The Buffalo Bills have fired coach Sean McDermott following the team’s AFC divisional round playoff loss to the Denver Broncos. Brandon Beane is being retained with the title of president of football operations/general manager and will help lead the search for Buffalo’s next coach.Â
“Sean has done an [admirable] job of leading our football team the past nine seasons,” Bills owner Terry Pegula said in a statement. “But I feel we are in a need of a new structure within our leadership to give this organization the best opportunity to take our team to the next level. We owe that to our players and to Bills Mafia.”Â
McDermott, 51, had a largely successful nine-year run with the Bills that included five consecutive AFC East division titles from 2020-24. However, Buffalo went just 8-8 in the playoffs under McDermott with repeated gut-wrenching losses, including Saturday’s 33-30 defeat to the Broncos that included several self-inflicted wounds.Â
While McDermott led the Bills to the franchise’s first road playoff win in 33 years a week earlier against the Jacksonville Jaguars, he was unable to snap Buffalo’s longtime stretch without a Super Bowl appearance, which dates back to the 1993 season. Buffalo has been unable to advance past the AFC Championship despite having one of the NFL’s best players in quarterback Josh Allen, whose eight playoff wins without a Super Bowl start is an NFL record. With Allen at quarterback, the Bills lost once in the wild-card round, four times in the divisional round, and twice in the AFC Championship.
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In all, McDermott posted a 98-50 record with the Bills and made the postseason in eight of his nine seasons. McDermott’s eight postseason wins are the most by any coach without a Super Bowl appearance. His 98 wins is the second-most in NFL history during a coach’s first nine seasons. When McDermott arrived in 2017, the Bills had not been to the postseason since 1999.
“Sean helped change the mindset of this organization and was instrumental in the Bills becoming a perennial playoff team. I respect all the work, loyalty and attention to detail he showed for this team and community,” Pegula said.Â
Buffalo’s 73-27 record since 2020 is the best in the NFL. This season, the Bills became the fifth team in NFL history with six straight 11-win seasons. They also became the first team in NFL history to lose a playoff game by three points or less in three straight seasons.Â
The Bills enter an offseason where they are slated to have just $3 million in projected cap space (which ranks 24th in the NFL) but will have at least one pick in each of the first five rounds of the upcoming NFL Draft. Receiver, defensive tackle and edge rusher are the Bills’ biggest projected areas of need heading into the offseason.Â
Buffalo also has several notable pending free agents, including pass rusher Joey Bosa, defensive lineman DaQuan Jones, center Connor McGovern and linebacker Matt Milano.Â
McDermott is the latest in a string of high-profile coaching moves in the AFC. Mike Tomlin stepped down after 19 seasons leading the Pittsburgh Steelers and John Harbaugh was fired after 18 seasons with the Baltimore Ravens. Harbaugh has already landed with the New York Giants.Â
With the Giants and Atlanta Falcons jobs filled (Atlanta hired Kevin Stefanski Sunday), the Bills become the eighth NFL opening, joining the Arizona Cardinals, Ravens, Cleveland Browns, Las Vegas Raiders, Miami Dolphins, Steelers and Tennessee Titans.Â
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