Brandon Beane, formerly of the Carolina Panthers was named the general manager of the Buffalo Bills.
Experience. Vision. Leadership.
Welcome to Buffalo, GM Brandon Beane! pic.twitter.com/16bwfXbAdM
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) May 9, 2017
Mind of Joe
I think it is safe to say this isn’t a shocking hiring. Everyone knows McDermott runs the show and he’s going to want to work with someone he knows very well. The Pegulas can come out acting like it was their soul decision, but I’d bet dollars to donuts this was mostly McDermott’s call.
I’m sure there will be a crowd of folks who love the move because Beane is so young and it is always the cool thing to get someone who is a bit green, but is innovative. Young GMs always tend to get branded that. The part that I’d like to hang my hat on with this partnership is that it is obvious not an arranged marriage which I think doomed Whaley with Marrone/Rex. You HAVE to be on the same page with your GM and have the same vision and chain of command is key. From the looks, I’d assume Buffalo is going to adopt the New England way where McDermott runs the show and the GM is basically the sounding board who offers info on who he likes in the draft/FA and coach picks who he likes.
I’m curious to see what the Bills say on Friday when it comes to who has final say on the 53-man roster since it was originally supposed to be Doug Whaley and that was complete BS. Will it be the “Collective voice” over the roster, Beane has final say, or will McDermott just say it’s my team. I’m also curious to see how the scouting staff gets filled up. Is this going to be all Beane or is McDermott/Pegula going to be involved in the staffing.
It is crazy to think all of the lifers are basically gone from One Bills Drive except for #Brandonfinger and Overdorf. That to me is the most exciting thing as the management office has been fractured by losing, discord and blame for the entire drought. The Pegulas finally figured out that when you try building something on a bad foundation, the building is going to have deformities. They tried doing that with meshing their selections at coach with Ralph’s leftovers in the front office and it just didn’t work. Finally they have done a complete clean sweep where we can move forward and not worry about the losing disease from Ralph’s crew spreading to the new employees. Of course, I’ll never completely believe #brandonfinger is out of the picture, but at least his allies or the people he was involved in hiring are gone for now.
Overall, I don’t really know much about Beane. I mean, the Panthers have always been a decent organization throughout their history when you consider they have only been around for 22 years. They did well in the John Fox years for the most part and then when he got canned, they picked up Cam Newton and away they went again. Beane has been with the organization for 19 years so he’s seen the Fox/Rivera years up close. So while he is young, he’s got almost 20 years of experience in football capacity.
A few other nuggets…I’m fine with the Bills only interviewing a few candidates. I know a few people wanted them to interview everyone under the sun, but I didn’t need to have a top to bottom GM interview process. The biggest factor for me was comfort as I needed my coach/czar to be in love with whoever the Bills hired. So, if it is his call on who the Bills should interview, then it should be whoever he wants to interview. Why make it complicated if it is his call? Again, I need my GM/Coach to be on the same page at the start.
Yes, I’m always going to be concerned with a first time coach having the ultimate say in pretty much everything, but at least we know this is the Bills’ plan. It is McDermott’s show. Hopefully this power structure resembles the success Andy Reid first got in Philadelphia in 1999 and not what Josh McDaniels got in Denver in 2009. Since I’m very unmoved when it comes to character cliches from press conferences, I won’t know if these are the right moves until 2019? 2020? So, unless someone can get the Flash to go into the future and let me know what happens, I’m not excited or pissed…I’m just waiting to see how it works.
But at least we know it won’t be the old guard having input.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
