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Sean McDermott tiptoes around question about scouting staff

Bills McDermott Football

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2017, file photo, Buffalo Bills NFL football team new head coach Sean McDermott poses for a photograph with team owner Terry Pegula, left, during a press conference in Orchard Park, N.Y. Don’t underestimate the impact Bills first-time coach Sean McDermott has had on Buffalo’s multi-sport franchise owner Terry Pegula. When Pegula outlined last week the issues he found lacking _ discipline, structure and character _ in his NHL Sabres, they resemble the same troubles he believes he addressed in hiring the 42-year-old, detail-oriented McDermott, who will have a prominent influence in the Bills draft this weekend.(AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes, File)

AP

As the draft continues to unfold, a potentially bigger drama percolates in Buffalo: After the draft ends, who stays and who goes?

PFT reported recently that Bills scouts fear a mass termination next week. The team issued a statement to PFT that didn’t deny that notion. On Thursday night, coach Sean McDermott faced a similar question during a press conference. He likewise didn’t deny it.

Here’s the question: “Sean, as excited as you are about what you got today and what you got accomplished today, there seems to be a cloud hanging over part of this team with reports about your scouting staff, and possibly Doug Whaley’s job, being in jeopardy. Do you foresee changes happening next week, immediately after this draft?”

“I am absolutely, 110 percent focused on what is going on right now upstairs with the rest of the first round, and then the second and third round,” McDermott said. “That’s what’s in front of us right now. If we were focused on anything else, we’d be making a mistake. That’s where our focus is.”

For any team where sweeping changes definitely weren’t coming after the draft, the denials would be loud and sweeping. The absence of a denial in this case says all that anyone needs to know. More changes are coming for a team that hopes to make enough improvements to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 1999.