Dr. Jekyl, Mr. Hyde review of the Sean McDermot

[Chaos]

The Case for Keeping Sean McDermott forever
 

1. The Bills have historical had some incredibly bad head coaches.  Lots of them. For many years.  Sean McDermott is a very good head coach, probably top 10 in the NFL currently.  No sane organziation would risk going backwards to the days of Kay Stephenson or even Rex Ryan.  
    
2. McDermott is arguably the greatest build of espirit de corp in the modern NFL.  The Bills are a team, built to win together or lose together. He has embraced the concept of the Bills mafia to make the team the NFL's version of "La Cosa Nostra" (our thing).  He is not going to cast aside a Leslie Frazier or hire an OC from outside the Bills organization. It is just not fathomable. He isn't going to instantly insert a new player (see Hines) into the rotation until he has passed his initiation. I don't follow other NFL teams as carefully as I do the Bills, but I feel confident in saying the Bills have the best team chemistry in the NFL. 
    
3. Most weeks the Bills come to the games ready to play.   They seem focused and like they have a plan each week.  When the plan clicks they dominate. 
    
4. Coach McDermott is passionate and wants to succeed. He does not seem like the paycheck is the main motivation, he wants to win. 
    

The Case for Considering a Coaching Change

 

1. Josh Allen is really good. It is actually hard to imagine missing the playoffs with any credible NFL coach with Josh Allen as your QB.   Virtually no QB at Allen's level is home watching the playoffs the first week. McDermott is not a necessary ingredient to making the playoffs. 
    
2. History is not on McDermott's side. Since 1960 only one time has a coaching/QB combo appeared in their first championship game after their fourth season together (Ken Stabler/John Madden, 1978).  It has never happened in the free agency era. Past is not prologue, but it is probably worth understanding this dynamic. It is worth noting, that on numerous occasions after a team had its franchise QB in place, making a coaching change led to a Super Bowl appearance. 
    
3. McDermott does not appear to be a great game day coach.  More than one of his losses has reached the level of epic NFL game meltdown.  He very well may have missed his opportunity with HIS 13 seconds collapse. 
    
4. In public he does not own the mistakes. He more or loss always blames problems on the "execution" of his obviously correct decisions.   (should be noted 100% of all NFL coaches expect 100% of the callls they make to work if perfectly executed). 
    
5. McDermott seems to want to win his way.  Winning his way seems more important than simply winning.  (random movie analogy - McDermott is Roy "tin cup" Mcvoy (Kevin Costner) the lovable character who loses the US Open in his attempt to reach the par five in 2. Bill Bellicheck is David Simms (Don Johnson), the unlikable guy who lays up and actually wins the US Open. 

 

The Dr. Jekyl / Mr. Hyde portion of the thread title, is because I fall into both camps.  A bit part of me wants to win or lose with these guys.  Another part of me just wants to win a super bowl, and not be emotionally connected to who the personnel who actually get the job done. 

[LABILLBACKER]

I will always praise and honor McDermott for bringing the illustrious "process & culture" to this organization. The team definitely shows incredible comradery and brotherhood. 

     But......his incessant stubborn style slowly bringing players along drives me nuts. And his historical game management errors are well documented. Our path to a SB championship depends on Josh. And having an offensive HC would help that along.  I'll tell ya one thing. Anymore defensive playoff mistakes like Houston 16-0 or 13 seconds won't be tolerated.

[mead107]

🤐🤐🤐

[Alphadawg7]

38 minutes ago, Chaos said:

 

The Case for Considering a Coaching Change

 

1. Josh Allen is really good. It is actually hard to imagine missing the playoffs with any credible NFL coach with Josh Allen as your QB.   Virtually no QB at Allen's level is home watching the playoffs the first week. McDermott is not a necessary ingredient to making the playoffs. 

 

Careful what you wish for...heard a lot of people say the same thing about Daboll...now look, Dorsey sucks and the offense is no where near what it was the first half the season before teams got tape on Dorsey and figured him out.  

 

38 minutes ago, Chaos said:

1. History is not on McDermott's side. Since 1960 only one time has a coaching/QB combo appeared in their first championship game after their fourth season together (Ken Stabler/John Madden, 1978).  It has never happened in the free agency era. Past is not prologue, but it is probably worth understanding this dynamic. It is worth noting, that on numerous occasions after a team had its franchise QB in place, making a coaching change led to a Super Bowl appearance. 

 

No disrespect, but you couldn't have listed a more irrelevant point with this one.  History has no significance what so ever in regards to what McD and Allen do or don't do together.  Any correlation would merely be a coincidence.

[Scott7975]

37 minutes ago, Chaos said:

1. In public he does not own the mistakes. He more or loss always blames problems on the "execution" of his obviously correct decisions.   (should be noted 100% of all NFL coaches expect 100% of the callls they make to work if perfectly executed). 
    
2. McDermott seems to want to win his way.  Winning his way seems more important than simply winning.  (random movie analogy - McDermott is Roy "tin cup" Mcvoy (Kevin Costner) the lovable character who loses the US Open in his attempt to reach the par five in 2. Bill Bellicheck is David Simms (Don Johnson), the unlikable guy who lays up and actually wins the US Open. 

 

 

I dont think your post is very well thought out.  First " keeping McDermott forever." Not many if any are saying that at all.

 

Now onto the quoted...

 

I recall a lot of interviews where McD has said "we have to get better and that starts with me" or "I have to do a better job"... or something along those lines.  Saying he doesnt own his mistakes is not very truthfull.  Just because he doesnt get into specifics with the media about him or anyone else for that matter doesnt mean he doesnt own anything.

 

He wants to win his way?  What do you think his way is exactly?  He is a defensive coach and we have one of the most pass happy offenses in the league.  He is also one of the most aggressive coaches in the league.  Defensive coaches typically arent like that.

[thenorthremembers]

You'd have to be a giant idiot to fire McDermott and look into another coach right now.  

[LEBills]

McDermott is not a perfect coach. Maybe he won’t lead us to a championship. But all the calls to move on from him after this season are crazy. Bat**** crazy.

 

Josh is the engine that makes this team a Super Bowl competitor. But, as much as I loveddd Josh as a prospect coming out of Wyoming, him getting to where he is now is due in large part to the steady hand that McDermott had in those first few years. He was patient with Josh and when they noticed Josh needed some veteran QBs in the QB room with him, they added Anderson and Barkley. In 2019 it was McDermotts defense that led the way to the playoffs and asked Josh just to make certain plays.
 

I do gripe about all the premium assets we have put into the defense but McDermotts defense is built for the modern NFL and that is why year over year we are mostly a top unit. In a long season, it’s easy to see cracks in the armor but overall his playoff defense has been very very good and will be critical if we are to make our big run this year.

 

Finally, McDermott has led us during some of the most gut-wrenching games of my fandom….Texans Playoff loss, Hail Murray, 13 seconds, Minnesota. Let’s keep in mind that they are so gut wrenching because these losses are part of promising seasons where the past 17 years our seasons were mediocre at best. But more importantly, even after those terrible losses, the Bills have not fallen apart. He has never lost the locker room which is the biggest problem you get from those types of collapses. In fact, the Bills keep learning from their mistakes. After the Hail Murray, we swatted down a last ditch Hail Mary to win our first playoff game in 25 years against the Colts. After 13 seconds, we squib kicked at the end of close games and we rushed 3 and dropped 8 with a spy against Mahomes this year as we should have done in the playoff game. After the Minnesota loss the Bills let the run game grind out the clock the next week against Cleveland like they should have done against Minny.
 

I do think this is a critical year, the proverbial championship or bust because of how expensive our roster is getting. If we don’t do it this year the climb back will be arduous. But even if it doesn’t happen, McDermott has been too successful to give up on him without a huge drop off in play, a enormous losing streak, or it becoming apparent he has lost the locker room.

 

This is not an easy sport, there is only one champion at the end of the year. McDermott has presided over the best Bills teams I can remember in my life and despite these mid-season struggles, the team is battling through them. I hope everyone can put down their pitchforks in this excruciatingly long season. McDermott and the Bills are a great combination.

[Billever76]

51 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

I will always praise and honor McDermott for bringing the illustrious "process & culture" to this organization. The team definitely shows incredible comradery and brotherhood. 

     But......his incessant stubborn style slowly bringing players along drives me nuts. And his historical game management errors are well documented. Our path to a SB championship depends on Josh. And having an offensive HC would help that along.  I'll tell ya one thing. Anymore defensive playoff mistakes like Houston 16-0 or 13 seconds won't be tolerated.

I lost all confidence in this coaching staff to win us a superbowl after the 13s debacle......I would gladly embrace a change but not for any unknown coach and assistants....it would have to be a clear upgrade

I'd take a coaching staff of

Payton HC

Reich OC 

I know I'm gonna get flamed for this but idc lol

 

REX RYAN DC

[JoPoy88]

I think Chris Brown said it today - through travel, weather disruptions, and team illness issues, the Bills had maybe 1 or 2 days of full practice in the last 10 days. And McD got this team up to play and win both games. 
 

And yet, more complaints.

[MJS]

Be careful what you wish for. I don't see how you can go through each off season and see all the garbage coaches hired each year that inevitably suck horribly and get fired after one or two years and still think we should take our chance at that lottery.

 

McDermott is a great coach. The team is where it is at because of him. He started it all.

Edited November 26, 2022 by MJS

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

1 minute ago, MJS said:

Be careful what you wish for. I don't see how you can go through each off season and see all the garbage coaches hired each year that inevitably suck horribly and get fired after one or two years and still think we should take our chance at that lottery.

 

McDermott is a great coach. The team is where it is at because of him. He started it all.

It’s not as if we also had almost 20 straight years of coaching ineptitude as an important data point here. 

[LABILLBACKER]

11 minutes ago, Billever76 said:

I lost all confidence in this coaching staff to win us a superbowl after the 13s debacle......I would gladly embrace a change but not for any unknown coach and assistants....it would have to be a clear upgrade

I'd take a coaching staff of

Payton HC

Reich OC 

I know I'm gonna get flamed for this but idc lol

 

REX RYAN DC

I'm willing to give him another chance to redeem the 3 straight years of defensive playoff struggles. Now obviously this year would be impossible to critique him because of all the defensive injuries. But there's going to come a time in the McDermott era when a decision will have to be made. I like both Payton & Reich but who knows who's right for Josh. Maybe Daboll gets tired of developing Jones and wants to return.  For now I'm supporting Clappy but he's not bulletproof. His defenses have got to do more in the playoffs. And considering the majority of draft assets have gone on his side, they're are no excuses.

[Coach Tuesday]

No one is advocating firing him RIGHT NOW.  The question becomes what do you do if they don’t win, or at least make it to, a Super Bowl in the next 2-3 years.  What then?  You can’t let fear of alternatives prevent you from capitalizing on having Allen in his prime. Anything less than at least one championship is a huge failure - though I know there is a section of the fanbase that is scared of success.

 

McD has shown himself to be a fantastic program-builder.  But he has yet to show he can style a roster to the modern nfl.  He seems to need a LOT of resources to run his defense; meanwhile the offense has been neglected for years.  It’s not a sustainable strategy.

Edited November 26, 2022 by Coach Tuesday

[Chaos]

21 minutes ago, JoPoy88 said:

I think Chris Brown said it today - through travel, weather disruptions, and team illness issues, the Bills had maybe 1 or 2 days of full practice in the last 10 days. And McD got this team up to play and win both games. 
 

And yet, more complaints.

I honestly have never heard an NFL coach make more excuses about being able to get ready than this recent sequence.  

[Dablitzkrieg]

4 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

No one is advocating firing him RIGHT NOW.  The question becomes what do you do if they don’t win, or at least make it to, a Super Bowl in the next 2-3 years.  What then?  You can’t let fear of alternatives prevent you from capitalizing on having Allen in his prime. Anything less than at least one championship is a huge failure - though I know there is a section of the fanbase that is scared of success.

 

McD has shown himself to be a fantastic program-builder.  But he has yet to show he can style a roster to the modern nfl.  He seems to need a LOT of resources to run his defense; meanwhile the offense has been neglected for years.  It’s not a sustainable strategy.

Do you not enjoy the 28 points per game and 426 yards per game?  Not enough?

[Chaos]

1 hour ago, Scott7975 said:

 

I dont think your post is very well thought out.  First " keeping McDermott forever." Not many if any are saying that at all.

 

Now onto the quoted...

 

I recall a lot of interviews where McD has said "we have to get better and that starts with me" or "I have to do a better job"... or something along those lines.  Saying he doesnt own his mistakes is not very truthfull.  Just because he doesnt get into specifics with the media about him or anyone else for that matter doesnt mean he doesnt own anything.

 

He wants to win his way?  What do you think his way is exactly?  He is a defensive coach and we have one of the most pass happy offenses in the league.  He is also one of the most aggressive coaches in the league.  Defensive coaches typically arent like that.

I suspect if you actualy provide links to those interviews, they will all have the a bit of a passive aggressive approach where McDermott is deflecting blame.  As I said in the original post, I can go either way with this coaching staff.  But McDermott really does not take accountability for the mistakes. Even the 13 second debacle, he deflects as mainly an execution issue.   

[JoPoy88]

10 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

No one is advocating firing him RIGHT NOW.  The question becomes what do you do if they don’t win, or at least make it to, a Super Bowl in the next 2-3 years.  What then?  You can’t let fear of alternatives prevent you from capitalizing on having Allen in his prime. Anything less than at least one championship is a huge failure - though I know there is a section of the fanbase that is scared of success.

 

McD has shown himself to be a fantastic program-builder.  But he has yet to show he can style a roster to the modern nfl.  He seems to need a LOT of resources to run his defense; meanwhile the offense has been neglected for years.  It’s not a sustainable strategy.

i suppose this is fair. I will certainly be a little disappointed if Allen is 30 and hasn’t made it to a Super Bowl yet, for instance.

 

As far as the roster construction goes, if your theory is correct, Beane has to push back at some point - they do need some urgent young help on the O line, for instance.

Edited November 26, 2022 by JoPoy88

[Coach Tuesday]

2 minutes ago, Dablitzkrieg said:

Do you not enjoy the 28 points per game and 426 yards per game?  Not enough?

They are leaving far too much meat on the bone - do you watch the games?

[JoPoy88]

2 minutes ago, Chaos said:

I honestly have never heard an NFL coach make more excuses about being able to get ready than this recent sequence.  

well this wasn’t McD saying it, this was Brown on the radio defending him. But yes if McD was also delving into excuse-making I would agree that’s not a good look. 
 

But again, they won both games. Not sure what he’d be making excuses for.

[Dablitzkrieg]

3 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

They are leaving far too much meat on the bone - do you watch the games?

They are second in scoring in the NFL.  Every team "leaves meat on the bone".  The Chiefs get sucked off weekly, playing the same game the Bills did yesterday,  making plays in the last second to win.   Get over it