Bills head coaching job enticing and challenging | On Sports

It is, by far, the most appealing job opening in the NFL.

And the most pressure-packed.

The man replacing Sean McDermott as Buffalo Bills head coach will inherit, in Josh Allen, the best player on the planet. But he’ll also be inheriting the enormous expectations to deliver a Super Bowl championship post haste.

And he’ll be doing so in a season when the Bills face one of their most difficult schedules in recent history, with two games against the New England Patriots, along with solo contests against the Kansas City Chiefs, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Los Angeles Rams, Denver Broncos, Green Bay Packers, Houston Texans, and Los Angeles Chargers.

Imagine the hue-and-cry if McDermott’s successor gets bounced from the playoffs in 2026. Or worse yet, doesn’t make the playoffs at all. Miss them or exit early, and fans and media will be calling for the new coach’s head, while ripping owner Terry Pegula and beleaguered general manager Brandon Beane for firing McDermott after he won a franchise-record 66 percent of his games and took the Bills to five consecutive AFC East titles and the playoffs in eight of his nine seasons in Orchard Park.

Like many, I was blind-sided by McDermott’s firing, less than two days after the Bills latest gut-wrenching post-season exit – a penalty- and turnover-marred 33-30 overtime loss to the Broncos in the divisional round. Like many, I thought Beane would be the guy to go if any changes were made. Or – in the extreme case – maybe there would be a package deal, with both men jettisoned.

For most of their time in Buffalo, McDermott and Beane were joined at the hip and remarkably successful. They had climbed the football ladder from the bottom rung while with the Carolina Panthers, and became friends. After McDermott took over as Bills head coach in 2017, he pushed hard for the hiring of Beane as GM.

Together, they ended Buffalo’s 17-year playoff drought – quickly and dramatically retooling the roster, as the Bills transformed from league laughingstocks to perennial Super Bowl contenders. Their most astute move, of course, was drafting Allen, who defied the critics to become a unicorn quarterback, doing things on a football field we’ve never seen before. But this year, fissures began developing in the “McBeane” relationship over whether the Bills truly had a “championship-caliber” roster.

In the end, Beane won the power struggle, not only retaining his general manager’s post, but also receiving a promotion to director of football operations. He, Pegula, and COO Pete Guelli will be charged with finding the man to get the Bills over their post-season hump. The playoffs were McDermott’s Achilles heel, with him going 8-8 and never reaching the Super Bowl. Some of the failures were his own doing – the 13 seconds debacle against the Chiefs in the 2021 divisional round will always rank as his low point. But some of it – like Wide Right II and the out-of-emotional-gas performance against Cincinnati in 2022 following Damar Hamlin’s near-death only weeks earlier – can be chocked up to fate.

With the clock ticking on Allen’s Hall-of-Fame career (he turns 30 in May), there’s a sense of urgency not to squander any more of his prime years. Pegula probably felt the ceiling had been reached with McDermott in Buffalo, and it was time to move on. I don’t disagree with that, but I’m still wondering why Beane, the Bills roster architect not only retained his job, but received a promotion. He’ll need to get this hire right, and he’ll need to see results immediately, given his plunging approval ratings with fans.

Enticing candidates already are lining up. Yes, the Super Bowl-or-bust pressure will be enormous, but the most important piece of the puzzle already is in place. With Allen at quarterback, you always have a shot. Although McDermott and Allen were tight (the coach and his family were invited to Josh’s wedding), McDermott was a defensive-minded coach. The feeling has long been that Allen would benefit from playing for a head coach with an offensive background.

The first name that came to mind after McDermott’s firing was Brian Daboll, the University of Rochester alum who played a key role in Allen’s development before leaving to take over the New York Giants. He won coach-of-the-year honors in his first season, but things soured after that because he didn’t have a decent quarterback in place and the roster was suspect. Interestingly, Daboll, who grew up in the Buffalo area, kept his home there, even after becoming the Giants coach. He and Josh had a wonderful relationship, personally and professionally, and, hopefully, Daboll has learned from the mistakes he made in first go-around as head coach, particularly some of his sideline antics. There reportedly had been some tension between Daboll and McDermott over play-calling and philosophy, but that doesn’t matter now. What matters is his relationship with Beane.

Klint Kubiak is another name that’s popped up. The Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator has done a superb job with well-traveled quarterback Sam Darnold, who was chosen four picks ahead of Allen in the 2018 draft. The knock on Kubiak is that he’s never been a head coach, and the feeling is the Bills might want someone with experience because they are in a win-it-all-now window. With the Seahawks scheduled to play the Rams in Sunday’s NFC title game, the Bills will have to wait until next week to interview him.

Current Bills OC Joe Brady is another hot young coach, who’s already interviewed for the Ravens’ head job, and also has been approached by the Arizona Cardinals. Brady, 36, has done a good job in his two-plus seasons with Buffalo, and has a strong relationship with Allen. This would be the easiest transition for the Bills, but he, too, has no prior head coaching experience.

There has been talk about hiring a veteran head coach who’s already won a Super Bowl, with names like Mike Tomlin, Mike McCarthy, and Jon Gruden bandied about, but I don’t see any of them as real possibilities.

Allen will have a huge say in who’s hired, as he should. He’s the most important member of the organization, and he’ll likely want an offensive-minded coach who can help him and this team reach their ultimate goal. It was a goal McDermott had hoped to achieve, too, but after nine stellar regular-seasons, Pegula decided it was time for the Bills to move on.

Best-selling author and nationally honored journalist Scott Pitoniak is the Rochester Business Journal sports columnist.