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Why the Buffalo Bills Got It Wrong with the Sean McDermott Firing
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- Why the Buffalo Bills Got It Wrong with the Sean McDermott Firing
Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
Hours after the Buffalo Bills suffered a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Denver Broncos in overtime, it was announced that head coach Sean McDermott had been fired. On the first day of the team's offseason, the organization already demonstrated that it took the wrong lessons from what happened on Sunday.
First, let's remember where this franchise stood before McDermott's arrival. From 2000-2016, the Bills didn't have a single playoff appearance and posted a collective 112-160 record for a .412 winning percentage. The franchise went through seven different head coaches during that span.
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McDermott was hired to turn things around and he delivered in his first stint as a head coach. Buffalo won two more games in his first season, posting a 9-7 record and snapping a 17-year playoff drought. He accomplished this, mind you, with Tyrod Taylor as the Bills starting quarterback.
The Bills regressed the following year, finishing 6-10 as rookie quarterback Josh Allen went through growing pains in his development. Over the next seven seasons, Allen and McDermott combined for an 81-33 record (.711 winning percentage) and they won at least one playoff game each year from 2020-'25 with two AFC Championship Game appearances.
Related: Buffalo Bills Coaching Candidates to Replace Sean McDermott
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Sean McDermott Isn't to Blame for the Divisional Round Loss
With Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs out of the playoffs this season, this seemed like the year when Buffalo could finally get over the hump. Instead, it suffered a devastating loss to the Broncos in the Divisional Round.
What went wrong in that game? Buffalo's offense turned it over five times. Those five giveaways turned into 16 points for the Broncos, including a dumbfounding fumble from Allen before halftime that gifted three points to Denver. What did McDermott's defense do? It limited Denver to 22 first downs and 349 total yards on 13 drives in five quarters. The Broncos offense averaged just 26.8 yards per drive on Sunday, well below the season average (31) for an offense that ranked 18th in yards per drive. Putting that total from the Divisional Round into perspective, the sixth-worst offense in the NFL this season averaged 29 total yards per drive.
"From recent conversations with people in the Bills' organization, the sense I get is that it felt that there were opportunities to win Saturday in Denver, officiating or otherwise. Leadership felt a change was necessary after coming up short of the Super Bowl yet again."
McDermott's defense put the Bills in a position to win on the road against the AFC's No. 1 seed. With the offense struggling, Buffalo allowed just 10 second-half points to Denver. That is why Allen shouldered the blame for the loss in his postgame press conference.
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Now, there is a case to be made for firing a head coach when an organization feels a change is necessary after playoff heartbreak every year. However, that is only justifiable if you are addressing the root of the problem. The Bills are not doing that.
Brandon Beane Remains as the Root of the Buffalo Bills' Issues
Immediately when news broke that McDermott was fired, there was one question. Would Bills general manager Brandon Beane be fired? Ian Rapoport of NFL Network then reported that Beane will remain in Buffalo and oversee the Bills coaching search.
In short, ownership allowed Beane to use McDermott as his scapegoat. It is a move that further speaks to the questionable decision-making that has come out of Buffalo in recent years.
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When the Bills lost the AFC Championship Game to the Chiefs last season, many wondered if Beane would go out and address a receiving corps that had been the team's most glaring weakness for several seasons. Buffalo's general manager tuned out the outside noise, only using a seventh-round pick ( Kaden Prather ) on a wide receiver in the 2025 NFL Draft. In NFL free agency, career No. 3 wideout Joshua Palmer was the only pass catcher he added.
Following the NFL Draft, when Beane heard criticism of his decision on The Jeremy and Joe Show for not truly addressing the receiving corps, he ripped the radio hosts.
"I was just listening to the last few minutes of your show before I came on waiting on here, sounds like 2018 all over with you guys. Well, you guys were b******* in 2018 about Josh Allen, you guys wanted Josh Rosen , and now you guys are b******* we don't have a receiver. I don't get it. We just scored 30 points in a row for eight straight games. A year ago, I get you guys asking why we didn't have receivers, but I don't understand it now. You just saw us lead the league in points when you add all the postseason. No one scored more points than the Buffalo Bills, including the Super Bowl champions. So you just saw us do it without Stefon Diggs , same group, how is this group not better than last year's group? Our job is to score points and win games. Where do we need to get better? Defense. And we did that. I get it, you gotta have a show and you gotta have something to b**** about, but b******* about wide receiver is one of the dumbest arguments I've heard."
The 2025 NFL season proved the critics were right. Keon Coleman , whom Beane drafted ahead of Ladd McConkey , has proven to be a bust. Palmer only played in 12 games this season and Buffalo did not have any depth in its receiving corps with Palmer, Tyrell Shavers and Gabe Davis on injured reserve.
Buffalo now heads into the offseason with a projected negative $11 million in effective cap space and many key veterans from McDermott's defense hitting the open market. Meanwhile, Allen will be 30 years old in May and the hits throughout his career have clearly started to take a toll on the 6-foot-5 quarterback.
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To make matters worse, the Broncos, New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars have emerged as dangerous threats in the AFC moving forward. Meanwhile, there is every reason to expect the Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens can rebound next season.
How did the Bills respond to this? By firing the second-best coach in franchise history and retaining the general manager who built the very rosters that collapsed in the playoffs each year because of the shortcomings that everyone knew existed.
Beane got to use McDermott as his scapegoat, all the while he is the one most responsible for wasting the best years of Allen's prime. Given his shaky track record in both the NFL Draft (Coleman, Kaiir Elam and Boogie Basham ) and free agency (Palmer and Von Miller ) in recent years, it is hard to see why things will suddenly get better. In fact, with McDermott gone, it's very possible that things get worse.
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