The Buffalo Bills fired coach Sean McDermott after nine seasons Monday, after once again failing to advance to the Super Bowl with franchise quarterback Josh Allen. The Bills lost to the Denver Broncos 33-30 in overtime Saturday in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs. General manager Brandon Beane was promoted to president of football operations and will lead the search for a new coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cSean has done an (admirable) job of leading our football team for the past 9 seasons,\u201d Bills owner Terry Pegula said in a statement. \u201cBut I feel we are in 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cSean 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 the community. I wish Sean, Jamie and his family all the best.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoving forward, Brandon Beane will now serve as the President of Football Operations \/ General Manager of the Buffalo Bills. Brandon will oversee all facets of our football operation, including the oversight of our coaching staff. I have full faith in and have witnessed Brandon\u2019s outstanding leadership style and have confidence in his abilities to lead our organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeane will be leading the search for a new head coach and will be working directly with Pegula and Pete Guelli, who will now serve as President of Business Operations, during the interview and hiring process.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bills have reached the divisional round in six straight seasons and twice advanced to the AFC Championship Game (in 2020 and 2024) but lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in both of those title game appearances. McDermott finishes his Buffalo tenure with a regular-season record of 98-50 and a postseason record of 8-8.<\/p>\n
McDermott\u2019s teams made the playoffs in eight of his nine seasons, including in his first year in 2017, when the Bills snapped a 17-year playoff drought. His 98 wins are second all-time in franchise history behind only Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy, who won 112 games over 12 seasons and reached four Super Bowls.<\/p>\n
Bills unable to reach Super Bowl under McDermott<\/p>\n
Moving on from McDermott is a stunning scene for a franchise that struggled so significantly before he arrived. Ultimately, the Bills saw each of the team\u2019s playoff heartbreaks and decided it was time to go in a different direction. Whether it was the \u201c13 seconds\u201d loss in Kansas City, another loss to the Chiefs in last year\u2019s AFC Championship Game with a chance to win it late, or the most recent heartbreak in Denver, a game Buffalo had several chances to win, the Bills under McDermott just couldn\u2019t push their way into the Super Bowl despite all their regular-season success. That is eventually what led to the longtime head coach\u2019s ouster Monday. Falling short of the AFC East division in 2025 and having to spend the postseason on the road \u2014 in addition to not progressing in a playoff field that was without Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson \u2014 likely contributed to his demise in Buffalo.<\/p>\n
During McDermott\u2019s tenure, he endeared himself to the area for how well he channeled being an authentic Buffalonian. McDermott often commented on how misunderstood the area was and how important it was to him to deliver a Super Bowl to the city and its fan base. He had a deep respect for the team\u2019s history despite not being from the area, and he put it at the forefront of who he was as the franchise\u2019s leader.<\/p>\n
But in the end, this is a results-based business, and boiling anxiety from a fan base over not getting to a Super Bowl in Allen\u2019s prime led to this huge decision. Allen will be 30 this offseason, and without knowing how much longer he can play the physical brand of football that he does, the Bills decided the time was now to make the move. The move is a risk, considering McDermott has been one of the most consistent and winningest coaches in the NFL since he arrived. It is also calculated, though, as they hope it will be the catalyst to finally winning a Super Bowl championship. \u2014 Joe Buscaglia, Bills beat writer<\/p>\n
Bills\u2019 season ends on emotional note<\/p>\n
The scene following the Bills\u2019 loss to the Broncos made it feel as if something bigger than just a playoff loss was in the air. Allen was in tears, by far the most emotional he\u2019s ever been, and the locker room was in a complete state of devastation, well beyond what happened in their previous playoff exits. McDermott arrived at his news conference with a message he wanted to get off his chest.<\/p>\n
He was unhappy with how the game had unraveled in one distinct moment, when the officials sped through a controversial call of a Broncos interception in overtime. McDermott believed it was a catch by wide receiver Brandin Cooks that would have set up the Bills in field goal range with a chance to win.<\/p>\n
Because it was in overtime and coaches weren\u2019t allowed to challenge a single play, McDermott was forced to take a timeout, just to get the officials over to his side to discuss what could have been the Bills\u2019 ticket to another AFC Championship Game appearance. McDermott was granted only a quick timeout and was told the league had reviewed the play and upheld the call. When that timeout quickly expired, the Broncos\u2019 game-winning drive began.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it is ruled that way, why wasn\u2019t it slowed down, just to make sure that we had this right? That would have made a lot of sense to me \u2014 to make sure that we had this thing right \u2014 because that\u2019s a pivotal play in the game,\u201d McDermott said. \u201cSo, I\u2019ll just leave it at that.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he didn\u2019t leave it at that. The usually reserved McDermott couldn\u2019t hold back, cutting off another question seconds later.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m saying it because I\u2019m standing up for Buffalo, dammit. I\u2019m standing up for us,\u201d McDermott said. \u201cWhat went on is not how it should go down, in my estimation. That play \u2014 these guys spend three hours out there playing football, pouring their guts out. To not even say, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s just slow this thing down,\u2019 that\u2019s why I\u2019m bothered.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well after his news conference, after watching the play before boarding the team\u2019s bus, McDermott\u2019s comments weren\u2019t over.<\/p>\n
He wanted to put more on the record before the Bills\u2019 flight home, and in an uncanny move, he called the Buffalo media, who were still writing in the Empower Field press box, to provide his thoughts on the Bills\u2019 final possession of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I only speak up when there is a wrong. In this case, it happened to be to our team. We win with class and we lose with class in Buffalo. That\u2019s how we handle our business. But when I\u2019m looking at the replay myself, and I\u2019m being objective, and I\u2019m saying, \u2018You cannot convince me that that was not a catch \u2014 Buffalo possession, ball at the 20. You can\u2019t convince me.\u2019 I\u2019m speaking up because I feel strongly that that was a catch, and that possession should have been \u2018ball belongs to Buffalo.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t agree with their assessment of a change of possession or whatever the statement was. I can\u2019t agree with that. We\u2019re not just going to sit here and take it, is what I\u2019m saying. We\u2019re not just going to sit here and take it. I\u2019m pissed off about it, and I feel strongly \u2026 that it\u2019s a catch, possession Buffalo, and that the process should have been (long pause) \u2026 handled differently. I don\u2019t understand why the head official who is at the game does not get a chance to look at the same thing people in New York are ruling on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those were the last public comments from McDermott before he was let go. \u2014 Buscaglia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Buffalo Bills fired coach Sean McDermott after nine seasons Monday, after once again failing to advance to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[1748,49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-419859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}