What they thought in 2017 of McD hire

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

Watching the Jets game and all the off-season gushing over Robert Saleh made me wonder what will they think of him in 3 to 4 years.  He was the sexy hire, but will he actually be any good? 

 

So got me thinking about the very un-sexy hire by the Bills in 2017.  I found a few articles ranking the hires and for the most part McD was ranked near the bottom of the 6 hires.  Some of the articles ranked the Marrone hire above the Bills.  Found  only one article that liked the McD hire.  Here's a comment from Fox Sports:

 

The Bills didn’t retain Anthony Lynn as their full-time head coach after making him the interim head coach for Week 17, which was a bit of a surprising move. Instead, they opted to hire former Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott.

It’s not that it was a bad hire, but with all the issues the Bills have in the front office, and the lack of success they’ve had for the past two decades, McDermott likely won't bring the quick turnaround they need. At the very least, he should be able to turn around the defense, which was inexplicably bad under Rex Ryan.

What’s unclear, though, is how much of the Panthers’ defensive success was McDermott’s doing and how much was the fact that Ron Rivera was the head coach. We’ll find out relatively soon, but the bigger questions for McDermott loom on offense.

Will the Bills’ dominant ground game continue without Lynn? Will he be able to continue Tyrod Taylor’s development as a quarterback, if Taylor returns next season? These are two of the biggest questions McDermott will have to answer.

 

This article ranked McD 5th and Lynn 3rd. Another article  from NFL.com ranked Lynn the #1 hire and McD last.  Two of the hires that season were Shanahan (29-35) and McVay (43-21) compared to McD (38-26) Goff also had one season under his belt when McVay was hired so that likely helped his record some the 1st year.  Overall nothing to complain about much when looking at McD's record compared to them.   Lynn and V Joseph are both gone.  The other "great hire" think it was in 2016 with Pederson and the Eagles, another one who's now on the un-employed list.

 

At the time was hard to argue with most of the articles as many here too were not all that happy with the McD hire.  But interesting how many of the hot names, while great coordinators, never worked out as head coach.  Will Saleh join that list.  This year CBS ranks U Meyer as the 2nd best hire!

Edited October 10, 2021 by Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

[Apocalypse Nuts]

 

 

 

[JohnNord]

The smartest thing McDermott did was get rid of the dysfunction at One Bills Drive when he first took over.  
 

Unlike Rex and Doug Marrone before him, I think he was smart enough to know that the issues at OBD went beyond what happened on the field.

 

Not sure how an unproven rookie HC got that much power, probably the naivety of the Pegulas, but they definitely lucked out.  Very Good coach…now he needs to prove he’s a great coach!  

[GunnerBill]

I wanted to fire Rex and hire McDermott a year before we did it. My history of wanting the right guy in Bills HC searches is not the best (I'd have hired Lovie Smith in 2013 and Hue Jackson in 2015) but I made the right call with McDermott and thank heavens the Bills saw it the same way.

[TBBills]

6 minutes ago, Apocalypse Nuts said:

 

 

 

This aged extremely well like a nice bottle of Wine.

[DCofNC]

I would argue that McD would not be shown in a great light we’re it not for Allen emerging.  Funny how a top 5 QB can make people look like a genius.  He came in and did what was expected, got the D on track and they won enough to back into the playoffs, the next year wasn’t so pretty, then JA came on and here we are.  If Allen had turned out to be the wrong Josh, I don’t think you are singing his praises right now.  His overly conservative approach has been taken away by having Josh basically blow it up.  The D has not been great for the majority of the time he’s been here, but has definitely flashed at times.  Overall, the success of a team these days is tied to scoring points, which is pretty much tied to QB play.  A bad coach can make it harder than it has to be, he is not a bad coach.  A good coach can look really good with a QB and I think that’s where you find him.  Good luck to the other new coaches, their future is tied to the QB they have to work with.

[Apocalypse Nuts]

Just now, TBBills said:

This aged extremely well like a nice bottle of Wine.

Very well put, my friend.

 

Me thinks Adam Schein knows what he's talking about.  I actually didn't even see this vid until about week 8 of last season. 

[nedboy7]

5 minutes ago, DCofNC said:

I would argue that McD would not be shown in a great light we’re it not for Allen emerging.  Funny how a top 5 QB can make people look like a genius.  He came in and did what was expected, got the D on track and they won enough to back into the playoffs, the next year wasn’t so pretty, then JA came on and here we are.  If Allen had turned out to be the wrong Josh, I don’t think you are singing his praises right now.  His overly conservative approach has been taken away by having Josh basically blow it up.  The D has not been great for the majority of the time he’s been here, but has definitely flashed at times.  Overall, the success of a team these days is tied to scoring points, which is pretty much tied to QB play.  A bad coach can make it harder than it has to be, he is not a bad coach.  A good coach can look really good with a QB and I think that’s where you find him.  Good luck to the other new coaches, their future is tied to the QB they have to work with.

 

Part of the genius was picking Allen and developing him.  You make it sound like he fell into their laps by mistake.  McD's approach brings so much to the table.  As a Bills fan who follows this team its weird you dont see any of this.  What an awful take. 

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

8 minutes ago, DCofNC said:

I would argue that McD would not be shown in a great light we’re it not for Allen emerging.  Funny how a top 5 QB can make people look like a genius.  He came in and did what was expected, got the D on track and they won enough to back into the playoffs, the next year wasn’t so pretty, then JA came on and here we are.  If Allen had turned out to be the wrong Josh, I don’t think you are singing his praises right now.  His overly conservative approach has been taken away by having Josh basically blow it up.  The D has not been great for the majority of the time he’s been here, but has definitely flashed at times.  Overall, the success of a team these days is tied to scoring points, which is pretty much tied to QB play.  A bad coach can make it harder than it has to be, he is not a bad coach.  A good coach can look really good with a QB and I think that’s where you find him.  Good luck to the other new coaches, their future is tied to the QB they have to work with.

 

Agree, Allen has changed things.  McVay and to a lesser degree, Shanahan also have had good QB play.  The defense has been up and down, one year good, another not so good.  The D may have been better too as without Allen, not as likely the Diggs trade gets down, so more picks.  They also may not have traded up as high to say draft the other Josh which could have left more picks that year too.

[BADOLBILZ]

46 minutes ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

Watching the Jets game and all the off-season gushing over Robert Saleh made me wonder what will they think of him in 3 to 4 years.  He was the sexy hire, but will he actually be any good? 

 

So got me thinking about the very un-sexy hire by the Bills in 2017.  I found a few articles ranking the hires and for the most part McD was ranked near the bottom of the 6 hires.  Some of the articles ranked the Marrone hire above the Bills.  Found  only one article that liked the McD hire.  Here's a comment from Fox Sports:

 

The Bills didn’t retain Anthony Lynn as their full-time head coach after making him the interim head coach for Week 17, which was a bit of a surprising move. Instead, they opted to hire former Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott.

It’s not that it was a bad hire, but with all the issues the Bills have in the front office, and the lack of success they’ve had for the past two decades, McDermott likely won't bring the quick turnaround they need. At the very least, he should be able to turn around the defense, which was inexplicably bad under Rex Ryan.

What’s unclear, though, is how much of the Panthers’ defensive success was McDermott’s doing and how much was the fact that Ron Rivera was the head coach. We’ll find out relatively soon, but the bigger questions for McDermott loom on offense.

Will the Bills’ dominant ground game continue without Lynn? Will he be able to continue Tyrod Taylor’s development as a quarterback, if Taylor returns next season? These are two of the biggest questions McDermott will have to answer.

 

This article ranked McD 5th and Lynn 3rd. Another article  from NFL.com ranked Lynn the #1 hire and McD last.  Two of the hires that season were Shanahan (29-35) and McVay (43-21) compared to McD (38-26) Goff also had one season under his belt when McVay was hired so that likely helped his record some the 1st year.  Overall nothing to complain about much when looking at McD's record compared to them.   Lynn and V Joseph are both gone.  The other "great hire" think it was in 2016 with Pederson and the Eagles, another one who's now on the un-employed list.

 

At the time was hard to argue with most of the articles as many here too were not all that happy with the McD hire.  But interesting how many of the hot names, while great coordinators, never worked out as head coach.  Will Saleh join that list.  This year CBS ranks U Meyer as the 2nd best hire!

 

 

I predicted McD was taking a 10 win team to training camp in 2017 so I wasn't exactly a hater but the assessment above that the defense would improve and they might lose their running game was dead on.

 

Also,  if Anthony Lynn is retained and he ends up with Patrick Mahomes and a good defense..........he'd still be the HC here.    They had playoff talent and a mature roster and Mahomes is a transcendent talent.    Mahomes could make Rich Kotite look like a good HC.

 

The Bills went in a different direction...........it's working out "well" but the Chiefs were at a crossroads that offseason and trading them Mahomes turned them into a pseudo-dynasty that looms as a major obstacle to the Bills success for the foreseeable future.

[Mark Vader]

23 minutes ago, DCofNC said:

I would argue that McD would not be shown in a great light we’re it not for Allen emerging.  Funny how a top 5 QB can make people look like a genius.  He came in and did what was expected, got the D on track and they won enough to back into the playoffs, the next year wasn’t so pretty, then JA came on and here we are.  If Allen had turned out to be the wrong Josh, I don’t think you are singing his praises right now.  His overly conservative approach has been taken away by having Josh basically blow it up.  The D has not been great for the majority of the time he’s been here, but has definitely flashed at times.  Overall, the success of a team these days is tied to scoring points, which is pretty much tied to QB play.  A bad coach can make it harder than it has to be, he is not a bad coach.  A good coach can look really good with a QB and I think that’s where you find him.  Good luck to the other new coaches, their future is tied to the QB they have to work with.

For the last time, the Bills did NOT back into the playoffs.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

There are times I wonder why the Bills didn't just have Wrecks and Rob exchange coaching roles.

*
Then I wake up, and vow no more hot peppers on the pizza.

Edited October 10, 2021 by Ridgewaycynic2013

[jimmy10]

Before I knew the William & Mary connection, when McDermott was hired I thought, well, this is how you find the next Mike Tomlin, bright young coach who, if we hit it right, could be here for decades. It was a complete 180 from the Rex hire, and I was cautiously optimistic. That he changed the culture and broke the drought his first year was a great omen. 

[DCofNC]

22 minutes ago, nedboy7 said:

 

Part of the genius was picking Allen and developing him.  You make it sound like he fell into their laps by mistake.  McD's approach brings so much to the table.  As a Bills fan who follows this team its weird you dont see any of this.  What an awful take. 

You act as if all the moves to get Allen were the Head Coach, which is a joke.   He did fall into their laps, there was a lot of chatter that Cleveland was going to take Allen first overall, how different would things have been? Denver could easily have taken him at 5, the Browns dictated that entire draft, not the Bills.  It was a great job by Beane going up and getting the guy they wanted, but he could have just as easily not ended up in Buffalo. 
 

Think back to 04 draft, the Bills couldn’t pull off the trade to get up for Big Ben and wound up the JP, how much better would the team have been fit years in end, had that gone differently?  How much better would the coaches have done with a real QB?

 

If anything, you could argue McD blew the draft before, not taking Maholmes, but you don’t like that take because it doesn’t fit your narrative.  Beane had to make up for it and go get the player they needed.

[RochesterLifer]

9 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

I predicted McD was taking a 10 win team to training camp in 2017 so I wasn't exactly a hater but the assessment above that the defense would improve and they might lose their running game was dead on.

 

Also,  if Anthony Lynn is retained and he ends up with Patrick Mahomes and a good defense..........he'd still be the HC here.    They had playoff talent and a mature roster and Mahomes is a transcendent talent.    Mahomes could make Rich Kotite look like a good HC.

 

The Bills went in a different direction...........it's working out "well" but the Chiefs were at a crossroads that offseason and trading them Mahomes turned them into a pseudo-dynasty that looms as a major obstacle to the Bills success for the foreseeable future.

This is cherry-picking history revisionism. The fact (not hindsight speculation) is that McDermott, teaming very well with Beane, turned a two-decade dysfunctional (dumpster fire) organization into a potential champion through continuous improvement with an exceedingly bright future.

Also, "pseudo-dynasty" means phony dynasty. The Chiefs are working to achieve dynasty status and are off to a solid beginning. There really is nothing phony about them. Dictionary.com is your friend.

[DCofNC]

11 minutes ago, Mark Vader said:

For the last time, the Bills did NOT back into the playoffs.

They failed to win enough games to control their own destiny and it took a last second heroics of another team to put them in, that is backing in. 

[Billzgobowlin]

I seem to remember Polian telling the Pegulas to hire him.  Chances are he was somewhat familiar with Beane, not sure if they ever served together in Carolina...

[LEBills]

I was completely wrong on McD. I wanted an offensive minded coach back then and was disappointed with another Defensive coach.

 

I even had some doubts about him in 2018 because I loved Josh as a prospect but I thought he (and Beane) handled the QB position terribly (starting Peterman, not having an experienced QB room until midway through the season)

 

But he has really been great and he has improved in the nuances of coaching. Glad to be very wrong and excited for the next several years with him and Josh

[Hapless Bills Fan]

16 minutes ago, Billzgobowlin said:

I seem to remember Polian telling the Pegulas to hire him.  Chances are he was somewhat familiar with Beane, not sure if they ever served together in Carolina...

 

Hahahahaha not sure if they ever served together in Carolina

 

Beane was with the Panthers in various capacities since 1998

Beane and McD were together in Carolina for 6 years, basically McDermott's whole tenure there.

[OldNMBillsFan]

After a 17 year playoff drought he has only taken the Bills into the playoffs 3 of his 4 complete seasons. In 2017 he took the Bills into the playoffs with TT and in 2019 he took the Bills to the playoffs with Josh Allen being a bottom tier level QB. In my opinion, he is already one of the beast coaches in Bills history. I did not know much about him when he first came to Buffalo, but I felt anything was going to be better than the clown show Rex put on.