The Buccaneers appear to be moving closer to making their decision about a new offensive coordinator.
Albert Breer of SI.com reports that they have scheduled a second interview on Thursday with former Titans head coach Brian Callahan for the position. The Bucs fired Josh Grizzard after one season in the role.
Callahan also interviewed for the Chargers’ coordinator position, but they are expected to hire Mike McDaniel to fill that spot on Jim Harbaugh’s staff.
The Bucs also announced the completion of an interview with Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher on Wednesday. Pitcher succeeded Callahan when Callahan left Cincinnati for Tennessee, so the choice in Tampa could wind up being a former Bengals assistant one way or another.
Bills owner Terry Pegula decided to fire coach Sean McDermott due to chronic inability to parlay playoff appearances into a Super Bowl win. During Wednesday’s press conference, Pegula was asked whether the attempt to upgrade carries risk.
“There is definitely risk,” Pegula said. “We’ve got to make the best decision. So that’s a fact.”
Does the job carry pressure, given the circumstances that led to McDermott’s termination after seven straight postseason berths?
“I don’t know about pressure right now, but there’s a lot of people that want to look at taking this job,” Pegula said. “There’s a lot of interest.”
Is the ultimate message to the next coach Super Bowl or bust?
“We can’t say that to somebody coming in,” Pegula said. “We’re making a change, and you know, it’s ‘do your best job.’”
Some things don’t need to be said. The sudden pivot (as Pegula explained it) after the playoff loss to the Broncos happened because Pegula wants to break through the playoff wall. Doing as well as McDermott has done is a given. Getting farther is the mandate.
So, no, there’s no pressure at all.
That doesn’t make it a bad job, relative to the various perennially dysfunctional teams still searching for coaches. The Buffalo job carries a high potential reward. It also carries high risk.
The fact that the Bills will have no shortage of candidates doesn’t change that. In the end, there are only 32 NFL head-coaching jobs.
Only one vacancy has Josh Allen. Along with strong urgency to get Allen to a Super Bowl. And to get the Bills their first ever Lombardi Trophy.
So, no, there’s no pressure at all.
During Wednesday’s press conference regarding the recent changes in Buffalo, owner Terry Pegula addressed quarterback Josh Allen’s reaction to the decision to fire coach Sean McDermott.
Pegula said Allen didn’t know in advance. Adding that he spoke to Allen after the fact, Pegula declined to share the contents of the conversation publicly.
Later, Pegula was directly asked whether Allen was “on board” with the move.
“The starting quarterback will be part of the team to help select a new coach,” Pegula said. “He’s going to be working with us. And anything else — his feelings — I want to keep that private. I don’t want this in Josh’s head. This was my decision. And I know I didn’t answer your question, but I did, I hope, in a roundabout way. His personal opinion, I keep personal.”
While Pegula’s “roundabout” answer isn’t entirely clear, he seems to be saying Allen was on board with the move. If Allen wasn’t OK with it, Pegula wouldn’t be concerned with the decision being “in Josh’s head.” Pegula would be concerned about persuading the quarterback that it was the right move.
Ultimately, time will tell whether it was the right move. It all depends on whether they hire the right coach.
During a Wednesday press conference to discuss the firing of Sean McDermott, Bills General Manager Brandon Beane was asked a question about the perception that he has not done enough to provide the team with talent at the wide receiver position.
The question included a mention of 2024 second-round pick Keon Coleman, who has failed to develop into a consistent threat and found himself benched at times for disciplinary reasons over his first two seasons. Before Beane could answer, Bills owner Terry Pegula cut him off and provided an answer one rarely hears in those types of settings.
“Can I interrupt? I’ll address the Keon situation,” Pegula said. “The coaching staff pushed to draft Keon. I’m not saying Brandon wouldn’t have drafted him, but he wasn’t his next choice. That was Brandon being a team player and taking advice of this coaching staff who felt strongly about the player. He’s taken, for some reason, heat over it and not saying a word about it, but I’m here to tell you the true story.”
Beane’s own answer touched on changing offensive approaches based on how defenses guarded them and the need to allocate resources differently once Josh Allen’s contract went to the top of the market. Beane pointed to building an offensive line to protect Allen and has also helped James Cook become one of the league’s leading rushers, but did not directly address Pegula’s comments about the Coleman pick.
Coleman remains under contract for two more years in Buffalo, but the nature of Pegula’s answer would make it unsurprising to learn that the Bills will move on without him once they find their next head coach.
Bills owner Terry Pegula met with the media on Wednesday to discuss the recent decision to fire coach Sean McDermott, after seven straight playoff appearances and eight in nine years.
It was, per Pegula, the latest playoff game that supposedly sparked the move.
“My decision to bring in a new coach was based on the results of our game in Denver,” Pegula told reporters.
“I want to take you in the locker room after that game,” Pegula said. “I looked around. The first thing I noticed was our quarterback with his head down, crying. I looked at all the other players. I looked at their faces, and our coaches. I walked over to Josh. He didn’t even acknowledge I was there.
“First thing I said to him, I said, ‘That was a catch.’ We all know what I’m talking about. He didn’t acknowledge me. He just sat there sobbing. He was listless. He had given everything he had to try to win that game. And, looking around, so did all the other players on the team. I saw the pain in Josh’s face at his presser, and I felt his pain. I know we can do better, and I know we will get better.”
Implicit in Pegula’s explanation is the belief that McDermott bears the blame. Even though, in Pegula’s view, “That was a catch.”
Pegula insisted he wasn’t firing McDermott because of a bad call. But if Pegula thinks it was a bad call, and if he thinks the Bills would have won the game if the right call had been made, wouldn’t McDermott still be there?
Indeed, at one point, a reporter asked G.M. Brandon Beane why the Bills (which he said have a championship roster) didn’t make it to the Super Bowl this year.
Pegula interrupted: “A bad call.”
A bad call. Not a bad coach.
As to Allen, he surely wasn’t distraught in the locker room because he believed the coach had failed the team. Allen believed he had failed the team. Keenly aware of the ticking of the clock on his career, Allen was dealing with the fact that the curtain fell abruptly on perhaps his best chance to get to a Super Bowl.
It’s also possible Allen was upset because he sensed that McDermott would take the fall for the failure of the team to advance.
Pegula later explained that he concluded the Bills had “hit the proverbial playoff wall,” based on the collection of annual failures to get to the Super Bowl. (Pegula specifically mentioned the “13 seconds” game from 2021).
“Where does the leadership of the team on the field and in the locker room — where [do] we go from that moment?” Pegula said. “Which, you know, another playoff failure. And that’s when I decided that Sean had to leave.”
Pegula said he wasn’t thinking about the possibility of a change until feeling the moment in the locker room after the playoff game.
If that’s true, it’s an irresponsible way to run a pro football team. Pegula gave no thought whatsoever to changing coaches until trying to discern the root cause of the vibe in the locker room after a disappointing overtime loss that turned on a “bad call”? How could anyone in that moment determine — after supposedly giving no prior consideration whatsoever to making a coaching change — that the right answer was to fire the coach?
Regardless, if it wasn’t already clear from the decision to fire McDermott and to promote Beane, Pegula’s opinion is clear. He thinks the talent is good enough. And he decided, with no prior deliberation and based solely on reading the complicated tea leaves of a collective (and justifiable) pity party that the coach had to go.
And that the General Manager deserved to get the keys to the entire football operation.
