The Bills suffered a 33-30 overtime loss to the Broncos in last weekend’s divisional round, the franchise’s latest crushing playoff defeat. Sean McDermott was at the helm for several of those losses, and owner Terry Pegula elected to make a change in firing the head coach on Monday.
A Super Bowl appearance eluded McDermott, but his nine-year run was nonetheless a success. Taking over an organization that had missed the postseason 17 straight times, McDermott guided the Bills to the playoffs in eight of nine seasons. He went 98-50 in the regular season, 8-8 in the playoffs and won five AFC East titles.
McDermott, then the Panthers’ defensive coordinator, took the Buffalo job in January 2017. Former Panthers colleague Brandon Beane became the Bills’ GM four months later.
Not only is Beane still in place despite McDermott’s ouster, but Pegula promoted him to president of football operations/GM on Monday. Beane is now leading the search for McDermott’s replacement.
Five weeks before the Bills cut ties with McDermott, he expressed concerns over the roster in a meeting with Pegula and Beane, Vic Carucci of Sirius XM Radio reports. McDermott pointed out certain ingredients the Bills were missing to win a Super Bowl, which left Pegula and Beane displeased. Pegula publicly stood up for Beane’s roster when discussing McDermott’s firing on Wednesday.
“Great roster,” he said (via Cameron Wolfe of NFL Network). “Good coaching. No Super Bowls… how do we overcome this? One year after another. I just couldn’t see us doing that with Sean (McDermott). That’s why I relieved him.”
It’s unknown which positions McDermott brought up in the meeting, though wide receiver, the run defense, the pass rush and a banged-up secondary were among areas of inconsistency for the team during the season. Beane didn’t make any deals to address the Bills’ weaknesses before the Nov. 4 trade deadline, instead bringing in receiver Brandin Cooks in free agency three weeks later and claiming defensive back Darnell Savage off waivers in early December.
The Savage addition came after the Bills’ claiming of former Steeler Darius Slay blew up in their faces. Slay didn’t report to the Bills, who placed him on the reserve/retired list. Assuming they’d get Slay, the Bills cut Ja’Marcus Ingram and then saw him join the Texans on waivers. McDermott was irked over losing Ingram, a member of the Bills from 2022-25.
“I’m a huge Ja’Marcus Ingram fan, and will always be,” said McDermott. “I want the best for him, so that’s really where my mind is right now.”
Cooks and Savage ended up playing important roles in Buffalo’s loss to Denver, and not in a good way for the Bills. Savage, subbing in during a minor Cam Lewis injury, was burned for a 29-yard touchdown pass near the end of the first half, The Broncos took a 17-10 lead on that score and later went up by double digits, but the Bills fought back to force overtime.
With the game tied at 30 in OT and the Bills driving for the win, Cooks was unable to haul in a Josh Allen deep ball that could have propelled the team to the AFC title game. In one of the most controversial plays of the season, Broncos cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian wrestled the ball from Cooks and came away with an interception. The Bills likely would have set up for the winning field goal had it been ruled a catch; instead, their season and the McDermott era are over.
Pegula told the media he decided to part with McDermott after entering a despondent postgame locker room in Denver. The owner concluded the Bills hit“the proverbial playoff wall” and needed to go in another direction (via Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN).
Pegula also revealed that Allen, who has spent his entire eight-year career under McDermott, had no say in the decision (via Wolfe)
“He didn’t have any input at all,” Pegula said. “I didn’t talk to Josh about this. I talked to him after and that convo will stay private but he had no input in it.”
Allen appreciated his run with McDermott, but the reigning MVP continues to have faith in Pegula and Beane, Jay Skurski of the Buffalo News relays. As the face of the franchise, Allen will be involved in the coaching search, per Pegula (via Getzenberg).
Considering Allen is under center and the Bills are coming off their seventh straight season of double-digit wins, Pegula is confident he won’t have any problems landing a capable successor to McDermott. Although Allen will turn 30 in May and still hasn’t won a Super Bowl as he nears the back nine of his career, Pegula won’t tell the next head coach the team’s in championship-or-bust mode in 2026 (via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk).
“I don’t know about pressure right now, but there’s a lot of people that want to look at taking this job,” Pegula said. “There’s a lot of interest.”
With Allen aiding Pegula, Beane and other Bills bigwigs in their head coaching search, here’s their early list of candidates:
- Lou Anarumo, defensive coordinator (Colts): Interview requested
- Joe Brady, offensive coordinator (Bills): Interviewed 1/21
- Brian Daboll, former head coach (Giants): To interview
- Klint Kubiak, offensive coordinator (Seahawks): Rumored candidate
- Anthony Lynn, run-game coordinator (Commanders): To interview 1/24
- Grant Udinski, offensive coordinator (Jaguars): Interview requested
- Anthony Weaver, defensive coordinator (Dolphins): Interview requested
- Davis Webb, quarterbacks coach (Broncos): Rumored candidate
Six of those eight coaches come from the offensive side of the ball. Allen has enjoyed success under Brady and Daboll, and he’s known to have good relationships with the pair. Teammates from 2019-21, Allen and Webb have been close friends for several years.
I’m embarrased to be a Bills fan today. They better hit a home run with the new coach, and that doesn’t mean bringing back Dabol or Brady to fill the HC position. They would be a big step backward.
As a Steelers fan, I kinda thought the Harbaugh firing was ridiculous. But this one, where they fire a coach who gets his team pretty far every year while elevating the GM is a new level in lunacy
I love McDermott, but he went 8-8 in the playoffs with Josh Allen as his qb, the best player in the entire league. All those games had an explanation, something went wrong that was beyond our control, but 8-8 is 8-8. We have maybe 3 more great josh Allen years, they can’t keep running it back like this. It’s torture! Beane better nail the next coach, we better win this damn thing finally. I don’t blame pegula for the move. It took balls to do it. Also, I hope Sean goes somewhere and wins a Super Bowl.
I’m ok with it too. Sean deserves all the success in the world, but maybe it’s time for a new voice. What do they say, the definition of madness is to continue to do things the same way each time expecting different results. This is the dream job for all these coordinators about to become available, they’ll have their pick of the litter. They just better not screw it up.
I think most fans are getting comfortable with them bringing in a new face, but then they announced Joe Brady and Dabol would be the first interviews. Hiring either as HC would kill that vibe (and show Beane and Pegula are full of you know what).
I think Daboll is probably interviewing for the OC job and that the Bills probably already know exactly who the next coach is. It might be Brady, I could totally see them doing that. But if it was Brady, obviously daboll wouldn’t be OC, so… who knows? I hope it’s one of the coordinators, I love everything I read about Davis Webb. They have to go through the motions of this hiring process, it’s impossible to know where all of this stands.
The Bills named him as a head coach candidate…OC I can see, but that’s the ceiling.
Believe me, he’s interviewing for both jobs at the same time.
Agree, but the Bills are not instilling confidence in the future by only mentioning head coach and making him among the first interviews.
Been rooting for Josh and especially the bills fan base, but that was arguably the worst press conference I’ve ever seen from a Gm/owner combo. Imagine being Coleman right now and pretty much the owner saying publicly verbatim that ur not a good player! Oh and then let’s promote the Gm who since 2018 has had 56 draft picks and only 2 of them are pro bowlers
We do not have hood ownership.
We have Josh, or we would be the Jets.
I feel genuinely bad for Bills Mafia after Terry went Jerrah. Y’all deserve much better than this crap.
Terrah
The players deserve better than this, too. These two buffoons just destroyed the positive culture McDermott created over the past nine years. Most forget Beane came a year after the coach was hired, and had little to do with the positive vibes in the locker room.
I’m a Patriot fan so I like this move.
Haha!
Ive been cocky the last few years and Ive enjoyed teams like the Jets and Dolphins failing.
But right now – I am scare because I think there is a strong chance we are going backward. Pegula speaking and basically making a snap decision, lying and being disingenuous made we lose all faith. Ive no faith in Beane either.
Sean wasn’t perfect, but he was very good. He gets more credit for the culture than anyone else.
Tldr – You are right to enjoy it. And I think its gonna get worse.
Maybe consider his former High School or College coaches for a role on staff, if not for head coach.