Since Sean McDermott took over as head coach in 2017, the Buffalo Bills have been one of the league’s top teams.
McDermott has led the Bills to the playoffs in five of his six seasons as head coach, and they enter 2023 with three consecutive AFC North division victories and a trip to the AFC Championship game in 2020.
While there is a growing sentiment that the Bills and quarterback Josh Allen are having a good regular season and need to prove they can get over the hump in the playoffs and make it to the Super Bowl, no one would have predicted McDermott being fired as the team’s head coach before this season.
With a record of (6-6), Buffalo isn’t even guaranteed a postseason position unless they put together a good finish to the regular season. That won’t be easy, considering their next two opponents are the Chiefs and Cowboys, and they finish the season on the road against the Miami Dolphins after facing the Chargers and Patriots.
What Went Wrong With Sean McDermott And The Buffalo Bills?
It’s difficult to understand how a team with so much skill — a squad that didn’t lost any important players from last year’s (13-3) finish and had the coaching staff in place heading into 2023 — has struggled so much.
Statistically, the Bills appear to be in good shape. They boast the NFL’s fourth-best offense, but they have lost three of their previous four games, including a two-point loss at home to the Denver Broncos.
Following the defeat, the organization sacked offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey, implying that Sean McDermott was seeking for a scapegoat as the pressure mounted.
Despite Dorsey’s reputation as one of the best offensive coordinators in the league, Josh Allen and the Bills’ offense turned the ball over four times, prompting McDermott to make an unexpected decision.
“We need to be a confident offensive football team, and find consistent production, and that’s really what it came down to,” McDermott said after the game. “I’m just as frustrated as everyone else.” Right now, we’re trying to win one game at a time, and we have an opportunity to right the ship.”
Joe Brady, a known offensive genius, took over and the results have improved slightly since then, but this last five-game run will be the actual test.
According to an NFL source, McDermott might be fired by the Buffalo Bills.
Longtime Denver-based Broncos reporter Benjamin Albright has always had a good sense on what’s going on behind the scenes in the NFL, and has been the one to break numerous important scoops over the years.
He knows assistants, general managers, agents, and front-office personnel from practically every team in the league.
After McDermott’s humiliating and plain despicable statement this week, Albright feels the Buffalo Bills’ ownership may part ways with him after the season.
The ownership team had always intended to evaluate after this season.
They seemed to be in a window with Josh Allen and hadn’t capitalized. They’ve replaced both the defensive and offensive coordinators.
You know, when he mentioned that if they don’t win, they might want to blow this thing up…There’s a whole new meaning to it now….
The Bills’ head coach revealed on Thursday that he used an analogy involving 9/11 terrorists “coming together” to push his players ahead of the 2019 season.
Tyler Dunne, a longtime NFL journalist, revealed the “9/11 story” in a three-part series titled “The Bills Have a Sean McDermott Problem,” which includes information obtained from 25 coaches, players, personnel men, and other sources who worked inside the organization during the McDermott regime.
“He told the entire team they needed to come together,” Dunne writes of McDermott’s alleged 2019 address. “But then, according to sources, he used an unusual model: the terrorists of September 11, 2001.” He described the hijackers as “a group of people who were all able to get on the same page to perfectly orchestrate attacks.”
The three-part Dunne series is a fascinating look behind-the-scenes into Sean McDermott’s feelings, and nearly no one could have predicted this. However, it is difficult to reject direct information from 25 direct sources with direct ties to the team led by him.
Here’s an excerpt that pretty much sums up the situation, but the full series is worth reading.
He’s an old-school coach who is frequently gripped by fear late in games. He never considers what could go wrong with 20 seconds left in regulation, instead focusing on what could go right. Ignorant of the fact that he employs one of the game’s most outstanding quarterbacks. Those who have worked with McDermott would tell you that he is “tight.” He’s so unbearably tight, they say, that athletes can’t help but tense up. As if the head coach uses the 2-minute warning to lobotomize his entire team.
He’s an alien communicator, a “robot.”
He’s frequently referred to as a “blamer.” Coaches observe a boss who preaches accountability while abdicating his own. As the Titanic approaches an iceberg, this captain pushes passengers aside in order to obtain his personal lifeboat.
He’s never really connected with the team’s most important player, Josh Allen.
The Buffalo Bills may be in worse shape than many NFL fans thought before the season started. Maybe the narrative will change if Sean McDermott can unite this club, get them into the playoffs, and make a run.
But it almost feels like it’s too late.
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