After nine seasons in Buffalo, one of the longest head coaching tenures in the league ended when the Bills announced the firing of Sean McDermott. The Bills had a total meltdown in terms of ball security against Denver and McDermott was the first piece of the failure to hit the chopping block. With general manager Brandon Beane, somehow, being promoted to president of football operations, the Bills will enter a new, pressure-cooked era where the new head coach will be expected to win immediately as Beane gets to select his own head coach with his newly wielded power.
McDermott’s firing was the 10th head coach change this cycle and now with eight slots open it’s fair to wonder: How difficult is it going to be to improve upon McDermott?
Advertisement
[Get more Bills news: Buffalo team feed]
The opportunity to coach Josh Allen will thrust the Bills up the board in terms of desirable landing spots for head coaching talent, but even with Allen under center, it will be difficult to replicate McDermott’s six straight seasons of making it to the divisional round and a 98-50 overall regular-season record, including only one losing season dating back to his second season in Buffalo, 2018, when Allen was a rookie. Even with a franchise quarterback, it’s hard to be a team that wins and is a threat to contend every year. Being unable to break through to the Super Bowl ultimately did McDermott in, but it is interesting to think about where this team would be if the Bills didn’t have a multitude of turnovers that were the direct fault of chaotic and sloppy play by Allen and the Bills’ players.
Firing McDermott after that particular performance was odd, but it illustrates how palpable the tension in Buffalo is right now. In a year when Patrick Mahomes, their postseason boogeyman, wasn’t able to suit up for the playoffs, not even making it to the AFC championship is a tough pill to swallow. Especially considering the Bills absolutely could have won that game if it wasn’t for their five total turnovers. The expectation here is to be in Super Bowl contention every single year — an expectation that McDermott had a large role in crafting.
The Bills would have to make a catastrophically unqualified hire to bottom out, especially considering the state of the Dolphins and Jets in the basement of the AFC East, but assuming they’ll plop back into being a perennial divisional round team that’s come a drive or two away from the Super Bowl multiple times is easier said than done.
Advertisement
Having Allen on the roster is a huge boost to their chances, but the AFC is loaded right now with quarterback talent and Drake Maye has emerged as a superstar talent in Buffalo’s division. Doing a halfway shakeup by firing McDermott and keeping Beane is a risk, but perhaps Beane’s recent promotion will assuage concerns candidates have about this being a situation where they’ll be insta-fired if Year 1 doesn’t go as planned.
Beane ending up being rewarded for how this season ended while McDermott was fired is confusing to parse, but it follows the trend of other teams this offseason. Of the nine teams that fired their head coach, only two of them (Miami and Atlanta) also fired their general managers. Perhaps Beane’s upgraded job situation will allow the Bills to get over the hump, but he has as much blame as anyone to hold for the Bills’ underwhelming talent acquisition over the past few years.
Advertisement
Like with John Harbaugh in Baltimore and Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh, next season will be a fun case study to try and acquiesce just how much influence McDermott had over the Bills’ success over the last eight years and how much of it was a result of having an elite quarterback during a down time in the AFC East. Regardless, one thing is 100% true about this opening: you better win.
Leave a Reply