Knives are out—total takedown of Pegula in The Athletic

[dave mcbride]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6983482/2026/01/19/brandon-beane-promoted-bills-gm-draft-record/

 

‘Terry Pegula has been an enigma when it comes to how he hires and fires his top employees with the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres. There is no playbook for guessing.

 

For years, Pegula was adamant that it made sense for his NFL and NHL teams to operate with different front office structures. With the Bills, he preferred the coach and the general manager report individually to the owner. With the Sabres, he wanted the coach to report to the general manager, the general manager to the owner.

 

Now, he wants them to be the same. And with Beane as president of football operations, the flow chart goes through him to Pegula. Now there is no confusion. Beane will have final say and no longer must compete with McDermott for Pegula’s attention.

 

And that’s why it’s easy to see how Beane not only gets to stay after his most disastrous season as Bills general manager, but also strengthens his place in the organization – similar to how Russ Brandon did it as an executive and Kevyn Adams as Sabres GM.
 

Beane and Pete Guelli watch the games with Pegula. Beane talks to Pegula about the team as the game transpires. We saw a glimpse of Pegula watching film with Beane during “Hard Knocks.” …

 

Beane has Pegula’s ear, and when it comes to power in a Pegula sports enterprise, that’s what matters most.

It’s also easy to imagine Beane being peeved at McDermott’s repeated, veiled swipes at the Bills’ roster holes by talking about other teams seemingly with envy.

 

To announce, less than 32 hours after the Bills’ plane landed in Cheektowaga, that McDermott had been fired while Beane and Guelli had been promoted shows this was in the works for a long time. Guelli has been chief operations officer but now he’s president of business operations, a title that grants him added access at the league office and consolidates his power at One Bills Drive.

 

Pegula embraces those he trusts. That’s how Russ Brandon went from the verge of dismissal when Pegula bought the team in 2014 to president of both the NFL and NHL clubs by 2015. That’s how former Bills GM Doug Whaley went from being nearly fired to keeping his job two more years. …

Pegula was always miffed by angry fan sentiment that Russ Brandon meddled with football decisions and once asked me why people think a business executive would have such influence. I said it stemmed from the three years Brandon was Bills GM under Ralph Wilson’s ownership from 2008 to 2010. Pegula pushed back about that being true; he did not know Brandon was once the general manager of the team he owned.

 

Adams became Sabres GM despite lacking high-level scouting or executive experience, partly because he watched games with Pegula and constantly shared opinions with the owner.

 

Beane’s 2025 offseason will be remembered most for his condescending comments to WGR 550-AM [about the WR corps]. The Bills loved Beane’s rant so much they made it the opener to their behind-the-scenes draft documentary, replaying the audio before mentioning the names of any rookies they actually selected. The radio folks turned out to be correct.’

Edited January 19 by dave mcbride

[Boatdrinks]

Can’t read it but not surprising considering the source. Something had to give and sitting on their hands wasn’t going to do it. 

[Victory Formation]

TLDR

 

Terry has been a great owner! Kept us in Buffalo, brought us to the Playoffs year after year, finally found us a franchise QB. NEW STADIUM!..

Edited January 19 by Victory Formation

[NORWOODS FOOT]

It better be true that McD was allowed to overrule Beane. 
 

And Beane better have been keeping realtime track of the decisions he would have made and been showing Pegula to prove that he was more capable than Sean. 

 

My greatest concern is that the root of the problem is Pegula himself - that he ultimately doesn’t know how to pick the brain trust of a football operation if Super Bowl is the goal.

 

 

Edited January 19 by NORWOODS FOOT

[Einstein]

Alternate title; “Beane pulls coup and outwits a dimwitted Pegula”

[Trogdor]

I'd just like to point out that Pegula made his money by destroying communities. Even in later years his company was constantly fined for breaking environmental laws like knowingly pumping chemicals into wells and poisoning the well water around it. These are not good people, they are just rich people. You think someone who allows his companies to poison communities is going to care that an employee yelled at radio hosts? The McDermott "hit piece" came out and none of it was false, they were just mad that someone printed it. 

[H2o]

 

Seriously though, what do you expect from this guy? 

[dock581]

If this article is true and Beane is as bad as Adams was, let’s hope that Guelli fires Beane!

 

 

 

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

26 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6983482/2026/01/19/brandon-beane-promoted-bills-gm-draft-record/

 

‘Terry Pegula has been an enigma when it comes to how he hires and fires his top employees with the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres. There is no playbook for guessing.

 

For years, Pegula was adamant that it made sense for his NFL and NHL teams to operate with different front office structures. With the Bills, he preferred the coach and the general manager report individually to the owner. With the Sabres, he wanted the coach to report to the general manager, the general manager to the owner.

 

Now, he wants them to be the same. And with Beane as president of football operations, the flow chart goes through him to Pegula. Now there is no confusion. Beane will have final say and no longer must compete with McDermott for Pegula’s attention.

 

And that’s why it’s easy to see how Beane not only gets to stay after his most disastrous season as Bills general manager, but also strengthens his place in the organization – similar to how Russ Brandon did it as an executive and Kevyn Adams as Sabres GM.
 

Beane and Pete Guelli watch the games with Pegula. Beane talks to Pegula about the team as the game transpires. We saw a glimpse of Pegula watching film with Beane during “Hard Knocks.” …

 

Beane has Pegula’s ear, and when it comes to power in a Pegula sports enterprise, that’s what matters most.

It’s also easy to imagine Beane being peeved at McDermott’s repeated, veiled swipes at the Bills’ roster holes by talking about other teams seemingly with envy.

 

To announce, less than 32 hours after the Bills’ plane landed in Cheektowaga, that McDermott had been fired while Beane and Guelli had been promoted shows this was in the works for a long time. Guelli has been chief operations officer but now he’s president of business operations, a title that grants him added access at the league office and consolidates his power at One Bills Drive.

 

Pegula embraces those he trusts. That’s how Russ Brandon went from the verge of dismissal when Pegula bought the team in 2014 to president of both the NFL and NHL clubs by 2015. That’s how former Bills GM Doug Whaley went from being nearly fired to keeping his job two more years. …

Pegula was always miffed by angry fan sentiment that Russ Brandon meddled with football decisions and once asked me why people think a business executive would have such influence. I said it stemmed from the three years Brandon was Bills GM under Ralph Wilson’s ownership from 2008 to 2010. Pegula pushed back about that being true; he did not know Brandon was once the general manager of the team he owned.

 

Adams became Sabres GM despite lacking high-level scouting or executive experience, partly because he watched games with Pegula and constantly shared opinions with the owner.

 

Beane’s 2025 offseason will be remembered most for his condescending comments to WGR 550-AM [about the WR corps]. The Bills loved Beane’s rant so much they made it the opener to their behind-the-scenes draft documentary, replaying the audio before mentioning the names of any rookies they actually selected. The radio folks turned out to be correct.’

 

Graham likes ot take shots at Pegula whenever he has the chance, so not to sure about the validity of this one.  The GM is likely always going to be in the owners ear  as he's sitting in the press box, somewhat off the sidelines during practices sop easy for owner to talk with.

[NewEra]

Or maybe Terry has zero confidence in himself making the right moves and, for whatever reason, has confidence in Beane to make the decisions for him.  I want Terry to make a few decisions as possible.  
 

I hope we get to find out some specifics regarding how the draft plan and roster construction was put together and who had the most say in what happened with the WR unit.  By his reaction on WGR, one would think it was Beanes plan but you never know (unless that already knowledge that I’m not privy to).   

[Einstein]

10 minutes ago, Walking Tall said:

Oh look! Tim Graham. The same guy that wrote a hit piece on McDermott.

 

 

That was Tyler Dunne.

[KentuckyBillsFan]

All of this could've been solved by just firing Beane along with McDermott and starting over. I think overall the fan base would've been very excited for a fresh start and pretty united. Instead, it's going to be arguing about the new structure and constantly watching everything Beane does because he's unliked by a large part of the fan base.

 

Not sure this could've been handled worse tbh. Just inept ownership.

[Mojo44]

10 minutes ago, Walking Tall said:

Oh look! Tim Graham. The same guy that wrote a hit piece on McDermott.

 

Who would have thought that lowlife had another one up his sleeve?

Agreed. My experience with Tim Graham suggests to me that he is seriously lacking and consistency on what he says. I think his sources are questionable at best. He seems to claim to be objective, but it comes across to me as the pretense of objectivity.

[KentuckyBillsFan]

Just now, Mojo44 said:

Agreed. My experience with Tim Graham suggests to me that he is seriously lacking and consistency on what he says. I think his sources are questionable at best. He seems to claim to be objective, but it comes across to me as the pretense of objectivity.

Use your own judgement here... It's pretty clear Beane won a power struggle with McDermott and got him pushed out while getting Terry to give him more power.

 

Do you think Brandon Beane deserves more power?

 

If so, he hoodwinked the dimwitted owner.. as the article basically states.

[HereComesTheReignAgain]

I knew who wrote this article before I got down to the "by" line.  Timmy does love his negative articles!

 

It is amusing to see Timmy spin the Cook negotiation and contract as a negative.  Beane negotiated with, and signed the future NFL rushing leader to a very fair contract. 

Edited January 19 by HereComesTheReignAgain

[QCity]

39 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

I said it stemmed from the three years Brandon was Bills GM under Ralph Wilson’s ownership from 2008 to 2010. Pegula pushed back about that being true; he did not know Brandon was once the general manager of the team he owned.

 

😂

[Process]

Pegula making decisions is terrifying. I just hope we get lucky and they don't screw this up. 

[BRH]

I didn't even have to click on the article to know who wrote it.

[Ray Stonada]

A couple people in Buffalo who know the Bills seems to be that they don't really know what they're doing. This article basically makes the same point.

 

I sure hope it's wrong and we get a great new coach.

[Mojo44]

1 minute ago, KentuckyBillsFan said:

Use your own judgement here... It's pretty clear Beane won a power struggle with McDermott and got him pushed out while getting Terry to give him more power.

 

Do you think Brandon Beane deserves more power?

 

If so, he hoodwinked the dimwitted owner.. as the article basically states.

First of all and most importantly, it is not clear in any way shape or form that Brandon won a power struggle. There is reporting from all sides regarding this issue. None of us know what happened behind the scenes because it is unknowable. Personally I prefer to take the parsimonious route and realize that McDermot got fired because he didn’t get the job done. 
 

and your last statement is a complete shoot from the hip speculation. Yes, I do want to see what Brandon can do in terms of personnel, perhaps without his hands being tied by  McDermott. And make no mistake about it, Terry is not dimwitted. That’s a bad take. You have no knowledge of the guy. When I have no direct knowledge of someone, I default to he’s probably pretty intelligent, unless I have conclusive objective proof otherwise. Neither of us have that.