It’s too early for Bills to fire Sean McDermott - but the clock is ticking

The Buffalo Bills shouldn’t fire Sean McDermott after their Week 5 loss, but the re-emergence of concerning trends may suggest that the clock is ticking.

Kyle Silagyi | Oct 7, 2024

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Emotional events often lead to rash—and sometimes hyperbolic—reactions.

This is unsurprisingly the case yet again following the Buffalo Bills’ ugly Week 5 loss to the Houston Texans, a defeat in which Buffalo all but gift-wrapped its opponent the opportunity to kick a game-winning field goal due to its own clock management ineptitude before tying one hand behind its own back by initially sending only 10 players onto the field on Houston’s final offensive play. It was an ugly ending to an even uglier game, yet another manifestation of the decision-making and general coaching woes that have loomed over Orchard Park throughout head coach Sean McDermott’s tenure.

And the frustration and raw emotion created by loss have sparked impassioned reactions across social media. Not insignificant swaths of the Buffalo faithful are calling for the eighth-year sideline boss to be shown the exit door as a result of the late-game gaffes, which he has since taken credit for.

These reactions seem a bit premature at this juncture, but the underlying sentiment is not misplaced; though the Week 5 loss won’t be the death knell of McDermott’s stint in Buffalo, it did perhaps serve as a clear indicator that the clock may be ticking.

Early October is rarely the time for any NFL team to make a head coaching change, especially not a 3-2 club that, just a few weeks ago, looked like the best team in the league and is still sitting atop its lackluster division. Despite how lifeless the team has looked over the past two weeks, the Bills are still well-positioned to win the AFC East and, thus, clinch a postseason berth, which would be their seventh under McDermott. Removing the sideline boss from the helm of a 3-2 team with no clear internal interim succession plan (neither offensive coordinator Joe Brady nor defensive coordinator Bobby Babich have any head coaching experience and themselves are relatively new to their posts, so immediately tasking them with head coaching duties seems inauspicious) would essentially serve as the Bills giving up on a season after five weeks.

It’s also important to not let an emotional recent loss cloud what McDermott has accomplished throughout his fruitful time in Buffalo. He’s unequivocally the organization’s most successful head coach since Pro Football Hall of Famer Marv Levy; he’s constructed a franchise-best .639% winning percentage, leading his team to the playoffs in six of his seven seasons as they’ve rattled off four consecutive AFC East crowns. Also consider the fact that the 2024 campaign was intended to be a transitionary year in which the team better positioned itself for future success by cleaning up its salary cap, and it would be wholly unfair to fire the most successful head coach the Bills have employed this century after a 3-2 start.

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And though now isn’t the time to part ways with McDermott, Week 5 did uncover or bring back into light a few concerning instances that, again, indicate that a change may ultimately be necessary, even given the organizational expectation that this was a transitionary season. The clock management gaffes that manifested at the end of the loss, which were ridiculed by fans and pundits alike, are nothing new; end-of-game decision-making and general clock management have been issues of McDermott and company for years and have cost the team games in the past. This has been a long-standing concern; recent criticism is not prompted by the emotional loss, but merely amplified by it.

The team’s late-game ineptitude necessitated that Buffalo punt it back to Houston, who returned the punt past midfield before picking up five yards on the next play to all but ensure the Ka’imi Fairbairn 59-yard game-winning field goal. The Bills played incredibly relaxed defensive coverage on the play in which the Texans gained the additional yards and better positioned themselves for the kick, which is, again, something Buffalo routinely does under McDermott in crucial situations, most notably in the 2021 AFC Divisional Round when the team allowed the Kansas City Chiefs to drive 44 yards in 10 seconds to force overtime and ultimately win.

This isn’t necessarily an example of Monday morning quarterbacking. These are decisions that seem absurd in real time and look even worse in hindsight.

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These are trends that have persisted throughout the better part of McDermott’s tenure, and the lack of discernible growth in these areas is concerning, so much so that an anonymous Bills veteran even told The Buffalo News’ Ryan O’Halloran after the Week 5 loss that he “hope[s] [the coaches] learn from” their late game mismanagement.

Another element of Sunday’s loss that should be mentioned was the decision to place quarterback Josh Allen back into the game after he appeared to suffer a head injury on a fourth-quarter play in which he was dragged to the ground by Mario Edwards Jr., his head banging violently against the turf. Allen was evaluated and cleared for a head injury, and though he later claimed he had suffered a chest ailment, he appeared to be unconscious after the play; McDermott is obviously not at fault for the failures of the NFL’s concussion testing protocol, but his decision to place a player whose hand was limp after hitting his head on the turf bears questioning, regardless of the player’s wishes or the in-game situation.

McDermott should not be fired after a disheartening loss in a game that inherently had heightened emotions. That said, the way in which his team lost—and its ability to ‘find a way to lose’—serve as re-emergences of concerning trends that have plagued his tenure. If he doesn’t show growth in these areas by the end of his eighth season steering the ship at One Bills Drive, it may be time for the team to make a change regardless of its pre-season organizational expectations.

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