Overall Report Card…McD. (Poll)

[NoHuddleKelly12]

So a few weeks ago for the QOD I posted a poll requesting letter grades for Beane, and overall TBD gave him relatively high marks across the board for his cumulative tenure. 
 

Time to broach what I think heading into year 8 of the McDermott era will be much more contentious…as rightly or wrongly McDermott gets the blame for our dear Bills coming up short of a Super Bowl appearance to date. 
 

Imho McD provides ammo for both sides of the coin as to his value add as a coach—highlights include:

 

-2nd most winningest coach in Bills history at .640 clip—has delivered 5 consecutive seasons of 10+ wins, including a left-for-dead 2023 squad sitting at 6-6 with a scotch-taped Defense playing out of its collective mind;

 

- 6 playoff berths earned out of 7 seasons (rookie coach broke the 17 yr drought with a collection of “bad news bears” JV squad in ‘17);

 

-4 straight AFC East Championships;

 

-Owns arch nemesis Miami like a slumlord; 

 

-Dunked the worst defensive playoff outing of Bill Belichick’s career; 

-Develops top notch players from middling picks—has brought in a clear culture of quality;

Howeva…lowlights include:

 

-“13.” You all know;

 

-Damar fake punt instead of Allen’s hands;

 

-Leslie Frazier’s soft serve ice cream defensive efforts in the playoffs under McD;

 

-Time management miscues in game, red flag decisions;

 

-Tendency to veer too conservative in crucial situations.

https://www.buffalobills.com/news/striving-for-the-ultimate-goal-top-5-things-to-know-from-bills-hc-sean-mcdermott-s-2023-end-of-season-press-conference

Throw it all together and what say you? What is McD’s earned grade so far?  (I didn’t put “F” as an option for McD haters because it’s just silly given where his tenure has taken us thus far). 

[Victory Formation]

Top 10 coach.

 

• Good leader.

• Brought Beane in (Beane drafted Allen)

• Affable, brought a winning culture to Buffalo.

• Broke our playoff drought.

• Stabilizing force within the organization.

• High character.

 

- - Would be a top 5 coach IF:

 

1.) Put a complete team around Josh Allen

   a.) Dominant top 5 defense (NOT just a paper tiger)

   b.) Dominant run game.

   c.) Excellent STs (Including FGs Bass especially.)

 

Conclusion:

 

Unless this guy loses the team and we bottom out, he should be given all the time in the world.

[Freddie's Dead]

C+.  A superb leader of men who unfortunately chokes in the big situations.  

[MJS]

Why are we doing this again? Literally no football has been played. Why would the results be different?

[NoHuddleKelly12]

10 minutes ago, Freddie's Dead said:

C+.  A superb leader of men who unfortunately chokes in the big situations.  

I hear you—but a contrarian view would be in most if not all big situation consequential games leading up to any of the “exit” games, he pulled whatever levers necessary to get the W… don’t forget most recently the Bills essentially played must-win pressure packed football back to back stretch of 6 games to close out the season—taking the division out from Miami’s nose, ***** the 2 seed and even get into the playoffs. Plus the WC win over Pittsburgh and that was 7 straight games where it was loser go home for us! Honestly I feel like McD coached his gluteus maximus off to salvage the season after the Denver game debacle/Dorsey firing fwiw.

[NoHuddleKelly12]

1 minute ago, MJS said:

Why are we doing this again? Literally no football has been played. Why would the results be different?

The point of the poll is to gauge where TBD is at after having had a chance to digest and process the past year (including the most recently released PFF top ten ranking for him discussed in a different non-poll thread), and place that in context of the previous seasons to come up with an interim verdict going into camp—not be a knee jerk reaction so to speak. If you still feel that’s overkill I respect that, but hopefully you agree this remains more enjoyable than another what if this or that WR came to Buffalo thread? 🤷‍♂️😁

[GunnerBill]

Oh good another fire McDermott thread. We haven't had one of those for *checks notes* zero days....

[NoHuddleKelly12]

5 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

Oh good another fire McDermott thread. We haven't had one of those for *checks notes* zero days....

This is definitely not the intent of the OP. More of a temperature gauge instead. 😁FWIW I think he’s a solid coach who can still break through in the playoffs. I’m still amazed at what the Bills were able to do the 2nd half of the season last year. 

[nedboy7]

Dont give a ***** what the consensus here is. 

[JJGauna]

This all really depends on what Josh’s scorecards look like this summer. Is he longer off the tee box? Is he making the long putts? We may never really know. Top ten for now.

[Buffalo Boy]

C+

Schottenheimer  2.0
 

Edited Thursday at 06:10 PM by Buffalo Boy

[Ballhawk]

I used to think B-, but I think the job he did with the Defense last year was seriously underrated. The quality of the Defense he put out the second half of the season with dumpster fire fill ins was a credit to him and Beane shoring up the injuries. B+ Overall.

[amprov56]

12 hours ago, MJS said:

Why are we doing this again? Literally no football has been played. Why would the results be different?

This will go on for weeks, around and around, no end in sight!

[Buffalo Boy]

32 minutes ago, amprov56 said:

This will go on for weeks, around and around, no end in sight!

And you’ll be leading the charge😜

[Another Fan]

I voted B but my opinion is sort in the middle of B/B plus.

 

I just posted that 2002 Bills/Chargers game and during those and the drought years wins like that would seem cause for a celebration.  Today's it's just to be expected.  

 

 

I know Sean has Josh as his QB but the culture turnaround he's done here over the years gets him a good amount of credit from me.  Even with Josh a lot of Browns fans think he wouldn't have had the success in Cleveland as he did in Buffalo because of their culture.  

 

 

On the flip side to that good arguments are to be made he will never get the team over the top.  

[GETTOTHE50]

for what he’s been given, he is an under achiever. but he does deserve credit for bringing in BBB, developing a consistent season winner, and getting us into the playoffs for the first time in forever. 

sucks he can’t figure out how to beat the top QBs in the playoffs. (Lamar is not a top qb) 

[amprov56]

9 minutes ago, Buffalo Boy said:

And you’ll be leading the charge😜

No I won't! Ridiculous! Have fun!

[LABILLBACKER]

I voted B...you had me at Schottenheimer...I will always give Sean his props for Beane, Allen, Process, Culture and administrative team building. I will give JA17 at least 60-70% of the credit for our yearly regular season wins. Once the playoffs begin, Josh continues to shine yet Sean's defense and strategy crumble. You can set your watch to it every year.

[NeverOutNick]

Your C+ take is spot on. Well done 

[Mark Vader]

14 hours ago, MJS said:

Why are we doing this again? Literally no football has been played. Why would the results be different?

Because it's the offseason right before training camp and there is little to talk about, but I see your point.

4 hours ago, NoHuddleKelly12 said:

This is definitely not the intent of the OP. More of a temperature gauge instead. 😁FWIW I think he’s a solid coach who can still break through in the playoffs. I’m still amazed at what the Bills were able to do the 2nd half of the season last year. 

I get what you mean, although I highly doubt that there are a lot of Bills fans that have changed their opinions on McDermott.