Brandon Beane is an egomaniac. I’ve said this numerous times on podcasts, in text threads, and pretty much anywhere someone is willing to listen to me bitch about the Buffalo Bills. And I’m going to keep saying it because I think it’s one of the most important things to understand about the direction of this franchise.
I never bought the public lovefest between Beane and Sean McDermott over the last year they were together. Remember all that sentimental bullshit at that Beane/Pegula presser about Beane giving McDermott a game ball after the Ty Dunne manifesto? Spare me. To me, it was Michael Corleone telling Fredo how much he loved him before the hit happened and was ordered by his brother. I’ve believed for a while that there was a behind-the-scenes power struggle between Beane and McDermott. I can’t tell you exactly what happened behind closed doors at One Bills Drive, but I know how I interpret the outcome.
Beane won.
McDermott is gone. Beane is still here. In fact, he’s more powerful than ever, holding the title of President of Football Operations and General Manager. This is his ship now. I will not hear otherwise from anyone. And when you’re the guy steering the ship, you don’t get to blame the iceberg when you crash into it.
The Bills Wanted to Be Anything BUT Sean McDermott
Here’s another hot take I’ve had since the offseason. I think part of the reason the Bills brought in Jim Leonhard was because they wanted someone completely different from Sean McDermott. Not necessarily better. Different.
McDermott built his defensive identity around a 4-3 front and nickel packages. Leonhard brought in a 3-4 base defense and a different philosophy. That’s a significant change in terminology, personnel responsibilities, and overall approach. I’m not against change. Hell, I wanted things to change. But there’s a difference between making changes because they’re going to improve your football team and making changes because you desperately want to distance yourself from the previous regime and want to show you are “THE MAN!”.
And I wonder how much of this was driven by Beane’s ego.
I also believe Beane had a significant hand in assembling the coaching staff. Look at the John Fox hiring. Beane publicly acknowledged that he suggested Fox to Joe Brady and helped connect the two. Beane says it was Brady’s decision, and that’s fine. But it demonstrates that the general manager was involved in recommending coaching personnel.
Fox has decades of NFL experience, so I’m not saying he has nothing to offer. But his background doesn’t make him an obvious 3-4 defensive specialist, either. Again, I come back to the same question. Are these decisions being made because they give the Buffalo Bills their best chance to win a Super Bowl? Or because Brandon Beane wants to build a team that reflects his vision, his philosophy, and his authority?
Because those aren’t necessarily the same thing.
Enter C.J. Gardner-Johnson
Which brings me to C.J. Gardner-Johnson.
When the Bills announced his signing in March, I remember the excitement surrounding the move. The guy had a reputation. He was outspoken, confrontational, emotional, and wasn’t afraid to get under the skin of opposing players. He was a loose cannon. And apparently, that was supposed to be a good thing.
We also heard plenty about the interceptions. Six picks in 2022. Six more in 2024. A Super Bowl ring. A veteran who could bring some swagger to a defense that desperately needed a personality. There was talent there and nobody is denying that.
But there was also baggage. And let’s not pretend otherwise.
When Gardner-Johnson signed, there were members of the Buffalo media and fan base who wanted to present the acquisition as another example of how different things were going to be without McDermott. This was a guy who supposedly wouldn’t have fit into the old culture. The new Bills were going to have attitude. They were going to be tougher. They were going to have an edge.
OK. I’ll push back on that a little.
Let’s Not Pretend McDermott Only Wanted Choirboys
Speaking about the culture he was building in Buffalo, McDermott said:
“The culture, to me, trumps strategy. That’s what I believe in wholeheartedly. It doesn’t mean we have choir boys, it means we have guys that love football and do things the right way for the most part.”
Brandon Beane said essentially the same thing in April 2020, when defending the acquisition of Stefon Diggs:
“I think one of the misnomers out there is that we’re looking for all choir boys and that’s not accurate. We’re looking for professionals.”
So..yes, I’m challenging the idea that signing C.J. Gardner-Johnson represented some dramatic departure from McDermott’s culture. Both McDermott and Beane had publicly rejected the idea that Buffalo wanted only choirboys, years before Gardner-Johnson arrived.
Does anyone remember Richie Incognito? Because I sure as hell do.
The Bills kept Incognito on their roster in 2017, McDermott’s first season as head coach. This was a player who had already been at the center of the Miami Dolphins bullying scandal and carried plenty of controversy with him throughout his career. He played all 16 games for Buffalo in 2017 and earned a Pro Bowl selection. After leaving Buffalo, he sat out the 2018 season before returning to the NFL with the Raiders.
I’m not equating everything Incognito did with Gardner-Johnson’s behavior. My point is that the idea McDermott never tolerated controversial personalities is a little ridiculous. The Bills weren’t operating a fucking monastery. McDermott had difficult personalities on his teams. He had emotional players. He had guys who weren’t exactly winning citizenship awards.
So this notion that signing Gardner-Johnson represented some revolutionary philosophical change always struck me as a little overblown. But it made for a convenient narrative. New coach. New culture. New attitude. And everybody gets to write about how different the Buffalo Bills are going to be.
The Problem Wasn’t Signing Him, But Depending on Him.
Here’s where I have my biggest problem with Brandon Beane.
Signing C.J. Gardner-Johnson as a veteran backup or rotational player? Fine. You know what you’re getting. You understand the upside. You understand the risks. If things don’t work out, you move on.
But signing a guy with this much baggage and essentially handing him a starting job? That’s an entirely different conversation.
By training camp, Gardner-Johnson was being positioned alongside Cole Bishop as one of Buffalo’s starting safeties. He wasn’t some luxury piece brought in to provide depth. He was a major part of the plan. And when you’re building a defense with a new coordinator, a new scheme, and a secondary that already has questions, you better have a backup plan.
I never felt the Bills had a particularly reassuring one.
That’s on Beane. Not Leonhard. Not Brady. Not the media. Brandon fucking Beane.
You cannot tell everyone how much you love a player’s edge, make that edge a central part of your new defensive identity, and then act surprised when that same player crosses the line.
Beane himself addressed this exact issue during training camp. He talked about Gardner-Johnson still being able to play but needing to stay within the lines. He praised the edge and the mentality the veteran could bring to the defense.
So don’t tell me the organization didn’t know what it was buying. They knew. They just thought they could manage it.
And Then Came the Raiders Game
On Sunday, Gardner-Johnson was ejected in the first half against Las Vegas after a spitting incident involving Raiders players Brock Bowers and Tyler Linderbaum. The Bills were leading 13-10 at the time. Gardner-Johnson subsequently acknowledged losing control of his emotions and apologized to his teammates. He also recognized that the league could discipline him further.
This is exactly the sort of shit you worry about when you sign a player with his reputation. And don’t give me the argument that he’s just passionate about football. Lots of players are passionate about football. Lots of players talk trash. Lots of players play angry. They don’t all get themselves ejected from games for spitting.
That’s not toughness. That’s stupidity.
And when you have a defense that has already struggled to stop people this season, the last thing you need is a starting safety taking himself out of a game because he can’t control his emotions. Buffalo managed to beat Las Vegas 33-30, but that doesn’t excuse what happened.
The player deserves criticism for his actions. Absolutely. But I want to know why the guy who decided to rely on him seems to be getting a pass.
When Gardner-Johnson arrived, the story was about how different the Bills were going to be. How McDermott wouldn’t have made a move like this. How the defense finally had some attitude. I suspect some of that narrative was encouraged by people around the organization.
When the player is the shiny new acquisition, it’s all about his personality, his edge, and how he’s going to change the culture. When he becomes a problem, suddenly everybody wants to talk about the baggage.
Well, where the fuck were those concerns when the team was making him a starter?
You don’t get to sell me a guy’s personality as a feature in March and then treat it like an unforeseen defect in October. And I don’t want to hear how the organization was somehow blindsided.
Brandon Beane Owns This
Brandon Beane survived the end of the Sean McDermott era. He was elevated to a position of greater authority. He participated in the hiring of the new head coach. He helped influence the staff. He constructed the roster. And he signed C.J. Gardner-Johnson.
At some point, the accountability has to follow the authority.
You cannot spend an entire offseason celebrating how different everything is going to be, take credit for the new philosophy, and then have everyone else absorb the criticism when those decisions don’t work.
That’s why I keep coming back to Beane’s ego. I think he wanted to prove he could build something better than what existed under McDermott. I think he wanted a team that looked different, sounded different, and acted different.
But different doesn’t automatically mean better. And attitude isn’t a substitute for discipline.
The Bills are 5-1. They’re a good football team and I’m sure someone reading this would rather me focus on that. I’m not disputing any of that. But their defense is giving up 28.5 points per game through six games, and that’s not exactly evidence of some brilliant defensive transformation.
The offense is still doing the heavy lifting. The defense is still a liability. And the general manager who helped engineer this transformation should be getting a hell of a lot more scrutiny.
I don’t know whether Gardner-Johnson will turn things around or whether this ends up being the incident everyone remembers about his time in Buffalo. But I do know one thing.
When you hire someone because you love his edge, don’t act shocked when he cuts you with it.
And if the Bills are going to blame C.J. Gardner-Johnson for being C.J. Gardner-Johnson, then they better save a healthy portion of that blame for the man who decided to make him a starting safety in the first place.
Brandon Beane wanted this to be his team.
Congratulations, Brandon.
It is.
You are far from the only one criticizing Beane. Not sure what you are asking. You want Pegula to fire him now mid season? You want Pegula to say something to chastise Beane? Or are you jest venting? BTW I agree with what you wrote in this piece but got no answers.