Bills GM Brandon Beane defends Joe Brady hire amid turbulent offseason, fan backlash: 'F--- the outside'

Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane is not the most popular man in upstate New York. A sizable contingent of the Bills' fanbase responded with outrage when Beane fired coach Sean McDermott after the AFC divisional round loss to the Denver Broncos. Many in that group scoffed when he replaced McDermott with one of his assistants, former offensive coordinator Joe Brady.

Beane stands emphatically behind his decision and is willing to put his job on the line for it. A job that is even more prominent than it was before the McDermott firing, as owner Terry Pegula promoted Beane to president of football operations.

"F--- the outside," Beane said in an interview with Go Long. "It's about the right selection for this team. And if we win, they'll love it. It's the same thing I said when I took Josh Allen. If I'm wrong, the moving company will be at my house. So, I understand. And I'm not going to have regret of choosing someone to appease the outside if I thought it should have been something different."

Brady was destined to land on his feet elsewhere if Buffalo did not promote him. He is among the most highly regarded offensive coordinators in the NFL and was a prominent target for head coaching vacancies.

Beane decided that keeping that high caliber of coach in Buffalo was worth the public backlash that comes with elevating an assistant from the staff that he had just determined was not up to snuff.

"If I'm wrong, I'll f---ing take my job and f---ing go home," Beane said. "I don't want to be wrong -- see him go somewhere else -- when my gut told me it was Joe Brady. I'm never going to do that. I would love for everyone to cheer every move, but it's not about winning the press conference. It's about winning games."

Brady holds no head coaching experience but is largely responsible for Buffalo's offensive prowess over the last four years. He also won a national championship at LSU as the orchestrator of one of college football's greatest offenses of all time. Uncertainty about the outlook of his tenure includes, naturally, his lack of a track record in commanding the entire operation. But it also stems from a questionable amount of resources at his disposal.

Much of why Beane generated such an adverse response to the McDermott firing is that the 2025 roster appeared to have more glaring weaknesses than the coaching staff. Inadequate personnel ultimately falls on Beane, not McDermott, but it was the latter who lost his job. Unless reinforcements arrive in short order, Brady could find himself with a similar ceiling to that of his predecessor.