{"id":423997,"date":"2026-01-21T16:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T16:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/423997\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T16:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T16:59:08","slug":"bills-owner-feels-team-hit-proverbial-wall-after-latest-playoff-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/423997\/","title":{"rendered":"Bills owner feels team hit ‘proverbial wall’ after latest playoff loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 Buffalo Bills<\/a> owner Terry Pegula felt his team hit what he called \u201cthe proverbial wall\u201d in leading to his decision to abruptly fire coach Sean McDermott this week.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a season-ending news conference on Wednesday, Pegula said he made up his mind immediately following a 33-30 overtime loss to Denver in a divisional playoff on Saturday. He based his decision in part on seeing how distraught many Bills players, including quarterback Josh Allen<\/a>, appeared in the locker room in the aftermath of the loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw the pain in Josh\u2019s face at his (press conference). And I felt his pain,\u201d Pegula said. \u201cI know we can can do better. And I know we will get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pegula then listed off many of Buffalo\u2019s more memorable playoff defeats over the nine seasons under McDermott.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was where does the leadership of the team on the field and in the locker room, where do we go from that moment \u2014 another playoff failure,\u201d Pegula said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I decided Sean had to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pegula spoke at the podium alongside general manager Brandon Beane, who was promoted in adding the title of president of football operations. And it\u2019s now on Beane to lead Buffalo\u2019s first coaching search since McDermott took over in 2017 after two seasons under Rex Ryan.<\/p>\n

The coaching search process has already begun, with the Bills already set to interview several candidates including former Giants coach and Buffalo\u2019s offensive coordinator Brian Daboll; Commanders running backs coach Anthony Lynn, who finished the 2016 season as Buffalo\u2019s interim coach; and Bills current offensive coordinator Joe Brady.<\/p>\n

Pegula said Allen had no input in McDermott\u2019s firing, but added the quarterback will play a role in the coaching search.<\/p>\n

Pegula opened the news conference by crediting McDermott for transforming a franchise that had endured a 17-season playoff drought into a perennial winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all remember the playoff drought before Sean got here,\u201d Pegula said. \u201cSean has definitely left the Buffalo Bills<\/a> in a better place than when he arrived in 2017. He gave his heart and soul trying to win a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite a 98-50 regular-season record, and seven straight double-digit-win seasons, McDermott dropped to 8-8 in the playoffs. Each of Buffalo\u2019s past three postseason losses were decided by three points.<\/p>\n

Buffalo ended the drought in 2017 and reached the playoffs in eight of nine seasons. What was missing was a Super Bowl berth, with the Bills losing the AFC title game twice, both times to Kansas City.<\/p>\n

The Bills became the NFL\u2019s first team to win a playoff round in six straight years but not reach the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

The lack of playoff success wore on Pegula.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one year after another. I just couldn\u2019t see us doing that with Sean,\u201d Pegula said. \u201cIt\u2019s not an easy decision trust me with that success. But what is success? Is it being in the playoffs seven years in a row with no Super Bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/p>\n

John Wawrow, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula felt his team hit what he called \u201cthe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-423997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423997","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=423997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}