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The Buffalo Bills surprisingly fired coach Sean McDermott after nine seasons and eight playoff appearances following their Divisional Round loss Sunday to the Denver Broncos. Perhaps more surprising -- and to many Bills fans, frustrating -- was the decision to not only retain general manger Brandon Beane, but promote him to president of football operations. 

While McDermott's game management came into question and the defense did not consistently meet expectations, few felt the Bills' roster was up to par with the top tier contenders. That made the decision to not only keep Beane but elevate him confusing to Bills fans. 

In particular, the Bills have not had a great track record in the NFL Draft since selecting Josh Allen. A stat that has become unfortunately familiar in Buffalo recently is the fact that they picked 56 players since taking Josh Allen in 2018 and only two became Pro Bowlers. 

Despite that, it's clear he's got the full support and trust of owner Terry Pegula. That became abundantly clear on Wednesday, when Pegula and Beane met with the media. After a question about second-year receiver Keon Coleman and Beane's now-infamous training camp rant about the receiver room that looks rather disastrous in hindsight, Pegula jumped in to defend his GM and throw Coleman and the coaching staff under the bus in the process. 

"The coaching staff pushed to draft Keon [Coleman]," Pegula said. "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 his coaching staff who felt strongly about the player. He's taken, for some reason, heat over it, and not saying a word about it. I'm here to tell you the true story."

There are layers to this that make it a wild choice by Pegula to be that aggressive in defending Beane about the Coleman pick. 

For one, Coleman is (for now) still on the team and has two years left on his deal. It's going to be pretty hard to mend fences on this one when the owner comes in hot at a press conference to bury him in an example of why the coach got fired. Coleman struggled this year and was in and out of the receiver rotation towards the end of the season, and now after this statement we'll have to see if they try to trade him for a late-round pick ahead of this year's draft. 

Beyond that, offensive coordinator Joe Brady is considered one of the leading candidates for the job and he would almost certainly be one of the members of the staff that pushed for Coleman to be picked. It's certainly an interesting choice for Pegula to pin Coleman's pick on the staff given Brady appears to be on the short list for the head coaching position. 

And finally, there's also a clip from the Bills' behind-the-scenes video leading up to the 2024 Draft of Beane at the NFL Draft Combine talking about how Coleman running a slower 40-yard dash than expected will "help to get him" that would seem to contradict the idea this was all a coaching staff decision. 

If there weren't already considerable pressure from Buffalo fans on Beane to get this next hire right and get the roster where it needs to be to at least make a Super Bowl run in 2026, Pegula's comments only add fuel to that fire.