It\u2019s not as if the Buffalo Bills have done everything in their power to distance themselves from the Sean McDermott era. Actually, they\u2019ve done quite the contrary.<\/p>\n
Naturally, as a rare internal promotion hire<\/a>, Joe Brady has regularly praised the culture turnaround and perennial success McDermott accomplished as Buffalo\u2019s head coach from 2017 to 2025. So has Brandon Beane.<\/p>\n Despite the (justified) deference for McDermott, with Brady at the helm and Beane in tow, the Bills have unmistakably ushered in a new era in franchise history.<\/p>\n And thanks to some recent digging from a Bills beat reporter, we have more key information on one way this new Bills regime is making its own mark.<\/p>\n Nick Sabato of the Niagara Gazette, Lockport Union-Sun and GNN Sports<\/a> wrote a fantastic feature<\/a> on the new \u201cBills Red\u201d distinction after conversations with Brandon Beane on the new label for players.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve all heard about the \u2018Bills Blue\u2019 tag draft prospects could receive during the McDermott era. It was sparingly given to pristine \u201cculture, character, and work ethic the Bills were searching for,\u201d Sabato wrote.<\/p>\n Sabato\u2019s investigation into the new, Brady-era label stemmed from the head coach mentioning \u2018Bills Red\u2019 during his combine press conference.<\/p>\n It has nothing to do with culture, character, or work ethic.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we get through Bills Blue, we say they must check all these boxes,\u201d Bills general manager Brandon Beane told GNN Sports. \u201cIf they don\u2019t check one of them, they\u2019re not Bills Blue. Red\u2019s not exactly like that. It\u2019s not like an official thing in our manual. But it\u2019s kind of understood an edgier attitude (or) personality to whatever side of the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n Sabato pinpointed Alec Anderson as the player Brady was referencing when \u2018Bills Red\u2019 first became public knowledge in Indianapolis. Buffalo is now looking for those type of players, too. This is not to suggest the Bills weren\u2019t looking to draft\/sign physical players during the McDermott era, there was just never a distinction for those types.<\/p>\n The trade to acquire DJ Moore was the first major transaction in the Brady era, and instantly felt like a loud-and-clear signal of a new direction the Bills were headed with their new head coach.<\/p>\n The free-agent add of C.J. Gardner-Johnson that soon followed clearly aligns with the \u2018Bills Red\u2019 philosophy. In their post-draft pressers, Brady and Beane repeatedly summoned the word \u201cedge\u201d when methodically providing the club\u2019s evaluations of many of the team\u2019s 10 draft selections.<\/p>\n The biggest ideological difference between \u2018Bills Red\u2019 and \u2018Bills Blue\u2019 stems from where the organization was at the outset of McDermott\u2019s tenure compared to where it is ahead of Brady\u2019s first season as Buffalo\u2019s head coach.<\/p>\n In 2017, after the borderline disastrous and indisputably embarrassing Rex Ryan era, the Bills did need a better crop of players on the roster, yet a cultural paradigm shift was likely just as critical. Therefore, the creation of and dedication to \u2018Bills Blue\u2019 was essential to the McDermott era.<\/p>\n The tremendous culture establishment \u2014 and more importantly, a massive influx of talented players \u2014 have made things significantly different in Orchard Park for Brady and Co. This is a Bills team entering its sixth-straight season as one of the NFL\u2019s Super Bowl contenders. During in tenure, McDermott repeatedly reminded everyone his team wasn\u2019t simply looking to acquire \u201cchoir boys,\u201d and I believe that was the case.<\/p>\n However, repeated signings of familiar players did become a hallmark of the McDermott era, and although we probably won\u2019t ever know how much \u2018Bills Blue\u2019 labels factored into those decisions, it does feel safe to assume culture fit was strongly considered.<\/p>\n It\u2019s completely sensible to believe the Brady Bills need that extra \u2018edge\u2019 to get over the hump in the playoffs to win a Super Bowl, hence the creation of \u2018Bills Red.\u2019<\/p>\n This Beane quote at the end of Sabato\u2019s piece is the perfect endcap on \u2018Bills Red\u2019, which right now, feels like the biggest departure from the McDermott era:<\/p>\n \u201cEvery year you say not the most talented team won, the most physical team won,\u201d Beane said. \u201c… Tone-setters, like guys coming across the middle. Legally, how much can you intimidate them? Obviously the rules have changed over the years and you can\u2019t decapitate a guy, but there are ways of how physical you can be within the rules of the game to send messages at whatever position you play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not as if the Buffalo Bills have done everything in their power to distance themselves from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[187931,349,99],"class_list":["post-674841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-buffalo-bills-analysis","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}