Bills' Sean McDermott Among NFL's Longest-Tenured Coaches After Recent Firings

With the departures of Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll, Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott has now been with his team longer than most of his fellow coaches.

In less than 24 hours, the NFL landscape changed dramatically this week.

After the Seattle Seahawks moved on from longtime coach Pete Carroll on Wednesday, the New England Patriots did the same with their legendary coach Bill Belichick. Just like that, two of the longest-tenured and most-successful coaches in the league are no longer with the franchises they led to championships.

With Carroll and Belichick leaving their respective teams, the list of the league's longest-tenured coaches looks quite different now. Notably, Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott is now the fourth-longest-tenured coach in the league in his seventh season, tied with Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams and Kyle Shanahan of the San Francisco 49ers.

Bill Belichick, Sean McDermott

The title of longest-tenured coach in the league now falls to Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers, whom the Bills coincidentally face in the Wild Card Round on Sunday, with 17 seasons under his belt. John Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens is right behind Tomlin at 16 years, while Andy Reid of the Kansas City Chiefs comes in third at 11 seasons.

Since his arrival in 2017, McDermott has helped to completely turn the franchise around. The Bills hadn't made the playoffs in the 21st Century before McDermott showed up, and he's led them there in six of seven seasons at the helm. He has the best winning percentage in franchise history at .640 and is second in total wins to only Marv Levy, who led the Bills to four-straight Super Bowl appearances in the early 1990s.

Bills vs. Steelers Weather Emergency Rumors Debunked: 'No Truth'

However, there is one thing that McDermott does not have that the other coaches in his company do: a trip to the big game. Tomlin, Harbaugh, Reid, McVay and Shanahan have all led their current squads to the Super Bowl, and all except Shanahan have won at least one Lombardi Trophy. 

For McDermott and the Bills, though, postseason success continues to elude them. They'll have a chance to change that narrative this season, and with the AFC appearing relatively-wide-open, it may be McDermott's best chance to do so.