Buffalo Bills fire coach Sean McDermott
The Buffalo Bills have opted to make the change after their playoff disappointment
The Buffalo Bills have fired head coach Sean McDermott following the 33-30 defeat to the Denver Broncos in the AFC Divisional Round on Saturday.
The news, as initially reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, means Buffalo will join the other NFL teams scrambling around for a new coach.
McDermott leaves the Bills with a 98-50 record and five consecutive AFC East titles between 2020 and 2024 before they came second this year behind the New England Patriots.
Post-season failures come back to haunt McDermott
But it was his inability to get Buffalo to the Super Bowl that has ultimately cost him his job. The 51-year-old, who got the head coach job in 2017, has led the Bills into the postseason in each of the last seven years, and eight in total, but they have never reached the showpiece event, losing in the Wild Card Round twice, the Divisional Round four times and the AFC Championship Game twice.
Bills general manager Brandon Beane will lead the search for a successor to McDermott as they go into their new stadium in Orchard Park.
And McDermott will now become one of the more attractive options for the seven teams – Miami, Tennessee, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Arizona and Cleveland – looking for a new coach.
His departure will disappoint many in the Buffalo locker room. Speaking after the game on Saturday, linebacker Shaq Thompson said: “He just showed me how he could build a team with guys with the same mindset as him that want to run through walls. And I believe everybody in that locker room would have ran through the wall for Coach McDermott.”