Sportsnaut
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.
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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.”
Dianna Russini of The Athletic on why the Buffalo Bills fired Sean McDermott
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.
Now, there is a case to be made for firing a head coach when an organization feels a change is necessary after...
