Bills' coaching staff garners Top 10 status despite low Sean McDermott ranking

Did ESPN's Ben Solak get it right when ranking the Bills coaching staff among the 32 NFL teams?

Shawn Dowd/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK

Buffalo Bills' head coach Sean McDermott is often a point of contention among Bills fans.

Some believe the Bills will never win a Super Bowl as long as he is at the helm, while others say he'll get the team there eventually, and changing coaches is a terrible idea.

In a recent ranking of the league's Top 10 head coaches, McDermott did not make the list. Whether one believes him to be a Top 10 coach or not, one can't argue what he's meant to the Bills and their rise to Super Bowl contender status. He's also done a good job of bringing in talented coordinators, as evidenced by ESPN's ranking of the league's 32 coaching staffs.

defensive coordinator Bobby Babich | Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

McDermott by himself may not have been ranked in the Top 10, but as a triumvirate, with his two coordinators, Bobby Babich and Joe Brady, the Bills made the list.

ESPN ranked the trio as the seventh best in the NFL. Last season, this trio was ranked 12th heading into the 2024 season, so they are doing something right, jumping up five spots this year.

Here is a snippet from ESPN's Ben Solak on this ranking.

"There is no doubt Buffalo is well-coached. Its defense always impresses for its communication and cohesiveness -- few teams run a Cover 2 more cleanly than McDermott's Bills, and that has been the case for years now. The offense pivoted to a run-heavy approach with great success last season, in large part from the work of line coach Aaron Kromer (the stars on that Bills' O-line are all homegrown) and coordinator Joe Brady, who unlocked an improved version of Josh Allen that was less turnover prone."

head coach Sean McDermott waving | Shawn Dowd/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Solak added, "It's a testament to this coaching staff that the Bills have been so successful; it's also a referendum on the same staff that they've failed to accumulate any hardware for their efforts."

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In some ways, it's an accurate statement, but it hasn't been the same staff since 2020, with three different offensive and defensive coordinators in that time. The one constant is McDermott, and for that reason, it's understandable why some fans are frustrated that the Bills haven't been able to get past the Kansas City Chiefs.

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