The Buffalo Bills have been one of the NFL’s top franchises since Sean McDermott took over as head coach in 2017.
McDermott has led the Bills to the playoffs five of the six years he’s been their head coach and they entered 2023 with 3-straight AFC North division titles and a trip to the AFC Championship game in 2020.
While there’s been a growing sentiment the Bills and quarterback Josh Allen are a solid regular season and need to prove they can get over the hump in the playoffs and reach the Super Bowl, nobody would have ever considered McDermott possibly getting fired as the team’s head coach ahead of this season.
Sitting at (6-6), Buffalo isn’t even guaranteed a playoff spot unless they go on a strong run to close out the regular season. That won’t be an easy task, considering the Chiefs and Cowboys are their next two opponents, and after the Chargers and Patriots, they close out the season on a road trip to face the Miami Dolphins.
What Has Gone Wrong For Sean McDermott & The Buffalo Bills?
It’s almost impossible to fathom how a team with so much talent — that didn’t lose any key players from last year’s (13-3) finish and kept the coaching staff in tact entering 2023 — has struggled so much.
Statistically, the Bills look solid. They have the No. 4 offense in the NFL, but have lost three of their last four games, including a two-point loss to the Denver Broncos at home.
Immediately following that loss, the organization fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey in a move that felt like Sean McDermott was looking for a scapegoat as the pressure continued to mount.
Despite Dorsey’s history as one of the top offensive coordinators in the NFL, Josh Allen and the Bills’ offense turned the ball over four times so McDermott made a shocking move.
“We need to be a confident offensive football team, and find consistent production, and that’s really what it came down to,” McDermott said. “I’m as frustrated as anyone out there. We’re trying to win one game at a time right now, and we get a chance to right the ship.”
NFL Insider Hints McDermott Could Be On Hot Seat With Buffalo Bills
Longtime Denver-based Broncos’ reporter Benjamin Albright has always had a solid pulse on the behind-the-scenes happenings throughout the NFL, and has been the one to break some of the major stories over the years.
He’s connected to assistants, general managers, agents and members of front offices associated with nearly every team in the league .
After McDermott’s embarrassing and downright disgusting admission this week, Albright believes it’s possible Buffalo Bills ownership moves on from him after the season.
Ownership had always planned to evaluate after this season.
Felt like they were in a window with Josh Allen and haven't capitalized. They've turned over both a defensive coordinator and an offensive coordinator. https://t.co/jy5hT7Izo1
— Benjamin Allbright (@AllbrightNFL) December 8, 2023
You know, I think when he said if they don't win, they may want to blow this thing up…there's a whole new meaning attached now…. https://t.co/sUKKhNfT6b
— Benjamin Allbright (@AllbrightNFL) December 7, 2023
On Thursday, the Bills’ head coach admitted he used an analogy involving the 9/11 terrorists “coming together” to motivate his team ahead of the 2019 season.
Longtime NFL journalist Tyler Dunne revealed the what he referred to as the “9/11 story” in a three-part series titled “The Bills have a Sean McDermott problem” that includes information obtained from 25 coaches, players, personnel men and other sources who have been inside the organization under the McDermott regime.
He told the entire team they needed to come together,” Dunne wrote of the McDermott speech that apparently took place in 2019. “But then, sources on-hand say, he used a strange model: the terrorists on September 11, 2001. He cited the hijackers as a group of people who were all able to get on the same page to orchestrate attacks to perfection.”
The three-part Dunne series is a fascinating glimpse into the behind-the-scenes sentiment toward Sean McDermott, and yet almost nobody could have seen this coming. But it’s hard to refute direct information from 25 direct sources with direct ties to the team under his leadership.
Here’s an except that sums up the situation fairly well, but the entire series is worth the read.
The great mystery of the 2023 NFL season — What happened to the Buffalo Bills? — is no mystery at all.
It’s McDermott. It’s always been McDermott.
He’s a coaching relic routinely paralyzed by fear late in games. He never imagines what could go right with 20 seconds left in regulation, instead forever horrified of what could go wrong. Oblivious to the reality that he employs one of the sport’s most talented quarterbacks. The word you’ll hear constantly from those who’ve been around McDermott is “tight.” He’s so incomprehensibly tight, they say, players cannot help but stiffen up themselves. As if the head coach uses the 2-minute warning to administer mass lobotomies on his team.
He’s an unnatural communicator, a “robot.”
He’s described repeatedly as a “blamer.” Coaches see a boss who preaches accountability while taking none himself. As the Titanic inches toward an iceberg, this captain shoves passengers aside to secure his own lifeboat.
He has never managed to truly connect with the most important player on the team: Josh Allen.
The Buffalo Bills may be in worse shape than many NFL fans believed before the season began. If Sean McDermott can somehow rally this team, get into the playoffs and make a run, maybe the narrative will change.
But it almost feels too late.