Bills Central

Sean McDermott partially credits Bills preseason struggles to leadership corps turnover

Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott spoke about his team's underwhelming performance in the preseason opener.

Kyle Silagyi

Shawn Dowd/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK
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General manager Brandon Beane oversaw a sweeping spring cleaning at One Bills Drive that saw the departure of several Buffalo Bills stalwarts. Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, Tre’Davious White, Mitch Morse, and Stefon Diggs were all shown the exit door this offseason, leaving the Bills in search of not only bodies to fill the deserted roles, but voices to replace the vacated leadership posts.

All of the aforementioned players served as trusted voices not only within their respective position groups, but across the entire team; they made up a hefty chunk of the team’s leadership corps, a group Buffalo is now attempting to rebuild sans its former stalwarts. The Bills brought in several veterans in the offseason and also expect to see returning contributors ascend into more prominent leadership roles this fall, hoping that the reworked leadership nucleus and general roster will allow the team to adhere to the standard it’s set over the past several seasons.

Head coach Sean McDermott does not feel as though the team played up to its standard in its 33-6 preseason loss to the Chicago Bears, saying as much after the ugly contest. McDermott elaborated on this idea during his Monday press conference, saying that it’s important for players both new and returning to realize that there’s a way of doing things in Orchard Park that they must adhere to; the team’s preseason loss was, hopefully, a wake-up call with regard to this concept.

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“I think the biggest thing is really continuing to try and make sure that the people who haven’t been here, whether it’s rookies or new faces that are veterans, understand how we do things and what the expectation level is and what the standard is,” McDermott said. “It’s not as much the result as it is what leads to the result. We’re continuing to double down on that and make sure that they understand, and the whole team, for that matter, understands the energy that you have to come in with, the mindset that you have to come in with, the urgency that you have to approach every game with, the standard, the fundamentals. You can just keep going from there. Listen, I thought that there were some positives in there in that game, but overall, we go back to the drawing board.”

McDermott was then asked if the team’s failure to play up to its standard stems from the sheer number of departed leaders, and while he did partially credit the struggles to the turnover, it’s not the absence of the individual players that concerns him. The substantial turnover left fewer players to look to as examples of how things should be done, something that, when paired with a generally young team, naturally resulted in immediate hiccups.

Sean McDermott
Shawn Dowd/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK

“I would say that’s a piece of it,” McDermott told reporters on Monday. “I would say it’s more of the continuity that you lose and the experience that you lose, and being around the culture, and so on and so forth. How it needs to look. There’s a lot of young guys playing that game the other day that, that was their first NFL action. 

“That’s to be expected, a little bit, so you have to balance a little bit of perspective, and yet, make sure that there is, again, understanding, a clear understanding of what’s expected in every part of what we do.”

This doesn’t appear to be an overwhelming concern for McDermott, as he’s expressed confidence in the team’s reworked roster time and time again throughout the offseason. New voices should naturally ascend into more prominent leadership roles as the pre-and-regular seasons progress, and while the old leadership corps cannot be replicated, a new group can be formed. Buffalo will have its next opportunity to play up to its ‘standard’ in its Week 2 preseason clash with the Pittsburgh Steelers this Saturday.

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Kyle Silagyi

KYLE SILAGYI

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