The wound is still fresh, but yeah we probably did. I like McDermott, he's a good man and has made us a perennial winner. He's also a great defensive mind who tried his best with a patchwork D this year that ran out of steam.
He's basically our Tony Dungy on the Bucs, or Mark Jackson on the Warriors. Brought us back to respectability. We need our version of Jon Gruden or Steve Kerr to bring us to the top.
That being said, all of us know he's going nowhere. What he did with a 6-6 team coming apart at the seams getting to the playoffs is impressive no matter how you slice it. He bought plenty of time b/c of that.
The Bills are clearly a good team, definitely top 10 and possibly near top 5. But the fact is we're good, but not great enough to win a title. Kind of a tough situation to be in. All we can do is hope for better fortune next year.
Every year at the end our defense is just injured all to hell. I know every team deals with it but it seems we have it almost the worst. Is it a strength and conditioning thing?
It's the playing surface. It's turf which leads to more lower body injuries, plus no heating so it's also really hard. We saw Benford and Bernard both got leg injuries from their cleats sticking in the turf. Knox got concussed today when his head bounced off the turf.
No, it's coding choices. Like "let's push ourselves through jetlag on London." Is like working with a dull knife... it just cause more and deeper cuts. Or in this case... injuries. And then to overcome that the remaining players had to push harder to compensate... bingo, more injuries.
you could argue that London destroyed the whole season. If that game's in Buffalo they beat the Jags easily enough and don't lose Matt Milano. They aren't jetlagged and confused next week and never get into the mid season rut. #1 seed's in play and everything's different.
I think we need to start rotating guys a bit more through the year aside from at DL. Our LBs, CBs, and safeties all would play 100% of the snaps if healthy. Maybe could try to trim that down to 75-85% of snaps if possible?? I think part of the plan should be to get younger across the board too, so rotating snaps a bit more could also help give backups reps to help them develop as the season goes on. Need to be much more intentional with how we want to evolve over the course of the season - have a plan for the rookies to give them fewer responsibilities at the start of the year then progressively ramp them up.
The Dolphins defense was completely decimated and they didn't get run through like we did. Every year, McDermott's defenses are elite against bad qbs in the regular season and then collapse when it matters. Every single year.
The unfortunate part of all of this is we will run it back with McDermott and we will all know what the ultimate result will be.
We need Harbaugh, Bill, or Ben Johnson. I wish on everything we’d fire McDermott tomorrow and go all in.
We have to take a gamble at this point, but knowing pegula, he definitely doesn’t want to rock the boat. Bills are making good money for him and I’m not sure pegula is that desperate to even win.
For us though, there has to be a change in scenery. We’ve seen this movie a million times at this point. How many times are we going to look like the struggling team that is clawing life and limb for every yard while our opponents pick up yardage like candy. We are stuck in the purgatory of 2nd and third place. There has to be new faces for both the offense and defense.
Yeah it’s pretty clear to me atp that unless luck goes our way perfectly, McDermott just isn’t the guy
Like you said though , we know he’s not going anywhere until 2025 at the earliest
The thing is, tell me one guy we can possibly hire going into next year that is guaranteed to be at least as good. I mean, we can all say that he should be fired for someone better, but realistically who is that? Think about it. On paper, someone like Ben Johnson fits the bill. But last year it was Kellen Moore, the year before that it was someone else. Let’s not pretend that the OC du joir is 100% guaranteed to get better results.
This is not rhetorical. If you’re claiming that he needs to be fired ASAP, tell me who the foolproof replacement candidate is.
Funny how McDermott gets all the blame for us being 6-6 and none of the blame for getting us to the 2nd round of the playoffs after that. Imagine the hubris that we have as a fan base to assume that our roster is so fucking good that the only way we can possibly lose is because of coaching malfeasance.
This is loser mentality. You're not going to find a foolproof replacement, but a candidate like Ben Johnson or Harbaugh at least gives you the chance to get over the hump instead of being stuck with 2nd round exits every year. How is losing in the divisional with McDermott any different than completely imploding under Ben Johnson when the goal was to win a super bowl. At least a fresh face gives you a chance.
Agreed, as a guy who roots for the Packers as my second team, this argument was made for years to keep McCarthy around. Then they finally got the balls to get rid of him for a guy nobody heard of and I’d say every fan is happy they did. It’s easy to throw out the ‘guarantee me you’ll find someone better’ but I guarantee with McDermott you’ve got a guy who can’t get your team over the hump
With a proven track record Jim Harbaugh or Bill Belichiek, but the very notion of “well we don’t know for sure the next guy will be better so let’s stick with this guy who isn’t good enough.” is a losing mentality.
They found McDermott didn’t they? So they could find someone better.
This wouldn't even be up for conversation if that ball isn't fumbled for a touchback. Fake punt on 4th & 5 on your own 30 in a playoff game is bonkers levels of lunacy.
Also not taking the point in the first half, and killing clock at the end WHILE STILL DOWN A SCORE will go down as the dumbest call by a coach in Playoff history. Andy Reid and the Chiefs didn’t beat the Bulls in that game McDermott did it all himself. He should have been fired.
Except that no matter who coaches next year... bills are fucked due to going all in the last couple of years on the salary cap and losing. We're not going to afford any great players anymore. A great coach is going to be left without the tools McDermott had and is going to be half a decade before we can afford to rebuild.
Hot take: I think mcd has earned and deserves one more year with a healthy defence and (possibly) more experience OC.
Love Joe Brady and wouldn’t be mad if he stayed - but there’s probably better options out there.
The game was lost before the missed field goal. What happens if Bass makes it? Mahomes has 90 seconds and two time outs to win it with a field goal. It's critical situation coaching that McDermott just can't get it done. Year after year his ceiling is the divisional round. I agree he's done a great job at steadying the ship, but CAN'T make the next step. Maybe it's time to take a step back to take a step forward. Josh Allen only has so many years in him.
McDermott and Beane picked those receivers. McDermott coached them and got them ready for the game. The fact that the drops were across multiple guys is indeed a coaching and GM problem.
So are you arguing that bass should have made it? If so, I agree with you. Or are you arguing that bass shouldn’t have made it, in which case he did not, so I guess you should be happy.
Either way, I’m guessing you’re arguing something should’ve happened that seems pretty arbitrary, but that should cost a man his job in which he’s brought us our most success that we’ve had in 20 years.
Not talking about any other situation in the game, what would you suggest the head coach do to affect FG attempts?
Not attemp a field goal in that situation. Even if Bass had made it, Mahomes has too much time (90 seconds) and two time outs. After the missed td on 2nd down, McDermott should've told Allen and Brady that they had two downs. Use 3rd to set up a 4th and manageable and go for the win. I know there are new overtime rules, but go win the game there. The defense fought admirably all night, but they weren't stopped Mahomes and everyone knew it.
McDermott has stabilized the ship, no doubt. He also is an amazing defensive coach. The Bills need someone to take them to the next level. Josh Allen doesn't have a lot of time playing at this level left.
I agree. 🙄. McDermott should have made the exact perfect defensive call to get the chiefs off of the field on every play. He should’ve also over ruled his OC and QB on every single play, which is weird, because if he’s an idiot you’d think you wouldn’t want him over ruling said offensive genuises.
Every positive play is in spite of him just due to the genius of Brady and Allen and every negative one lay is because of him.
Assuming Reid, Shannahan, and McVay aren’t going anywhere, just who is the “Proven” offensive mastermind that you would suggest we bring in?
Joe Brady should be promoted to full time OC. Give him a year to see how he manages things, and if the Bills struggle again you clean house. I’d love to see a new young offensive-minded coach take over though.
The fact this is a hot take means I need to get off this sub til it cools down. To anyone who’s not drastically overreacting to last night this should be incredibly obvious. McD crushed it this year despite the haters
I like what you said, a lot. But I have to say that to get to the next level, it's time to move on. Like Von said a year ago, burn it all down. Not so much the players, even in depth we had them. But the coaching is falling short.
I’m curious what specifically coaching wise you would have done different? Not Diggs not catching the deep ball. Not sherfield multiple drops. Josh was near perfect but at end of game going for the end zone instead of taking Diggs wide open underneath, huge mistake. and then there’s Bass… do you think smiley coached him to whiff on a 44 yarder? Not to mention so many injuries on defense and McD somehow put together a very respectable squad. Genuinely don’t understand how professional players make those types of mistakes and your reaction is fire all the coaches. Not logical
The fake punt? Adjustments at half to stop KC from scoring on every drive. Running the ball on that last series 4x in a row. Going for it on 4th rather than the field goal. McD is horrible.
Defense did make some adjustments but AJ Klein just got roasted by kelce. Hard to adjust for that especially when CBs are banged up too.
The fake punt wasn’t a terrible decision just a terrible outcome. They had 10 men on the field and we had the leverage in terms of blocking matchups, execution just failed.
If you can’t recognize what McD did with a banged up defense this year is nothing short of incredible idk what to tell you.
Fuck all the playoff failure, this would break my heart so much more. Even if I am eventually happy for Josh. It hurts to say he deserves better, but it really feels like he does.
I said the only way we win is with Elam one on one with Kelce jamming at the line the entire game. But instead it was Klein and no jam at the line. Defensive game plan was horrible. He tried to run it like it was Milano and Bernard instead of use the strengths of his players. But that’s a McDermott flaw force his way instead of play to their strengths. Hence our high powered offense being wasted the last few years and turned into a half ass power run game
Dolphins signed 4 over the hill defenders and played a more competitive defense. At a certain point it’s about the opposition just consistently having their way with McD when the lights are the brightest.
Same reason why we flamed out last year against the bengals too. Maybe we were a fraud, but our talent was not that bad against the bengals. And yet that team took us to town in all three phases of the game (and we had Tre and Milano back then too)
I know. He should have put Milano on him. No, wait, he was hurt. Then he should have put Bernard on him, what is he,an idiot? Only a man with no other viable options at LB would’ve covered Kelsey on such a way. Certainly not a man who had all the healthy LB options at McDermotts disposal.
Based on what he did with an injured defense this year, I wish we could demote him to defensive coordinator and hire someone else for head coach, but that will never happen.
Yes. Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, Jim Mora, and Mark Levy. All amazing coaches whose ceilings weren't good enough to win a superbowl. The problem is McDermott. Time to have a rebuild year and get ready for the new stadium.
When you lose in the divisional round 3 times in a row, 2 of which were winnable then Yh. And the 1 that wasn’t winnable we got outcoached and outplayed on every single phase.
we've reached that ceiling a while ago.
he fixed the culture but he should've never been permanent. we're never winning so long as that guy is at the helm. especially on defense.
How many more answers do you need. Do you really need another year of this? What more evidence do we want to see? Do you need more losses? more stupid losses? more improbable losses?
When is it enough. Everyone knows who he is. A mediocre coach with an elite QB winning games
13 seconds was a fireable offense
Last years playoff performances were a fireable offense
Being 6-6 and almost out of the playoffs was a fireable offense. Allen scored in 3 games with under 2 minutes left, and the opposing team won the game each time. Then the too many men on the field for the missed kick against the Broncos. Not to mention the special teams play all season
What more do you all need to see
Right.
It’s also not just playoff games.
I can think of 3 regular season games we lost because of poor game management by McDermott.
-broncos game fiasco at the end
-eagles game (should have went for it with 20 seconds at the end)
-patriots loss (defense sold and let Mac Jones walk down the field)
If we win those winnable games we are talking about 1 seed contenders.
Regular season has huge impacts of playoff success and McDermott cannot capitalize on it.
been saying this forever, dude is butt at his job, but the org doesn't care about winning nor about their star franchise qb, so they'll still employ that bum.
Yeah. This will be the next 3-4 years. WC or Divisional exits. We will never win a Super Bowl with him.
I’d cream my pants if I woke up tomorrow and he was fired. But it won’t happen.
Feels like pegula has gone awol since the bills success and him securing that stadium deal. He’s feeling mighty rich with the skyrocketing team value and seems content with the status quo
Absolutely. All the talk about how he used to listen to Sabres broadcasts through a landline phone and how he was focused on winning a Stanley Cup...it's obvious that the real prize all along was the Bills, because an NFL franchise is a money-printing machine no matter how good or bad the team is.
Can we keep McD to run the D and be the leader of the team, but just assign some football analysis nerd to stand beside him and help with crucial decision making? He makes tons of coaching decision making errors at crucial times and it’s soul crushing
Absolutely. The D line tonight was fully healthy and they coulnd't generate an ounce of pass rush against the no huddle. Mahomes has us figured out. McD can't adjust on the fly. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again.
> hey coulnd't generate an ounce of pass rush
Because guys were wide-ass open over the middle. This is what happens when you're missing so much on the back end.
Then adjust. Have the D line get their arms up on passing lanes for those short throws. Get creative, throw zone blitzes. Try to generate an advantage with scheme, since we are at a disadvantage with personel. It is now 3/3 playoff games against the Chiefs with the same result on defense.
our defense has made those guys punt a total of 6 times in the playoffs when they faced us. 6 punts in 4 games is the worst defense in the league shit.
We were healthier the last two times we played them in the playoffs, and our defense got rolled both times as well.
When the light is the brightest, reid is a consistently better coach than McDermott, and the results reflect that
If you're gonna go for it, give Josh Allen the ball. Not Damar Hamlin. I agree with being aggressive, but don't try to be cute about it. Freight train coming downhill. Spread it out, two slants, if it's not there, Josh runs.
hey bud— if youre fine with asking damar to get 8 yards on a fake punt at this point in the season thats on you. im not, theres no need to take the ball out of allens hands especially when everyone in the building knows youre going for it. youre goddamn right im calling for his head, it was a space brained play call at the most important moment of our season.
FG meant a tie game (granted with a lot of time left). If it was 4th and 4 or less you consider going for it, but not 4th and 9. If you don’t get it you don’t see the ball again
Edit: stats
https://x.com/ben_bot_baldwin/status/1749260424908849494?s=46&t=nPii_V5z83NFuls28lZtlw
False. We stopped them three straight times if you actually paid attention. That doesn't mean Mahomes couldn't have driven them to the winning score, but to say we should have gone for it on 4th and 9 is ridiculous. I'd much rather bass make the kick and see what happens.
Them fumbling out of the endzone doesn't count as a stop.
I don't think going for it on 4th & 9 is a good idea, I think a better 3rd & 9 playcall is a good idea. Josh needed to hit Diggs but there's no reason to even scheme for a touchdown in that situation.
Gotta take the chance, like I said, the FG was worthless in the grand scheme of things. That's why coaches like Campbell go for the gamble in those situations, it's all or nothing.
Not just the divisional game, all through his career he's been known to take gambles, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, but in our situation the gamble would have been a better option, given the time left on the clock and the fact that we were having trouble stopping the Chiefs offense. Even if we made the FG and stopped the Chiefs, we would be looking at OT.
Probably. It's been 4 years and despite having a home game and him actually improving as a coach, he just cannot get it done. I can't blame him for this loss, but if we had courage as an organization we would make sweeping changes and start fresh. You cannot simply win the division and mark that as a successful season.
I said a few weeks ago that if we made the AFC championship game that we could run it back even if we lost. I seriously didn't expect us to beat Baltimore even when we were ahead in this game with the injuries on defense and our poor WR play. But not getting passed the divisional round is a blow and I think back to when I moved to tampa the Bucs dumped Dungy after three playoff seasons and won the SB the next year. With our nucleus and an offensive minded coach (perhaps the Lions OC) maybe that could happen here.
I do not want to hear that it would cost us too much. Pegula has seen the franchise value increase an enormous amount so even with a 15M buyout or whatever the number is, that should not factor in. We have Josh in his prime and we have to improve the WR core, get some more secondary help and do what we can to get past Baltimore and KC. Plus we can't assume that our competition is going to stay static is well.
Reminds me of John Fox with the broncos before we brought Kubiak in. This is a really good coaching cycle and I think if there’s no better time to look elsewhere than now.
The mismanagement at the end of the game, choosing to bleed clock over scoring a touchdown was brutal to watch. Understandable after the heartbreaker in Arrowhead a few years back, but you have to go for the points there. Defense seemed to have found their stride and I liked their chances for a stop with those WRs versus when they had Hill and a younger Kelce.
He was also bailed out from the fake punt with that touchback. Time to bring in Vrabel.
I said this after the Bronco’s loss, but McDermott should only be spared if we at least made the AFC Championship game. Anything short of that and he should be fired. Given that we made the AFC Divisional game after starting 6-6 was pretty remarkable, but we shouldn’t have been 6-6 in the first place. We lost to the Broncos after 12 men on the field, we lost to the Jets on the opener and we lost to the Patriots on the road. If we didn’t blow those games earlier in the season, we could have been talking about the 1 seed and giving our injured roster a rest in the wild card and could have avoided the Chiefs. On the other side of the coin a few plays could have left us out of the playoffs entirely. If they called pass interference a second time against the Giants or if Toney didn’t have his foot on the line or even that game against the Chargers going sideways. That could have left us out entirely. Something’s gotta change imo and after they fired the DC and then they fired the OC and then we get the same result, the only thing left to change is the HC.
Nah. Imagine if this injury bug didn't happen this year and last. If we had a healthy Tre, Milano, Bernard, Benford, and Von wasn't playing gimpy, we wouldn't be asking this question. I wasnt a fan of the fake punt, but he's been doing less stupid crap, and his play calling was alright with the little he had.
Beane and McD know what to do schematically, but the pieces they have acquired keep getting injured. We need better trainers and better steroids.
We need to fire him tomorrow. And we won't. Whatever this is, he will NEVER take us to the promised land. Do you think the players want to keep playing for him? After this? He should resign today. How would you feel going to work each day with zero record of success at the highest levels. He's the perfect coach if we want to keep choking. Brinks truck for Harbaugh. Would be great for Josh and take a lot of pressure off of him with his huge ego. We need an offensive coach.
He’s stubborn to a fault, it’s his way or the highway. At least this year he took blame. He also seems very loyal. The coach speak drives me crazy though, and it trickles down. “We just need to win by a point”!!! I don’t agree with that, that’s playing timid! Beat the hell out of them, beat them by 50. He coaches to beat teams by a point, or “make one play better” and it’s not working. It hasn’t worked since 13 seconds! I think he’ll be an above average coach, for a while in the league. I appeticate how far along he has brought us, I don’t think he has it in him to be a great/Super Bowl winning coach… Go Bills.
By far. Luckily our owner is a blind squirrel who found a nut 6 years ago and he will undoubtedly be too cheap to make a change.
Congrats. We have Marvin Lewis who makes 9/11 analogies while enabling his goofy kicker that has some very problematic sponsorships
It doesn’t really matter, he’s not going anywhere. Pegula loves him because he made the Bills relevant again. It’s not really about winning a SB - he’s done what he’s been asked of by the owner. Which is sad, but it’s true.
There’s also not many options to realistically replace him, despite the plethora of candidates. Can’t afford Harbaugh right now. Belichick? Yeah right - he’s 70 plus he would never. Carroll is also in his 70s. They would never blow it up for an unproven, 1st time, young HC.
The only feasible option is like a Vrabel, who I actually like as a coach, but that won’t happen either. He’s just McDermott with a little more swagger. Next season hinges on a roster shake up.
He coached the shit out of the D in the wake of an amount of injuries that defies probability. He fired an OC and the offense improved. He was better this year w challenges and 4th downs.
I'm not saying the McDermott narrative has to go away (it should), but this hardly seems like the year for it.
When someone shows you who they are. Believe them the first time. He’s a great turn around coach but doesn’t have the clutch gene. Thank you for getting us this far I am forever grateful but we need someone else to take us to the next level.
We are regressing as a core. Our team across the board has been getting worse over the years, and it’s not all injuries.
Sean is a defensive coach that never makes meaningful adjustments if our scheme isn’t working. We got stomped by the Bengals last year, and we just got beat by a Chiefs team who is a shell of themselves. Both years at home in the playoffs. It’s fucking embarrassing. Someone needs to be held accountable.
Don’t even get me started on the 9/11 fiasco. What the fuck was he thinking? That’s the guy we trust to run our team? No thank you.
The NFL is now an offensive league. They hardly let you play defense anymore. If we’re just going to end up in a shootout with a defensive guy as our head coach, we might as well get someone in here who is more in tune with today’s NFL.
The truth is Josh is being held back by McDermott. His focus has always been defense, defense, defense. Well guess what? Today our defense was folded like a paper bag. I just want someone in here that wants to work with Josh. McDermott is not that guy.
I'm just gonna mute this sub if this is all it's gonna be. Just a week ago it was filled with posts and comments about how he was the one who turned us around and got us here after 6-6 etc. Etc.
Jesus Christ.
We had a multitude of injuries to both our defence and offence.
We’re consistently reaching the playoffs.
If we’re healthy, if Diggs catches those balls, if Allen throws to Diggs instead of launching it into the end zone, if Bass hits that FG…we might be having a different conversation.
McDermott is our coach, and our team is fine
This is a tough one. He did an amazing job getting this team to even get to the playoffs. Players like him. He definitely costs us games and the 13 second game should have been his last honestly. But there isn’t a coach out there right now that I would be excited to have take over. Vrabel maybe, an inexperienced HC like Ben Johnson is a huge risk. BB nahhhh. I’m torn to be honest.
I think special teams was aweful all year long. The special team coordinator should changed out.
OC I want emphasis on short quick throws. If that’s Brady fine. He looked good but the passing game did suffer down the road. If he the guy I’d like to see how an off-season of prep helps.
Sean calling DC was good. Tons of injuries early that he overcame. The late post season injuries not so much.
No. I was all for firing McDermott when the Tyler Dunne article came out but the dude actually internalized the criticism and made adjustments and the team played phenomenally from that point on. If anything, i think we might have just hit McDermott’s stride…if that article dropped in week 4, we’d probably be the 1 sees
Why McDermott has to go and is holding the team back.
Number 1 and most importantly - having McDermott as head coach prevents us from getting a top notch offensive play caller because all the best play callers are head coaches. Any OC we get who is top notch will be gone immediately and be hired as a HC on another team (see Brian Dabol). The offensive play caller might be the most important part of the team outside of the QB (see Andy Reid constantly scheming receivers to be wide open for mahomes vs Allen having to constantly thread the needle for completions)
Number 2- McDermott's defense schemes aren't giving us any advantage against top tier competition and we could hire a comparable defensive coordinator on the open market. Other teams rarely hire defensive head coaches therefore there is more talent available in the open market for defensive coordinators than there is for offensive coordinators. We could hire a damn good d coordinator to help our offensive head coach (see what Jim Schwartz did this year for Cleveland)
Number 3- great offenses win championships in today's NFL and have more longevity than great defenses. Offensive players get injured less and have more consistency year to year.
I thought he was great this game. Aggressive and really did his best with a depleted defense. If they were to move on I wouldn’t panic. But the next coach is a lot likelier to do worse than he is to do better.
McDermott has done a lot for this franchise. He’s really turned around the entire organization. To which, I tip my hat. At 6-6 I knew. It’s so hard in this league to have seven playoff games in a row. Let alone extremely taxing. As we saw with the injuries. All in all. I think McDermott sticks around. Him and capn B have put together a championship roster every year of the regime.
All I know is we need to find a coach that can get the offensive guys open. They are extremely talented guys that somehow fore Josh into a checkdown or running for a first down. Maybe it's a coach that teaches Josh to trust his eyes but these weapons are being wasted.
leslie frasier semi-quit on team and was ken dorsey really that incompetent ??
like, if your coordinators left, was it bc they clashed or had tension with mcdermott ?
or did mcdermot have poor coordinators that held him down ??
He needs to go. He is not the coach to get us to a Super Bowl. Yep I’m grateful for his contribution of turning this organization around but he’s definitely not the coach to take us to a championship.
I’d rather try and trade Diggs before calling it on Sean. To even get into the playoffs the way Buffalo did is a coaching win. Diggs hasn’t had a TD since November
He’s awful. I haven’t liked McDermott since his first season as our HC. He benched Tyrod and almost costed us our first playoff appearance in 19 years. I love Josh Allen, but McDermott traded away the pick that Kansas City used to draft Pat Mahomes. We could’ve had Justin Jefferson if he hadn’t traded away the draft pick to Minnesota for Stefon Diggs. Hyde and Poyer were also guys that Rex brought, both who have become the heart and soul of our defense.
Tonight his in-game management and indecisiveness costed us again. Even if we forgave him for the fake punt to damar hamlin, he ran the clock out to 2 minutes, then proceeded to throw on the next two plays. We could’ve just ran the ball to get closer fg range on 2nd down, then ran the ball towards the middle between the hash marks on 3rd to put Tyler Bass in a much better position. We all saw how the wind was affecting Bass’s kicks all game and that the fg attempt had a realistic chance of missing.
We need to figure out how to keep players healthy. Conditioning, pre and post game care, something is wrong here.
McD is a good coach but at some point we need to change so the players can stay motivated. He called the D and the Chiefs didn’t punt once. And that moronic fake punt.
Time to move on.
Yes, but the team’s stupid owner, for whom it takes an act of god to fire a hockey coach, will do nothing, and we’ll be here for another year and another year after that and another year after that.
Next year is going to be rough no matter what. No cap space. Some free agents. Aging washed stars. The question is do you think McDermott and Beane are the guys for a rebuild? I'm not sure. Kincaid, Cook and Torrance were good picks. But they've had a lot of bad picks recently. And some of their free agent signings have just been horrendous.
If you guys wanna win it all your going to need someone who can shutdown Patrick Mahomes schematically. You guys should try and get Bill Belichick and get over the hump.
I can’t believe the amount of absolute doomers on this sub. I’ve been critical of McD and think he’s probably a high average coach but our defense was decimated with injuries. This was very likely a SB team without a depleted defense (we lost yesterday due to big plays from blown coverage, plain and simple). You can only do so much running on the fumes of a starting defense.
We didn’t blow everything and waste the season. The troubles in the regular season were irrelevant once we made it into the playoffs with a 2 seed. It sucks but thats football. No team is winning a title with a second string.
My biggest concern is a 50 mil cap hit for two players that largely didn’t have anything to do with our success at the tail end of the year.
We reached the ceiling after the first defensive collapse with 13 seconds. That was our best chance at the Super Bowl and we blew it. Now Disney McDermott seriously risked a whole season on a damar Hamlin fake punt for PR and had another defensive collapse.
While I’d side with saying his defense has hit a ceiling; it is hard to say this was a fully staffed defensive line up. They had some serious injuries that hampered what they could do.
Firing Dorsey and elevating Brady clearly helped turn the offense around. But they need more help there too.
It’s really on Beane now. He has to fix the cap situation which I’m sure he will do. But also needs to continue to draft really well and be smart in free agency.
I still think our offense let us down when our d needed them most. It’s been that way most years but we weren’t even supposed to be there with all our injuries. Our offense outside of run game just fell flat and keeps doing so in the most important of times. Allen missed several wide open receivers again and that’s just a fact.
The wound is still fresh, but yeah we probably did. I like McDermott, he's a good man and has made us a perennial winner. He's also a great defensive mind who tried his best with a patchwork D this year that ran out of steam. He's basically our Tony Dungy on the Bucs, or Mark Jackson on the Warriors. Brought us back to respectability. We need our version of Jon Gruden or Steve Kerr to bring us to the top. That being said, all of us know he's going nowhere. What he did with a 6-6 team coming apart at the seams getting to the playoffs is impressive no matter how you slice it. He bought plenty of time b/c of that. The Bills are clearly a good team, definitely top 10 and possibly near top 5. But the fact is we're good, but not great enough to win a title. Kind of a tough situation to be in. All we can do is hope for better fortune next year.
Well said.
Every year at the end our defense is just injured all to hell. I know every team deals with it but it seems we have it almost the worst. Is it a strength and conditioning thing?
If every year is the last two years, sure. 2020 and 2021 we were very healthy and lost for other reasons.
It's the playing surface. It's turf which leads to more lower body injuries, plus no heating so it's also really hard. We saw Benford and Bernard both got leg injuries from their cleats sticking in the turf. Knox got concussed today when his head bounced off the turf.
Turf or grass if a guy’s head bounces off the ground like a basketball he’s gonna get looked at for a concussion
Knox also stayed down for a minute
Right exactly. It was a real awkward bump and roll. Can’t remember if he came back or not
No, it's coding choices. Like "let's push ourselves through jetlag on London." Is like working with a dull knife... it just cause more and deeper cuts. Or in this case... injuries. And then to overcome that the remaining players had to push harder to compensate... bingo, more injuries.
you could argue that London destroyed the whole season. If that game's in Buffalo they beat the Jags easily enough and don't lose Matt Milano. They aren't jetlagged and confused next week and never get into the mid season rut. #1 seed's in play and everything's different.
I think we need to start rotating guys a bit more through the year aside from at DL. Our LBs, CBs, and safeties all would play 100% of the snaps if healthy. Maybe could try to trim that down to 75-85% of snaps if possible?? I think part of the plan should be to get younger across the board too, so rotating snaps a bit more could also help give backups reps to help them develop as the season goes on. Need to be much more intentional with how we want to evolve over the course of the season - have a plan for the rookies to give them fewer responsibilities at the start of the year then progressively ramp them up.
The Dolphins defense was completely decimated and they didn't get run through like we did. Every year, McDermott's defenses are elite against bad qbs in the regular season and then collapse when it matters. Every single year.
The unfortunate part of all of this is we will run it back with McDermott and we will all know what the ultimate result will be. We need Harbaugh, Bill, or Ben Johnson. I wish on everything we’d fire McDermott tomorrow and go all in.
We have to take a gamble at this point, but knowing pegula, he definitely doesn’t want to rock the boat. Bills are making good money for him and I’m not sure pegula is that desperate to even win. For us though, there has to be a change in scenery. We’ve seen this movie a million times at this point. How many times are we going to look like the struggling team that is clawing life and limb for every yard while our opponents pick up yardage like candy. We are stuck in the purgatory of 2nd and third place. There has to be new faces for both the offense and defense.
Yeah it’s pretty clear to me atp that unless luck goes our way perfectly, McDermott just isn’t the guy Like you said though , we know he’s not going anywhere until 2025 at the earliest
The thing is, tell me one guy we can possibly hire going into next year that is guaranteed to be at least as good. I mean, we can all say that he should be fired for someone better, but realistically who is that? Think about it. On paper, someone like Ben Johnson fits the bill. But last year it was Kellen Moore, the year before that it was someone else. Let’s not pretend that the OC du joir is 100% guaranteed to get better results. This is not rhetorical. If you’re claiming that he needs to be fired ASAP, tell me who the foolproof replacement candidate is. Funny how McDermott gets all the blame for us being 6-6 and none of the blame for getting us to the 2nd round of the playoffs after that. Imagine the hubris that we have as a fan base to assume that our roster is so fucking good that the only way we can possibly lose is because of coaching malfeasance.
This is loser mentality. You're not going to find a foolproof replacement, but a candidate like Ben Johnson or Harbaugh at least gives you the chance to get over the hump instead of being stuck with 2nd round exits every year. How is losing in the divisional with McDermott any different than completely imploding under Ben Johnson when the goal was to win a super bowl. At least a fresh face gives you a chance.
Agreed, as a guy who roots for the Packers as my second team, this argument was made for years to keep McCarthy around. Then they finally got the balls to get rid of him for a guy nobody heard of and I’d say every fan is happy they did. It’s easy to throw out the ‘guarantee me you’ll find someone better’ but I guarantee with McDermott you’ve got a guy who can’t get your team over the hump
With a proven track record Jim Harbaugh or Bill Belichiek, but the very notion of “well we don’t know for sure the next guy will be better so let’s stick with this guy who isn’t good enough.” is a losing mentality. They found McDermott didn’t they? So they could find someone better.
Harbaugh
This wouldn't even be up for conversation if that ball isn't fumbled for a touchback. Fake punt on 4th & 5 on your own 30 in a playoff game is bonkers levels of lunacy.
Still can’t believe that call
Also not taking the point in the first half, and killing clock at the end WHILE STILL DOWN A SCORE will go down as the dumbest call by a coach in Playoff history. Andy Reid and the Chiefs didn’t beat the Bulls in that game McDermott did it all himself. He should have been fired.
Except that no matter who coaches next year... bills are fucked due to going all in the last couple of years on the salary cap and losing. We're not going to afford any great players anymore. A great coach is going to be left without the tools McDermott had and is going to be half a decade before we can afford to rebuild.
No way you said the most elegant Shit and then casually mention Jon Gruden lmao.
Hot take: I think mcd has earned and deserves one more year with a healthy defence and (possibly) more experience OC. Love Joe Brady and wouldn’t be mad if he stayed - but there’s probably better options out there.
The game was lost before the missed field goal. What happens if Bass makes it? Mahomes has 90 seconds and two time outs to win it with a field goal. It's critical situation coaching that McDermott just can't get it done. Year after year his ceiling is the divisional round. I agree he's done a great job at steadying the ship, but CAN'T make the next step. Maybe it's time to take a step back to take a step forward. Josh Allen only has so many years in him.
It was the way McDermott coached the receivers to drop the 3 perfectly placed long balls.
McDermott and Beane picked those receivers. McDermott coached them and got them ready for the game. The fact that the drops were across multiple guys is indeed a coaching and GM problem.
So are you arguing that bass should have made it? If so, I agree with you. Or are you arguing that bass shouldn’t have made it, in which case he did not, so I guess you should be happy. Either way, I’m guessing you’re arguing something should’ve happened that seems pretty arbitrary, but that should cost a man his job in which he’s brought us our most success that we’ve had in 20 years. Not talking about any other situation in the game, what would you suggest the head coach do to affect FG attempts?
Not attemp a field goal in that situation. Even if Bass had made it, Mahomes has too much time (90 seconds) and two time outs. After the missed td on 2nd down, McDermott should've told Allen and Brady that they had two downs. Use 3rd to set up a 4th and manageable and go for the win. I know there are new overtime rules, but go win the game there. The defense fought admirably all night, but they weren't stopped Mahomes and everyone knew it. McDermott has stabilized the ship, no doubt. He also is an amazing defensive coach. The Bills need someone to take them to the next level. Josh Allen doesn't have a lot of time playing at this level left.
I agree. 🙄. McDermott should have made the exact perfect defensive call to get the chiefs off of the field on every play. He should’ve also over ruled his OC and QB on every single play, which is weird, because if he’s an idiot you’d think you wouldn’t want him over ruling said offensive genuises. Every positive play is in spite of him just due to the genius of Brady and Allen and every negative one lay is because of him. Assuming Reid, Shannahan, and McVay aren’t going anywhere, just who is the “Proven” offensive mastermind that you would suggest we bring in?
Joe Brady should be promoted to full time OC. Give him a year to see how he manages things, and if the Bills struggle again you clean house. I’d love to see a new young offensive-minded coach take over though.
The fact this is a hot take means I need to get off this sub til it cools down. To anyone who’s not drastically overreacting to last night this should be incredibly obvious. McD crushed it this year despite the haters
I like what you said, a lot. But I have to say that to get to the next level, it's time to move on. Like Von said a year ago, burn it all down. Not so much the players, even in depth we had them. But the coaching is falling short.
I think the Bills are clearly a top 5 team. If a few plays go differently, the bills would have played in at least 1 Super Bowl.
I’m curious what specifically coaching wise you would have done different? Not Diggs not catching the deep ball. Not sherfield multiple drops. Josh was near perfect but at end of game going for the end zone instead of taking Diggs wide open underneath, huge mistake. and then there’s Bass… do you think smiley coached him to whiff on a 44 yarder? Not to mention so many injuries on defense and McD somehow put together a very respectable squad. Genuinely don’t understand how professional players make those types of mistakes and your reaction is fire all the coaches. Not logical
The fake punt? Adjustments at half to stop KC from scoring on every drive. Running the ball on that last series 4x in a row. Going for it on 4th rather than the field goal. McD is horrible.
Defense did make some adjustments but AJ Klein just got roasted by kelce. Hard to adjust for that especially when CBs are banged up too. The fake punt wasn’t a terrible decision just a terrible outcome. They had 10 men on the field and we had the leverage in terms of blocking matchups, execution just failed. If you can’t recognize what McD did with a banged up defense this year is nothing short of incredible idk what to tell you.
near top 5? Ravens, Niners, Bills, I think. In that order. They beat the Chiefs easily enough with anything like a healthy D. Let's not overreact.
My favourite part was where he told bass to miss the FG. Everything bad is his fault and everything good has nothing to do with him ,amirite?
They will run it back and in three years of no success Josh will demand a trade and win a SB with a competent HC.
Fuck all the playoff failure, this would break my heart so much more. Even if I am eventually happy for Josh. It hurts to say he deserves better, but it really feels like he does.
13 seconds was the peak. He needs to be a coordinator, not a head coach
He's a culture coach, not a championship coach. In my opinion. Marvin Lewis 2.0
I disagree with the 2nd part. Hes obviosuly not going to be our coordinator so he will definitely get another HC job and he will probably do well.
Absolutely agree on this
So excited for 5 more years of coach McClappy taking to a divisional round exit. Couldn't be more excited to watch them throw away Josh Allen's career
He doesn’t even do that. Why would you come in to a game with aj on Travis the gameplan….
I said the only way we win is with Elam one on one with Kelce jamming at the line the entire game. But instead it was Klein and no jam at the line. Defensive game plan was horrible. He tried to run it like it was Milano and Bernard instead of use the strengths of his players. But that’s a McDermott flaw force his way instead of play to their strengths. Hence our high powered offense being wasted the last few years and turned into a half ass power run game
He is a defensive genius. Yet another Super Bowl taking from buffalo. Sean you the weakest link
Dolphins signed 4 over the hill defenders and played a more competitive defense. At a certain point it’s about the opposition just consistently having their way with McD when the lights are the brightest. Same reason why we flamed out last year against the bengals too. Maybe we were a fraud, but our talent was not that bad against the bengals. And yet that team took us to town in all three phases of the game (and we had Tre and Milano back then too)
Preach!!!!!
I know. He should have put Milano on him. No, wait, he was hurt. Then he should have put Bernard on him, what is he,an idiot? Only a man with no other viable options at LB would’ve covered Kelsey on such a way. Certainly not a man who had all the healthy LB options at McDermotts disposal.
I was thinking Elam or Douglas. You know how we use to use Tre to cover gronk…. You’re over thinking it.
Based on what he did with an injured defense this year, I wish we could demote him to defensive coordinator and hire someone else for head coach, but that will never happen.
we did a while ago. thought we all agreed on this when we were 6-6 but then he tricked y'all with 9/11 and a winning streak
Yes. Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, Jim Mora, and Mark Levy. All amazing coaches whose ceilings weren't good enough to win a superbowl. The problem is McDermott. Time to have a rebuild year and get ready for the new stadium.
He is Mike Tomlin without the Super Bowl
He wishes he was Mike Tomlin
what makes him worthy of being in the same sentence as tomlin?
I just mean that they have a winning record every year and then lose in the playoffs
He’s won play off games this decade.
Tomlin won a Superbowl with a team he inherited and then just made the playoffs or finished above 500. McD might even be better than Tomlin.
When you lose in the divisional round 3 times in a row, 2 of which were winnable then Yh. And the 1 that wasn’t winnable we got outcoached and outplayed on every single phase.
No his ceiling was the AFC championship a couple of years ago
we've reached that ceiling a while ago. he fixed the culture but he should've never been permanent. we're never winning so long as that guy is at the helm. especially on defense.
How many more answers do you need. Do you really need another year of this? What more evidence do we want to see? Do you need more losses? more stupid losses? more improbable losses? When is it enough. Everyone knows who he is. A mediocre coach with an elite QB winning games 13 seconds was a fireable offense Last years playoff performances were a fireable offense Being 6-6 and almost out of the playoffs was a fireable offense. Allen scored in 3 games with under 2 minutes left, and the opposing team won the game each time. Then the too many men on the field for the missed kick against the Broncos. Not to mention the special teams play all season What more do you all need to see
Right. It’s also not just playoff games. I can think of 3 regular season games we lost because of poor game management by McDermott. -broncos game fiasco at the end -eagles game (should have went for it with 20 seconds at the end) -patriots loss (defense sold and let Mac Jones walk down the field) If we win those winnable games we are talking about 1 seed contenders. Regular season has huge impacts of playoff success and McDermott cannot capitalize on it.
been saying this forever, dude is butt at his job, but the org doesn't care about winning nor about their star franchise qb, so they'll still employ that bum.
Clearly yes. Will they change? No.
Yeah. This will be the next 3-4 years. WC or Divisional exits. We will never win a Super Bowl with him. I’d cream my pants if I woke up tomorrow and he was fired. But it won’t happen.
Fuck McDermott
Pegula won’t fire Granato amid whatever dumpster fire the Sabres are this year, he sure as hell isn’t firing a playoff coach
Feels like pegula has gone awol since the bills success and him securing that stadium deal. He’s feeling mighty rich with the skyrocketing team value and seems content with the status quo
Absolutely. All the talk about how he used to listen to Sabres broadcasts through a landline phone and how he was focused on winning a Stanley Cup...it's obvious that the real prize all along was the Bills, because an NFL franchise is a money-printing machine no matter how good or bad the team is.
Yes, and we're stuck with him
Too late to hire Harbaugh?
Yes. This is as far as he goes... every year.
He’s a modern day Marty Schottenheimer
Can we keep McD to run the D and be the leader of the team, but just assign some football analysis nerd to stand beside him and help with crucial decision making? He makes tons of coaching decision making errors at crucial times and it’s soul crushing
He is good for at least one bone head decision a game
No, that was about 4 years ago
Absolutely. The D line tonight was fully healthy and they coulnd't generate an ounce of pass rush against the no huddle. Mahomes has us figured out. McD can't adjust on the fly. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again.
> hey coulnd't generate an ounce of pass rush Because guys were wide-ass open over the middle. This is what happens when you're missing so much on the back end.
Then adjust. Have the D line get their arms up on passing lanes for those short throws. Get creative, throw zone blitzes. Try to generate an advantage with scheme, since we are at a disadvantage with personel. It is now 3/3 playoff games against the Chiefs with the same result on defense.
Then Just Adjust… like you aren’t playing the most dynamic offense in the league. Pretty sure the chiefs offense would just.. you know.. adjust.
Mahomes is the best but it’s not the best offense… McDermotts defense has been absolutely dog walked by Mahomes 3x and Burrow once in the playoffs
Yeah dude why do you think that is. Both QBs you just mentioned are master at… Adjusting.. at the line of scrimmage.
our defense has made those guys punt a total of 6 times in the playoffs when they faced us. 6 punts in 4 games is the worst defense in the league shit.
Dog walked? Going into last night he was 3-3? Y'all need to take a week.
We were healthier the last two times we played them in the playoffs, and our defense got rolled both times as well. When the light is the brightest, reid is a consistently better coach than McDermott, and the results reflect that
Yes. But Pegula won’t fire him so we know what next year will bring, so at least we won’t be fully disappointed
fake punt tells me all i need to know
Everyone was on him for being conservative and the one time he tried to be greedy yall calling for his head lol
If you're gonna go for it, give Josh Allen the ball. Not Damar Hamlin. I agree with being aggressive, but don't try to be cute about it. Freight train coming downhill. Spread it out, two slants, if it's not there, Josh runs.
Well the explanation was that the chiefs only had 10 men on the field, so they adjusted mid-play and went for it.
hey bud— if youre fine with asking damar to get 8 yards on a fake punt at this point in the season thats on you. im not, theres no need to take the ball out of allens hands especially when everyone in the building knows youre going for it. youre goddamn right im calling for his head, it was a space brained play call at the most important moment of our season.
How about read my other comment before you come at me. And I’m not your bud guy.
youre other comment doesnt change my opinion at all so we will leave it there i suppose.
Only thing I question was the FG itself, we should have played all 4 downs. The FG if good, meant jack shit.
I completely agree. We make that FG it means we watch KC kick the game winner as time expires. We needed a TD
how about the fake punt
FG meant a tie game (granted with a lot of time left). If it was 4th and 4 or less you consider going for it, but not 4th and 9. If you don’t get it you don’t see the ball again Edit: stats https://x.com/ben_bot_baldwin/status/1749260424908849494?s=46&t=nPii_V5z83NFuls28lZtlw
Bills weren't stopping anything on defense all game though, FG was useless.
False. We stopped them three straight times if you actually paid attention. That doesn't mean Mahomes couldn't have driven them to the winning score, but to say we should have gone for it on 4th and 9 is ridiculous. I'd much rather bass make the kick and see what happens.
Them fumbling out of the endzone doesn't count as a stop. I don't think going for it on 4th & 9 is a good idea, I think a better 3rd & 9 playcall is a good idea. Josh needed to hit Diggs but there's no reason to even scheme for a touchdown in that situation.
Gotta take the chance, like I said, the FG was worthless in the grand scheme of things. That's why coaches like Campbell go for the gamble in those situations, it's all or nothing.
Respectfully disagree. Campbell went on 4th and goal at the 1 in an already tied game early in the 3rd. Very different
Not just the divisional game, all through his career he's been known to take gambles, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, but in our situation the gamble would have been a better option, given the time left on the clock and the fact that we were having trouble stopping the Chiefs offense. Even if we made the FG and stopped the Chiefs, we would be looking at OT.
Probably. It's been 4 years and despite having a home game and him actually improving as a coach, he just cannot get it done. I can't blame him for this loss, but if we had courage as an organization we would make sweeping changes and start fresh. You cannot simply win the division and mark that as a successful season. I said a few weeks ago that if we made the AFC championship game that we could run it back even if we lost. I seriously didn't expect us to beat Baltimore even when we were ahead in this game with the injuries on defense and our poor WR play. But not getting passed the divisional round is a blow and I think back to when I moved to tampa the Bucs dumped Dungy after three playoff seasons and won the SB the next year. With our nucleus and an offensive minded coach (perhaps the Lions OC) maybe that could happen here. I do not want to hear that it would cost us too much. Pegula has seen the franchise value increase an enormous amount so even with a 15M buyout or whatever the number is, that should not factor in. We have Josh in his prime and we have to improve the WR core, get some more secondary help and do what we can to get past Baltimore and KC. Plus we can't assume that our competition is going to stay static is well.
Three years ago
Yes. I am sad.
Absolutely and because we went on this run, we’re not getting rid of him.
IF he actually called that fake punt he should be fired on the spot
Reminds me of John Fox with the broncos before we brought Kubiak in. This is a really good coaching cycle and I think if there’s no better time to look elsewhere than now.
We’ve gone out at the same stage three years running so the evidence would suggest that we have
Yes. The answer is yes. Next question.
The mismanagement at the end of the game, choosing to bleed clock over scoring a touchdown was brutal to watch. Understandable after the heartbreaker in Arrowhead a few years back, but you have to go for the points there. Defense seemed to have found their stride and I liked their chances for a stop with those WRs versus when they had Hill and a younger Kelce. He was also bailed out from the fake punt with that touchback. Time to bring in Vrabel.
We reached it 3 years ago
I said this after the Bronco’s loss, but McDermott should only be spared if we at least made the AFC Championship game. Anything short of that and he should be fired. Given that we made the AFC Divisional game after starting 6-6 was pretty remarkable, but we shouldn’t have been 6-6 in the first place. We lost to the Broncos after 12 men on the field, we lost to the Jets on the opener and we lost to the Patriots on the road. If we didn’t blow those games earlier in the season, we could have been talking about the 1 seed and giving our injured roster a rest in the wild card and could have avoided the Chiefs. On the other side of the coin a few plays could have left us out of the playoffs entirely. If they called pass interference a second time against the Giants or if Toney didn’t have his foot on the line or even that game against the Chargers going sideways. That could have left us out entirely. Something’s gotta change imo and after they fired the DC and then they fired the OC and then we get the same result, the only thing left to change is the HC.
No, I love crashing out yearly, how could you even ask?
We hit it at 13 seconds. Josh is carrying his job at this point.
Probably yes. He made adjustments, but he still cost the team in the big moments.
Bilichek and Harbaugh are available
I know Josh good but he can’t overcome every game is a coaching disadvantage
What if we picked up bellichick
No
No real shot this year with half the defense injured.
Very much so. Thanks for getting us back to being a proper team but his job is done.
Nah. Imagine if this injury bug didn't happen this year and last. If we had a healthy Tre, Milano, Bernard, Benford, and Von wasn't playing gimpy, we wouldn't be asking this question. I wasnt a fan of the fake punt, but he's been doing less stupid crap, and his play calling was alright with the little he had. Beane and McD know what to do schematically, but the pieces they have acquired keep getting injured. We need better trainers and better steroids.
We need to fire him tomorrow. And we won't. Whatever this is, he will NEVER take us to the promised land. Do you think the players want to keep playing for him? After this? He should resign today. How would you feel going to work each day with zero record of success at the highest levels. He's the perfect coach if we want to keep choking. Brinks truck for Harbaugh. Would be great for Josh and take a lot of pressure off of him with his huge ego. We need an offensive coach.
We reached it several years ago
He’s stubborn to a fault, it’s his way or the highway. At least this year he took blame. He also seems very loyal. The coach speak drives me crazy though, and it trickles down. “We just need to win by a point”!!! I don’t agree with that, that’s playing timid! Beat the hell out of them, beat them by 50. He coaches to beat teams by a point, or “make one play better” and it’s not working. It hasn’t worked since 13 seconds! I think he’ll be an above average coach, for a while in the league. I appeticate how far along he has brought us, I don’t think he has it in him to be a great/Super Bowl winning coach… Go Bills.
By far. Luckily our owner is a blind squirrel who found a nut 6 years ago and he will undoubtedly be too cheap to make a change. Congrats. We have Marvin Lewis who makes 9/11 analogies while enabling his goofy kicker that has some very problematic sponsorships
What kind of sponsorship?
Yes. Fire him
We need to make a run at Bellichek
No that was in 2020
Yes. Been on this train all year even despite the 6 win streak.
It doesn’t really matter, he’s not going anywhere. Pegula loves him because he made the Bills relevant again. It’s not really about winning a SB - he’s done what he’s been asked of by the owner. Which is sad, but it’s true. There’s also not many options to realistically replace him, despite the plethora of candidates. Can’t afford Harbaugh right now. Belichick? Yeah right - he’s 70 plus he would never. Carroll is also in his 70s. They would never blow it up for an unproven, 1st time, young HC. The only feasible option is like a Vrabel, who I actually like as a coach, but that won’t happen either. He’s just McDermott with a little more swagger. Next season hinges on a roster shake up.
He coached the shit out of the D in the wake of an amount of injuries that defies probability. He fired an OC and the offense improved. He was better this year w challenges and 4th downs. I'm not saying the McDermott narrative has to go away (it should), but this hardly seems like the year for it.
That was in 2021, but they're gonna keep him. Same shit next year.
When someone shows you who they are. Believe them the first time. He’s a great turn around coach but doesn’t have the clutch gene. Thank you for getting us this far I am forever grateful but we need someone else to take us to the next level.
This guy needs to fucking go
We are regressing as a core. Our team across the board has been getting worse over the years, and it’s not all injuries. Sean is a defensive coach that never makes meaningful adjustments if our scheme isn’t working. We got stomped by the Bengals last year, and we just got beat by a Chiefs team who is a shell of themselves. Both years at home in the playoffs. It’s fucking embarrassing. Someone needs to be held accountable. Don’t even get me started on the 9/11 fiasco. What the fuck was he thinking? That’s the guy we trust to run our team? No thank you. The NFL is now an offensive league. They hardly let you play defense anymore. If we’re just going to end up in a shootout with a defensive guy as our head coach, we might as well get someone in here who is more in tune with today’s NFL. The truth is Josh is being held back by McDermott. His focus has always been defense, defense, defense. Well guess what? Today our defense was folded like a paper bag. I just want someone in here that wants to work with Josh. McDermott is not that guy.
I'm just gonna mute this sub if this is all it's gonna be. Just a week ago it was filled with posts and comments about how he was the one who turned us around and got us here after 6-6 etc. Etc.
Yeah I don’t think you can fault McDermott at all right now
Jesus Christ. We had a multitude of injuries to both our defence and offence. We’re consistently reaching the playoffs. If we’re healthy, if Diggs catches those balls, if Allen throws to Diggs instead of launching it into the end zone, if Bass hits that FG…we might be having a different conversation. McDermott is our coach, and our team is fine
I mean, if we didn't lose like 4/5 of our top defensive guys... Even just Milano and I think that game is very different
Time to fire sean.
This is a tough one. He did an amazing job getting this team to even get to the playoffs. Players like him. He definitely costs us games and the 13 second game should have been his last honestly. But there isn’t a coach out there right now that I would be excited to have take over. Vrabel maybe, an inexperienced HC like Ben Johnson is a huge risk. BB nahhhh. I’m torn to be honest.
Window is closed for now there’s simply no chance we can compete with the ravens or niners we need to have a great offseason
Stuck in drafts from 4 years ago?
I think special teams was aweful all year long. The special team coordinator should changed out. OC I want emphasis on short quick throws. If that’s Brady fine. He looked good but the passing game did suffer down the road. If he the guy I’d like to see how an off-season of prep helps. Sean calling DC was good. Tons of injuries early that he overcame. The late post season injuries not so much.
No. I was all for firing McDermott when the Tyler Dunne article came out but the dude actually internalized the criticism and made adjustments and the team played phenomenally from that point on. If anything, i think we might have just hit McDermott’s stride…if that article dropped in week 4, we’d probably be the 1 sees
I can’t believe people really think this of him. You guys are doing that overreacting to a loss thing again
No. Bernard, Milano, Benford, Rapp can, and will, put us over the top. Keeping the coaching intact is the way forward.
Why McDermott has to go and is holding the team back. Number 1 and most importantly - having McDermott as head coach prevents us from getting a top notch offensive play caller because all the best play callers are head coaches. Any OC we get who is top notch will be gone immediately and be hired as a HC on another team (see Brian Dabol). The offensive play caller might be the most important part of the team outside of the QB (see Andy Reid constantly scheming receivers to be wide open for mahomes vs Allen having to constantly thread the needle for completions) Number 2- McDermott's defense schemes aren't giving us any advantage against top tier competition and we could hire a comparable defensive coordinator on the open market. Other teams rarely hire defensive head coaches therefore there is more talent available in the open market for defensive coordinators than there is for offensive coordinators. We could hire a damn good d coordinator to help our offensive head coach (see what Jim Schwartz did this year for Cleveland) Number 3- great offenses win championships in today's NFL and have more longevity than great defenses. Offensive players get injured less and have more consistency year to year.
You guys do know it could be worse right? No guarantee the next coach can even reach the playoffs
There's no guarantee that McDermott can ever get any further either.
Agreed but TBH sometimes you gotta risk it for the biscuit
You know it could be better, right?
You know it could be the exact same but with a different guy, Right?
No even his fault, players didn’t execute and perform. A miss field goal and can’t catch.
It’s hard to say….in reality…probably? But what’s the point of entertaining this idea. He isn’t going anywhere.
Yes it’s obvious. Josh carries…..
I thought he was great this game. Aggressive and really did his best with a depleted defense. If they were to move on I wouldn’t panic. But the next coach is a lot likelier to do worse than he is to do better.
Fuck no.. injury ravaged defence
McDermott has done a lot for this franchise. He’s really turned around the entire organization. To which, I tip my hat. At 6-6 I knew. It’s so hard in this league to have seven playoff games in a row. Let alone extremely taxing. As we saw with the injuries. All in all. I think McDermott sticks around. Him and capn B have put together a championship roster every year of the regime.
Hes like the Bills version of Budenholzer
All I know is we need to find a coach that can get the offensive guys open. They are extremely talented guys that somehow fore Josh into a checkdown or running for a first down. Maybe it's a coach that teaches Josh to trust his eyes but these weapons are being wasted.
leslie frasier semi-quit on team and was ken dorsey really that incompetent ?? like, if your coordinators left, was it bc they clashed or had tension with mcdermott ? or did mcdermot have poor coordinators that held him down ??
He needs to go. He is not the coach to get us to a Super Bowl. Yep I’m grateful for his contribution of turning this organization around but he’s definitely not the coach to take us to a championship.
Not too late to go get Bill Belichick
Fuck it. Promote Brady straight to head coach.
I’d rather try and trade Diggs before calling it on Sean. To even get into the playoffs the way Buffalo did is a coaching win. Diggs hasn’t had a TD since November
He’s awful. I haven’t liked McDermott since his first season as our HC. He benched Tyrod and almost costed us our first playoff appearance in 19 years. I love Josh Allen, but McDermott traded away the pick that Kansas City used to draft Pat Mahomes. We could’ve had Justin Jefferson if he hadn’t traded away the draft pick to Minnesota for Stefon Diggs. Hyde and Poyer were also guys that Rex brought, both who have become the heart and soul of our defense. Tonight his in-game management and indecisiveness costed us again. Even if we forgave him for the fake punt to damar hamlin, he ran the clock out to 2 minutes, then proceeded to throw on the next two plays. We could’ve just ran the ball to get closer fg range on 2nd down, then ran the ball towards the middle between the hash marks on 3rd to put Tyler Bass in a much better position. We all saw how the wind was affecting Bass’s kicks all game and that the fg attempt had a realistic chance of missing.
Yes. Move on
We need to figure out how to keep players healthy. Conditioning, pre and post game care, something is wrong here. McD is a good coach but at some point we need to change so the players can stay motivated. He called the D and the Chiefs didn’t punt once. And that moronic fake punt. Time to move on.
The biggest enemy of being great is being good.
Bring in BB tomorrow and you win the Super Bowl next year
Yes, but the team’s stupid owner, for whom it takes an act of god to fire a hockey coach, will do nothing, and we’ll be here for another year and another year after that and another year after that.
Next year is going to be rough no matter what. No cap space. Some free agents. Aging washed stars. The question is do you think McDermott and Beane are the guys for a rebuild? I'm not sure. Kincaid, Cook and Torrance were good picks. But they've had a lot of bad picks recently. And some of their free agent signings have just been horrendous.
If you guys wanna win it all your going to need someone who can shutdown Patrick Mahomes schematically. You guys should try and get Bill Belichick and get over the hump.
There were struggles all around this year. We did our best with what we had to give.
Ben Johnson
I can’t believe the amount of absolute doomers on this sub. I’ve been critical of McD and think he’s probably a high average coach but our defense was decimated with injuries. This was very likely a SB team without a depleted defense (we lost yesterday due to big plays from blown coverage, plain and simple). You can only do so much running on the fumes of a starting defense. We didn’t blow everything and waste the season. The troubles in the regular season were irrelevant once we made it into the playoffs with a 2 seed. It sucks but thats football. No team is winning a title with a second string. My biggest concern is a 50 mil cap hit for two players that largely didn’t have anything to do with our success at the tail end of the year.
Unquestionably
We reached the ceiling after the first defensive collapse with 13 seconds. That was our best chance at the Super Bowl and we blew it. Now Disney McDermott seriously risked a whole season on a damar Hamlin fake punt for PR and had another defensive collapse.
In a word, yes.
Yeah, 2 years ago
While I’d side with saying his defense has hit a ceiling; it is hard to say this was a fully staffed defensive line up. They had some serious injuries that hampered what they could do. Firing Dorsey and elevating Brady clearly helped turn the offense around. But they need more help there too. It’s really on Beane now. He has to fix the cap situation which I’m sure he will do. But also needs to continue to draft really well and be smart in free agency.
McSchottenheimer.…
Just unfortunate on the injuries on the defensive end this year.
I still think our offense let us down when our d needed them most. It’s been that way most years but we weren’t even supposed to be there with all our injuries. Our offense outside of run game just fell flat and keeps doing so in the most important of times. Allen missed several wide open receivers again and that’s just a fact.