Sean McDermott Thanks Bills, Fans After Being Fired as HC, Calls Buffalo ‘Incredibly Special Place’

Former Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott thanked the organization and its fans in a statement after being fired on Monday.

“Sean has done an admirable job of leading our football team for the past nine seasons,” team owner Terry Pegula said in a statement earlier in the day. “But I feel we are in need of a new structure within our leadership to give this organization the best opportunity to take our team to the next level. We owe that to our players and to Bills Mafia. Sean helped change the mindset of this organization and was instrumental in the Bills becoming a perennial playoff team. I respect all the work, loyalty and attention to detail he showed for this team and the community. I wish Sean, Jamie and his family all the best.”

McDermott, 51, had an excellent run in Buffalo, going 98-50 while leading the Bills to eight playoff appearances. He was only 8-8 in the playoffs, however, and failed to lead the Bills to the Super Bowl. Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs were his white whale, as Buffalo went 0-4 against them in the postseason, including both of their AFC Championship Game losses during his tenure.

It is not shocking, then, that Buffalo’s leadership perhaps felt it had plateaued under McDermott’s watch. The Bills have a very specific window, with Josh Allen in his prime, and maximizing it will be key as the team looks to finally claim its first-ever Super Bowl title.

Life before McDermott and Allen was rough for the organization, however.

In McDermott’s first season on the job, he ended an 18-year playoff drought, and the following offseason Allen was drafted. There were growing pains in the team’s first season with Allen taking over as quarterback, as the Bills missed the playoffs, but it would be the last time the Allen-McDermott partnership didn’t participate in the postseason.

Now Allen will have a new head coach for the first time in his NFL career, and Buffalo’s opening is one of the more intriguing available. McDermott, meanwhile, instantly becomes one of the biggest coaches on the market.