Cowherd Makes Case For Bills To Fire Sean McDermott
Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
In four of the past five postseasons, the Buffalo Bills have been sent home by the Kansas City Chiefs. It hasn’t mattered if Buffalo has had home field advantage (as they did in 2023), or if they could vanquish Kansas City in the regular season (as they have in each of the past four years). Four times Sean McDermott and Josh Allen ran into Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs, and Buffalo is 0-for-4.
It’s totally defensible to suggest that McDermott, who’s 71-28 since 2019, might just need one more crack at the Chiefs in the playoffs. But on Colin Cowherd’s podcast from Monday, the longtime radio host argues that Buffalo can’t advance without a shake-up at the coaching level.
“What do we do with Sean McDermott? What do we do with him?” Cowherd asks. “When you watch the first drives of the game today, one team looked prepared and one team looked aimless. You can’t tell me in these fourth-down, high-leverage situations [that] you thought McDermott was the better coach than Andy Reid.
“He’s like Mike McCarthy, but a defensive version. You know he’s capable, you know he’s above average, he’s B-plus. But when you watch that game today, if you just think about fourth downs, high-leverage moments, situational football, opening drive, it was Kansas City, Kansas City, Kansas City.”
On the second mic, John Middlekauff pushed back against Cowherd’s assessment, pointing out that McDermott’s background as a defensive coach puts a lot of those high-leverage decisions somewhat out of the head coach’s hands.
“I don’t think it’s his fault that Joe Brady on that last drive, the first play of the last drive with three minutes to go… calls a toss play and it gets stuffed. I’m like, ‘What are you doing? Just put in Josh’s hands.’… When you’re a defensive head coach, you are a little beholden to your coordinator.”
Then there’s the question of what’s next. Says Middlekauff, “Who are you gonna hire?” McDermott’s gotten Buffalo to two AFC Championship Games, and it’s hard to immediately identify a coach who’s a shoo-in to do better. Meanwhile, Brady is an up-and-coming young coordinator who’s gone 3-2 as a coordinator in the playoffs, and he’s returning for another bite at the apple. Maybe Brady is able to learn from these mistakes for a different outcome next year.
Of course, Middlekauff puts forth another path to the Super Bowl. “You [can] just go to church and pray someone takes out the Chiefs in the playoffs so you don’t have to play them,” he says half-jokingly. “Because I think [McDermott] could beat anyone else.”
Up Next