Getty Head coach Sean McDermott of the Buffalo Bills looks on during the the AFC Wild Card playoff game at Highmark Stadium on January 15, 2023.
Sean McDermott helped the Buffalo Bills break their 17-year playoff drought and turned the team into a perennial Super Bowl contender, and now his future in Buffalo is locked down for at least four more years.
The team announced on June 23 that McDermott — along with general manager Brandon Beane — had both signed contract extensions that keep them in Buffalo through the 2027 season. As the team noted, McDermott has the best win percentage in franchise history and is third in all-time wins, behind only Marv Levy and Lou Saban.
The news was met with praise from many Bills fans but skepticism from others, as some have assigned blame to the head coach for the team’s failure to get over the hump in a competitive AFC.
Bills Fans React to Head Coach’s Extension
While McDermott may have few outright detractors among Bills fans, several expressed mixed feelings about the long-term extension he received. Some saw the move as premature given the team’s inability to win the AFC despite having one of the consistently best records over the last four seasons.
“Yes letโs extend our coach who has come up short of a Super Bowl 4 years in a row with a top roster and has had colossus failures in the post season,” one fan tweeted. “Nothing should go wrong here. Shouldโve waited another d**n year”
Others believed that both Beane and McDermott should still be under pressure to perform, with the team needing to break through to the Super Bowl sometime in the near future.
But other fans agreed with the decision, pointing to the extended success that the team has had under McDermott’s leadership.
“For everyone who thinks McDermott being extended is a bad choice, please tell me who you would want instead and why you think he would win us the Superbowl???” a fan tweeted. “If we lost McDermott he would be signed by another team in .2 seconds. Yall are ungrateful and spoiled.”
Sean McDermott’s Future Safe in Buffalo
While the extension itself seems to put to rest any ideas that McDermott could be on the hot seat in Buffalo, NFL.com reporter Chris Trapasso spelled out exactly why his future would be safe. Countering the arguments from fans that McDermott could be replaced if the Bills continue to fall short of the Super Bowl, Trapasso noted that he has been able to turn around the franchise when a series of other coaches failed to do so.
Trapasso added that Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula know all too well how difficult it is to find a good coach, having failed with a high-profile hire in Rex Ryan and suffered through a series of ineffective coaches with their other franchise, the Buffalo Sabres.
