Bills Coach Sean McDermott: You have to start all over
Sean McDermott has it right.
Now it's just a matter of convincing his team, which based on his first four years as head coach of the Buffalo Bills shouldn't be too difficult.
"Here's what I know from experience," he said in a lengthy virtual teleconference with reporters, "if you sit here and say `all we need to do is this much more (while holding his thunb and index finger an inch apart) to make it to the Super Bowl, you're wrong.' You've got to start over.
"Yes, you can carry things forward, but every year you've got to start over, you've got to rebuild the football team, you've got to grow as an individual. I mean, you've got to take it upon yourself, just because we've had success, to ask yourself the hard question ... you have to take that growth mindset approach."
McDermott was careful not to get into specifics about how he intends to improve the team, saying it's much too early to be talking about that, though there is little doubt he already has a detailed plan.
Everyone knows they need a better running game. Everyone knows they have to do a better job picking up the blitz. Everyone knows they need a better overall defensive plan to combat the Kansas City Chiefs, the defending Super Bowl champs who humbled them in Sunday's AFC Championship Game and look like they're going to be a force in the AFC for a long time to come.
Here are some other points covered by McDermott on Tuesday:
Agreement with Josh Allen
McDermott wasnt ready to open up negotations with quarterback Josh Allen on a contract extension that he's now eligible to sign after his third season. But he did seem to agree with Allen's assertion the day before that he proved the Bills right by drafting him in 2018.
"There’s very few parts of his game that aren’t developed after his third season," McDermott said. "I've seen him do much of what it takes to win and win at a high level and I think he answered quite a few of the questions that were out there about him maybe from outside this building."
Inside the building, there was little doubt.
Challenging contract decisions
Linebacker Matt Milano's contract is up. Fellow linebacker Tremaine Edmunds is heading into the final year of his rookie deal, making him eligible for an extension.
"It starts with the mentality of trying to keep as much of the pieces of our team together as possible," he said. "I know [general manager] Brandon [Beane] is going to do a great job, and his staff, with that."
Beane will meet with the media on Wednesday.
Second guessed
McDermott once again addressed his decisions to kick field goals near the end of the first half and again in the third quarter instead of leaving his offense, which averaged more than 30 points per game, on the field in an attempt to get more in Sunday's blowout loss to the Chiefs.
"The one before half, really felt like morale was a big piece of that," he said. "They had momentum, they were getting the ball after the half as well. I felt like we needed to come away with points in that one because even though analytics may say one thing -- and whether it said it or not on our chart -- I think there's a human element to the game at the end of the day.
"... And then after half, that's the one I'm still continuing to process through. On the one hand I felt at the time, I think were two-of-eight on third downs ... it was a 12-point lead, we could get it to nine ... but that's still the one that, very open with you here, I still think about, that maybe I should have gone for it there."
What held him back was the third-down incompletion that made it fourth-and-3.
What possibly kept the Bills from running the ball on third down was the staff's dwindling confidence in the running game.
"We've got to be able to run the football better," McDermott said.
It was his biggest understatement of the year.
