be attributed to drafting Josh Allen in 2018. Brandon Beane could have easily brought Tyrod Taylor back—after all, he’d led the Bills to their first playoff appearance in nearly two years. But Beane knew that the Bills had gotten everything possible out of Tyrod and the decision to move on from him in favor of Josh Allen is what will define this regime and when the Bills finally do win a Super Bowl with Josh Allen and Sean McDermott, we’ll all look back on that fateful day in late April 2018 as the biggest day in Buffalo Bills history.