NFL Coach Rankings: Bills' Sean McDermott Not Top 20?!
With 37 regular-season wins over the last three seasons, the Buffalo Bills have been one of the NFL's best, most talented teams.
But with no appearances in the Super Bowl, are they also underachieving? And, even more damning, are they poorly coached?
Sean McDermott has led the Bills to the playoffs in five of his six seasons as head coach and has an overall record of 62-35. With MVP candidate quarterback Josh Allen, Buffalo went to the AFC Championship in 2020 but lost in the divisional round the last two seasons including at home to the Cincinnati Bengals last January.
The folks over at The 33rd Team aren't exactly impressed. In fact, in their 2023 ranking of NFL head coaches McDermott finds himself much closer to the bottom than the top.
Writes the 33rdTeam:
Sean McDermott has a much better winning percentage than Atlanta Falcons coach Arthur Smith, but the talent they've had to work with across the board and especially at quarterback isn't even in the same strosphere.
McDermott, who is no doubt on the hot seat this season, is ranked behind the Kansas City Chief's Andy Reid (which is understandable), but also behind a coach he has soundly defeated in their last three matchups - Bill Belichick.
The rankings:
1. Andy Reid, Kansas City Chiefs
2. Bill Belichick, New England Patriots
3. Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers
4. Sean Payton, Denver Broncos
5. Nick Sirianni, Philadelphia Eagles
22. Sean McDermott, Buffalo Bills
A consistently top 5 team led by the 22nd-ranked coach? Something doesn't jive.
Explains 33rd Team:
McDermott's done a lot of winning and deserves credit for that, but the combination of losing games against far inferior teams in the regular season, which hurts playoff seeding, and then getting out-coached in the postseason is troubling. It seems like it's going to get harder, not easier, for this group of Bills to break through with a Super Bowl berth.
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