The National Football League Draft starts in a month – 31 days if you’re counting – and already you sense a seismic shift in the approach to the upcoming lottery by the Bills.

A few days after Sean McDermott was hired as Buffalo’s coach, back in early January, his introductory press conference wasn’t totally encouraging.

The former Panthers defensive coordinator indicated that general manager Doug Whaley would control the personnel on the 53-man roster – and the 90 players taken to camp – but with his input, and that the game-day 47 would be his decision.

That didn’t seem appreciably different from the situation of Rex Ryan, McDermott’s predecessor.

But that day in the Bills fieldhouse there was a different vibe. Whaley sat there, almost mute – a seeming live prop – except for three short comments in a 30-minute session.

That might have been a product of Whaley’s disastrous end-of-season press conference when he seemed to intimate that he was embarrassingly lacking of insight into the machinations of the front office … including the imminent firing of Ryan. Routinely, GMs are the ones who whack coaches, meaning Whaley was either untruthful in that session with the media, or that he had been neutered to the point of being left out of the organization’s most important decisions.

It wasn’t the first press conference Whaley had botched and, of course, there was the lingering stench of the ridiculously high price he had paid to draft wide receiver Sammy Watkins.

Small wonder the Bills new philosophy in expressing the team’s position is “one voice.”

And that voice clearly is McDermott’s.

That reality got even more credence earlier this week when the Bills sent out an email about off-season media availability to the new coach.

On Thursday, April 20, the last day of voluntary veteran minicamp, McDermott is scheduled to talk about those workouts … and the draft.

There’s no mention of Whaley, who has been the lead voice in the Bills pre-draft luncheon for the past six years. Normally, Jim Monos, the Director of Player Personnel, also takes part as well as a scout or two.

Indeed, the team has held such an event back to Bill Polian’s days as GM.

Whaley’s absence this year, in particular, stands out and seems to indicate that McDermott’s role has proliferated since his hiring while his supposed boss has clearly seen his diminished.

And there are more reasons to draw that conclusion.

Senior Vice President of Communications Scott Berchtold, who has spent 33 years in the NFL – the first four in Green Bay – and is in his 29th with the Bills, was recently reassigned as a special assistant. He was replaced by Derek Boyko, with whom McDermott had a relationship when both were with the Eagles.

Meanwhile, Whaley’s own wounds are self-inflicted.

The Bills ended last season in the bottom third of the NFL in least salary cap space available, an absurd situation for a team that has missed the playoffs 17 straight years. Buffalo is in this mess under a general manager whose team is 46-66 since the Bills hired him away from Pittsburgh in 2010.

When a payroll reaches playoff-team level against the cap for a roster that hasn’t sniffed the postseason since 1999, that’s on the GM, not the capologist.

And there are other signs of his seemingly declining power.

Start with the reworked deal for quarterback Tyrod Taylor, a clear nod to McDermott’s desire to keep him as NFL “insiders” had already reported Whaley wanted to sever ties with the former Raven.

And, the new coach has already waived safeties Aaron Williams and Corey Graham, cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman and kicker Dan Carpenter who the GM had either signed to contracts or extensions.

Tellingly, CBS Sports’ NFL reporter Jason La Canfora has reported, “There are already rumblings that the marriage of McDermott and Bills GM Doug Whaley likely isn’t built to last.”

And that contention is hard to dispute given the events of the past few weeks.

(Chuck Pollock, the Times Herald sports editor, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)