{"id":705385,"date":"2026-01-26T03:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T03:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/705385\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T03:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T03:00:20","slug":"sean-mcdermott-likely-taking-year-off-after-shock-bills-firing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/705385\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean McDermott likely taking year off after shock Bills firing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/19\/sports\/bills-fire-sean-mcdermott-after-overtime-playoff-crusher\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">being fired by the Buffalo Bills<\/a>, Sean McDermott could certainly have a shot at another head coaching job next season, but according to the NFL Network, McDermott is \u201clikely\u201d to sit out next season.<\/p>\n<p>Ian Rapoport reported Sunday that McDermott hasn\u2019t \u201cengaged\u201d with any of the teams looking for a head coach since he was let go following Buffalo\u2019s overtime loss to the Broncos in the divisional round last weekend.<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, the 51-year-old McDermott \u201cno doubt would be one of the top candidates for basically any job around, if he wanted one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The report added \u201cit remains unclear\u201d what McDermott will decide to do, although he has \u201cnot engaged on any of these openings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38286240\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2257215583.jpg\" alt=\"Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott looks on from the sideline during an NFL divisional playoff football game against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High on January 17, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. \" class=\"wp-image-38286240\"  \/>Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott looks on from the sideline during an NFL divisional playoff football game against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High on January 17, 2026 in Denver, Colorado.  Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>If that\u2019s the case, McDermott could sit out next season and wait for another opportunity the following year, much like Mike Tomlin appears set to do after he resigned as head coach in Pittsburgh earlier in the offseason.<\/p>\n<p>The Bills are still looking for McDermott\u2019s replacement, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/25\/sports\/philip-rivers-under-serious-consideration-for-bills-coaching-job\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">having interviewed ex-quarterback Philip Rivers<\/a>, as well as former Giants head coach Brian Daboll, among others.<\/p>\n<p>Bill Belichick, despite his six Super Bowl rings, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/25\/sports\/bill-belichicks-chances-at-bills-coaching-job-revealed\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">is not believed to be a candidate<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In nine years in Buffalo, McDermott went 98-50 and won five AFC East titles.<\/p>\n<p>But he was never able to get the Bills and quarterback Josh Allen past the AFC Championship game and into the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38286241\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2257055175_4edfcf.jpg\" alt=\"Sean McDermott looks on from the sideline prior to an NFL divisional playoff football game against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field At Mile High on January 17, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. \" class=\"wp-image-38286241\"\/>Sean McDermott looks on from the sideline prior to an NFL divisional playoff football game against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field At Mile High on January 17, 2026 in Denver, Colorado.  Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Of the 10 head coaching vacancies this offseason, only four remain open \u2014 including Buffalo, with Cleveland, Las Vegas and Arizona the others.<\/p>\n<p>More desirable destinations like the Giants (John Harbaugh), Baltimore (Jesse Minter), Atlanta (Kevin Stefanski) and the Steelers (Mike McCarthy) have been filled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After being fired by the Buffalo Bills, Sean McDermott could certainly have a shot at another head coaching&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[215,214,53,2086,7,6,3026,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-705385","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","14":"tag-sean-mcdermott","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115959171748055580","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705385","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=705385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}