{"id":692739,"date":"2026-01-21T03:22:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T03:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/692739\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T03:22:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T03:22:20","slug":"sean-mcdermott-leaves-buffalo-as-one-of-best-coaches-in-franchise-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/692739\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean McDermott leaves Buffalo as one of best coaches in franchise history"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sean McDermott’s tenure with the Buffalo Bills<\/a> has come to an end. <\/p>\n

The man that was hired to lead the team in 2017, and immediately broke a 17-year playoff drought, will forever have a place in Bills history. But breaking the drought was only the beginning for McDermott, forever etching himself in the franchise history books with his historic success. <\/p>\n

MORE: 4 recent signs Sean McDermott’s job status was in jeopardy, and Josh Allen likely knew<\/a><\/p>\n

When the dust settles from the shock that was McDermott’s firing, he’ll go down as one of the greatest head coaches the Buffalo Bills have ever had.<\/p>\n

\"Sean<\/p>\n

Jan 13, 2017; Orchard Park, NY, USA; Buffalo Bills new head coach Sean McDermott speaks during a press conference at AdPro Sports Training Center. | Kevin Hoffman-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Sean McDermott’s stats<\/p>\n

In nine seasons, McDermott coached 148 games, going 98-50 in that stretch (.662). <\/p>\n

Reaching the postseason during eight of those seasons (with the exception being Josh Allen’s rookie year), he went 8-8 (.500), including two conference championship appearances and a Wild Card win in six consecutive seasons.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Bills suffer another playoff exit due to same Sean McDermott-rooted shortcomings<\/a><\/p>\n

Including the postseason, McDermott won 15 of his 43 challenges according to Pro Football Reference. <\/p>\n

\"Sean<\/p>\n

Aug 15, 2025; Lake Forest, IL, USA; Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott addresses the media at Halas Hall before joint training camp practice with the Chicago Bears ahead of Sunday’s preseason game. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

McDermott vs. Levy<\/p>\n

The only coach ahead of McDermott in the franchise record books for most metrics is Hall of Famer Marv Levy. He coached the Bills for 12 seasons (1986-1997), the only head coach to be in Buffalo longer than McDermott’s tenure of nine years.<\/p>\n

In his 182 games, he went 112-70, holding a 14-win lead over McDermott in 34 more games. This makes the latter the winningest coach in franchise history<\/a>, with a .662 win percentage beating out Levy’s .615 win percentage. <\/p>\n

MORE: Centenarian Marv Levy makes Hall of Fame history with Bills’ legends by his side<\/a><\/p>\n

Both coaches had eight playoff appearances, but postseason success is what greatly separates the two. In Levy’s 19 games, he won 11, which helped infamously lead the Bills to four-straight Super Bowl appearances. <\/p>\n

Still, when combining regular season and postseason games, McDermott’s 106-58 record (.646) gives him a higher win percentage than Levy’s 123-78 (.612). <\/p>\n

While it’s difficult to argue that McDermott is the best coach in Bills history, there’s no competition for him as runner-up to Levy. <\/p>\n

\"Sean<\/p>\n

Jan 4, 2026; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott looks on before the game against the New York Jets at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-Imagn Images | Mark Konezny-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

McDermott’s historic pace<\/p>\n

According to a report from Adam Schefter<\/a>, McDermott “told his staff today [Monday] that he intends to continue coaching.” <\/p>\n

This gives him the opportunity to continue the historic pace he’s set when it comes to winning, at least in the regular season. 98 wins is the second-most in a head coach’s first nine seasons in NFL history, trailing only George Seifert’s 106. <\/p>\n

Not including the Bills, there are still five teams in need of a new head coach \u2014 the Steelers, Ravens, Browns, Raiders, Cardinals. With McDermott expected to be a top coaching candidate, it’s likely he is able to make a lateral move to a different organization, and attempt to continue his record-setting pace of winning.<\/p>\n

\"Sean<\/p>\n

Aug 15, 2025; Lake Forest, IL, USA; Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott walks on the field during joint training camp practice with the Chicago Bears | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0Sign up for OnSI\u2019s Free Buffalo Bills Newsletter<\/a>\u00a0\u2014<\/p>\n

Brandon Beane unfairly survives Bills’ purge despite multiple on-the-job failures<\/a>Bills’ one-year defensive experiment fizzles out in playoff loss as free agency looms<\/a>Don’t blame refs for Bills’ loss to Broncos, blame Josh Allen<\/a>Unbeaten Buffalo Bills still have a Sean McDermott problem<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sean McDermott’s tenure with the Buffalo Bills has come to an end. The man that was hired to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[215,214,53,2086,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-692739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-bills","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-buffalo-bills","11":"tag-buffalobills","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115930947703298010","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}