The Bills aren’t wasting any time starting their search for a new General Manager.

According to ESPN, the Bills have asked for permission to interview Panthers assistant G.M. Brandon Beane for the vacancy created by Doug Whaley’s firing yesterday morning.

Technically speaking, the Panthers could block the request if the job doesn’t include final say over the 53-man roster. And after comments this weekend by owner Terry Pegula, it’s reasonable to wonder if that’s the case. Head coach Sean McDermott (who knows Beane well) was the one running things on draft weekend, whether anyone will admit it or not.

And Pegula danced when asked about the future structure of the job.

“Sean’s a head coach,” Pegula said, via Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News. “When we hire a new G.M., we’ll talk about, obviously, his obligations and duties, but Sean’s a head coach. The G.M.’s going to be the G.M.”

That’s far from an ironclad dictate that the 40-year-old Beane or anyone else would have control of the 53-man roster, though it’s also reasonable to suggest Beane and McDermott would work well together.

There’s also the matter that Beane is extremely well thought-of within the Panthers organization, and would likely be in position to follow 66-year-old G.M. Dave Gettleman. That would create an Eric DeCosta-like situation in Baltimore, where the sought-after personnel man has a deal in place to replace Ozzie Newsome when he retires.

Beane doesn’t have any such deal at the moment, which means if the Panthers truly want to keep him in Charlotte for the future, the time to make such an offer (with the money attached to it) is now.