Sean McDermott didn't deserve to lose his job as the Buffalo Bills' head coach over the events of Saturday, when his team committed five turnovers in a playoff loss that was decided, in large part, by questionable officiating in overtime.
However, he deserved to lose it four years ago, after the "13 Seconds" collapse against the Kansas City Chiefs - so let's consider it a wash.
McDermott had a good run. He proved he could be a floor-raiser in terms of a coach who turned around a flailing franchise, and he'll almost certainly be a leading candidate for the next NFL owner who wants someone to deliver a baseline competence. But McDermott also had a superstar quarterback and couldn't get the Bills to a Super Bowl over seven straight playoff appearances. No one can say he wasn't given a fair crack at it.
Still, if one is divvying up the blame pie for this Bills season, the largest piece should have gone to the guy responsible for building the roster, general manager Brandon Beane.
Beane was the one who saw how the Bills transformed when they first brought in Stefon Diggs to give Josh Allen a reliable target. And after things became difficult with the receiver, it was Beane who failed to find anyone even remotely as good to make use of Allen's gifts for two seasons.
Searching for answers again at receiver after Josh Palmer turned out not to be the answer, Beane was forced to scavenge for other clubs' roster flotsam as the season progressed. Two of those late additions, Gabe Davis and Brandin Cooks, quickly became Allen's favorite targets, which was quite the indictment of the receivers Beane had on the team all along.
Beane has presided over years of roster erosion, not just in the wide receiver room but on a defense that struggled against the run and didn't do much better at pressuring the quarterback.
The GM's missteps in the draft have also been costly, whiffing on top picks like defensive back Kaiir Elam and wideout Keon Coleman. Even tight end Dalton Kincaid, who's been fine when healthy, failed to address the team's biggest needs.
But it's Beane who is still standing, reportedly taking a lead role in finding the team's next head coach, while McDermott, his friend and colleague stretching back to their Carolina Panthers days, is gone.
From the outside, it's impossible to know the extent of the palace intrigue that led to ownership making these choices. Although McDermott was said to have significant input on personnel decisions, perhaps he's taking the fall for a roster Beane constructed at the coach's behest. Or maybe McDermott was close to out the door after all the playoff disappointments in the Allen era, and Beane couldn't keep the axe from falling on his guy any longer.
Whatever the rationale, the Bills are getting only a modest shakeup. A season that started with so much promise fizzled out well before problems in Kansas City, Cincinnati, and Baltimore renewed hope in the AFC. But rather than the house-cleaning the organization deserves, the Bills will get a room-cleaning.
That might just be enough. Allen is a remarkable talent, as he proved years ago in the postseason, and it'll be fascinating to see if a new head coach can unleash him to new heights. The McDermott Bills emphasized a run-heavy offense and a pass-oriented defense the past few seasons - a strategy that seemed specifically built to beat the Chiefs, only for Buffalo to discover that Kansas City was no longer its problem.
Even before this season's ouster, it was possible to wonder, in an era of aggressive passing offenses, if McDermott was far too interested in a plodding, ball-control game. You have a Ferrari, man. Don't be afraid to hit the damn gas. Will a new coach look at Allen and do everything possible to design an offense around his strengths? (Obviously, this is what the new coach should do.)
Allen could be entering his Peyton Manning era, where years of playoff frustration are followed by a breakthrough that leads to a much happier second act (minus the neck injury).
Given the seasons that have already passed, it's also easy to think the Pegula family shouldn't have waited until Allen was almost out of his 20s to act with some urgency about the state of their team. They've had an elite quarterback, the most valuable single asset in the sport, for a long time now.
All Bills fans can hope for is that they haven't already wasted it.
Scott Stinson is a contributing writer for theScore.
