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Not really. i think @Buffalo716 is over the top with his McD praise, but I do believe him and Beane do deserve credit for identifying and developing Allen. As well as overhauling the Bills losing culture. Now maybe if Payton is here in 2017, we feel comfortable drafting Mahomes and the Chiefs miss out on him, but the fact of the matter is if Payton was fired, he wouldn’t have ever considered Buffalo as a destination in 2017. And that’s kinda the problem I see with McD, largely. He deserves credit for Allen and the Bills turnaround. But what we need in 2025 and what we needed in 2017 are very different and that’s why I don’t think he’s too good to fire. If Payton was coach in 2020 to now, do I think we would’ve done better? Absolutely. But I wasn’t ready to fire McD then and can’t really hold that against anyone.

They should have gotten rid of him for Jim Harbaugh two years ago. He's Dungy 2.0 with the best QB in franchise history history who can't win the big game. Ironically if Allens wins one SuperBowl, then McDermott probably makes the HOF. If Bills don't make the SuperBowl this year, he hopefully is fired. All we can hope for is a SuperBowl win or an embarrassing playoff loss to move on. We are stuck in purgatory right now. The games are fun to watch, but failing to win a championship with the best QB in the NFL is inexcusable. I know this has been argued ad nauseum but many of us only care about a SuperBowl Championship now. Playoff appearances just aren't good enough. People said the same thing about Reeves with Elway and Schottenhemier with his various superstar players and playoff failures. Reeves at least made it to the SuperBowl. They even said the same thing about Shula with Marino. All that said, let's just play the games and see what happens in January.

But Allen has already done what no big arm "project" QB has done. But it took a few years to get Allen to this state. If we had Mahomes starting after his red shirt year, then McD/Bills might have a SB or 2. Fact is McD is here and not getting let go, barring a mental breakdown. This is the year where O and D should both be good. Nothing about getting to let alone winning the SB, is easy.

If Sean Payton were here since 2017, do you agree that they’d have at least 1 Super Bowl? He would have been to Allen what Reid is to Mahomes. This is fair.

The problem I have with this take is most of the best coaches will have this type of record without a premier QB. And the coaches who have good records without a premier QB usually have a premier GM to feed them more premier talent than other GMs. It's the NFL. If all you have is middle of the road talent, even the best coaches won't consistently dominate. For me, the best coaches in the league (top 12 or so) built a consistent performing and winning team in the regular season. The premier coaches have also done this consistently in the playoffs. Top 5 premier coaches should all have won a Superbowl. To make the leap from best coaches to premier, they have to perfect their game day adaption and decisions. The coaching and/or talent at playoff level demands it. 1-3 plays is usually all you have in these games to tip the game to beat the best. I feel McD is firmly in the 6-12 range depending on your value weighing. One of his strengths is his continuous improvement mantra. He's shown it in his offensive philosophy and style changes over the years. Now he needs to more quickly apply it on the defensive side, talent development side, and game day decisions side. For me, he has the capacity. But can he do it quickly enough before Allen's window closes? Or do we need a better GM or at least scouts to feed him better talent? All difficult questions which risk upsetting what has been built, so I understand the big majority are content to keep riding with the current FO. But this year is it for me, we need to see a more dominant defense in the playoffs, more coaching creativity defensively to tip the scales. Josh is 7 years in. At some point he and we are going to lose a season to injury, it's inevitable and that will further set the future SuperBowl victory back. We can't continue to squander this amazing Josh Allen

Been watching a few old clips of Bills SB years and I agree. We are spoiled with Josh but Kelly was no slouch

Thanks for that. I had forgotten how good Jim Kelly was. I never compare him to Josh, that would just be a wrong thing to do. I noticed there wasn't a post-game handshake between Levy and Shula. I guess it wasn't a thing back then.

You are a Payton guy, but if McD went 7-9 three straight years with prime Josh Allen, there would be blood in the streets. Payton had the better highs, but I don’t think he’s THAT much better tbh.

You do know that Allen made some of those bad decisions in the final drive of the Houston game and its why McD was pissed on the sidelines right?

Fair or not McDermott will be judged by winning a Super Bowl. If he wins one, then he will be considered a legendary coach in WNY. If he doesn't then fans will be angry at Terry Pegula for keeping a coach who wasted Allen's career.

Your assumption is bull manure because you are simply projecting your opinion onto the entire TSW comunity. Secondly, you have no idea who the Bills would have at QB if they didn't have Allen. You are assuming that the Bills would have some dud, but with Beane as GM, I think that's unlikely. What if in 2018, Beane stayed at #12, drafted Lamar rather than trading up to get Allen, and used the draft capital he'd accumulated to draft more supporting players -- like WRs or DLers etc? Actually, Mularkey wasn't unlucky. He failed to have his team prepared for the Steelers who came into the season finale with nothing to play for -- just like the Bills in last season's finale. An UDFA rookie named Willie Parker ran for 100+ yards against the Bills starters. The final score didn't reflect how badly the Bills got smacked around by Pitt's second and third stringers.

We are not that far apart, to be honest. I just give McD more credit than you do. McD would have improved upon that winning % given a little more time without Josh imo, but we are back to speculation.

There is a way to know. Before Josh was routinely in MVP conversations, McDermott’s winning% was .520. He is a good coach. Josh is the reason he has an elite winning percentage.

I think it's simple. If the culture shift didn't happen, Allen doesn't have the room to grow into who he is. If he went to a team in full dysfunction, the expectations would not likely allow him to take the time to grow into a super star. For that McD gets credit. He makes the overall decisions, the coaching hires, the general flow. He knows the O is not his strong area, so he leaves his generals in charge of their platoons. He doesn't have that Reid/Mahomes relationship, but he has the calming presence to say, Allen - go be the best you! Now he has some issues coaching, game day decisions mostly. But he has learned there over the years. I believe barring major injury; this is the year that the steady approach wins it all. We need the horses on D in the playoffs. Which means some great play by rookies and FA's.

When McD, in Houston game last year, had Allen throwing 3 passes out of his own end zone at end of game, allowing Houston to win game with field goal, Mike Greenberg commented “It may not be the worst decision made this season, but it will be the dumbest” I agreed. McD then went on to make the WORST decision of the season, 2nd & goal with less than 50 seconds, calling a timeout which insured that the Bills had to recover an onside kickoff for a chance to tie or win game. Tom Brady, calling the game immediately said you just can’t do that. Eight years as head coach with a history of head scratching decisions- makes the dumbest and the worst decision(s) of the 2024 season, and we are wondering why he is not a top ten HC?

I didn't realize Allen has small nuts. 🚨NEWS: Buffalo #Bills star quarterback Josh Allen owns a small nut farm in California that produces small nuts, including pistachios. The Allens have 1,000 acres of pistachios. Josh reportedly earns 6.5 million dollars in revenue per year from the farm. Pretty cool. pic.twitter.com/ZhURuPBR9z — MLFootball (@_MLFootball) June 24, 2025

….said one guy’s opinion. That 75% is a rather condescending and arbitrary number to throw out there. There are far too many unknowns to try to make this point, imo. Who is the replacement? We went to the playoffs without Josh, just a stop gap at QB. There is no way for us to know what some other universe might look like. .

For a defensive minded coach his defense doesn't show up in big moments. He is still a good coach but not a great one. He gets credit for turning the Bills around from a POS organization to a winning one. He also deserves his share of the blame for the playoff failures. If the Bills had Bill coaching them, they would have a Lombardi or two by now. Bill's record speaks for itself when he has had an elite level franchise QB. Plus, he is a much better DC than Sean. Allen with a strong defense would definitely bring a championship to WNY.

At least 75% posters on here don’t seem to get this. No Josh Allen = .500-.600 coaching record for McD

These days lots of newly-hired HCs talk about "culture" and changing losing culture, but not many actually accomplish it in their first season. McDermott did so ... and he did it before he had an all-world QB. If the Jests draft Allen, Allen is just another first round QB bust. These stats prove that stats can be cherry-picked to seemingly prove anything. You should look at the regular season records, playoff records, and win-loss records in games without their future HOF QBs for all three coaches to have a valid comparison. ROTFLMAO. You obviously don't remember the Drought Era accurately. The Bills back then were marked by mediocrity. They had 3 or 4 seasons with really bad records, and 2 or so with 9-7 seasons, but mostly they managed to win 6-8 games. What they did was find new ways to miss the playoffs, including losing the final game of the 2004 season when they lost to the Stillers' backups at home.

He is better than guys on that list. There is plenty in his defensive scheme and in his leadership. Would he still be here without Josh? No probably not. But he broke the drought without him and as long as they found league average QB play McDermott would have had a 5 to 6 year run here and made the playoffs a couple more times. They are a contender because of Josh Allen. But give a Sean McDermott team even adequate Quarterbacking and reasonable defensive talent and you will find a way to win 8 to 10 games.

You’re correct, most QBs do have good work ethic, it’s just none of them have ever had the otherworldly physical talents that 17 has to work with. Like I said, McDermott is an excellent coach but Allen was riding a rocket ship that he was piloting and that was gonna be with or without McDermott going along for the ride. Coach got very lucky on draft day and he’d be the 1st to admit it lol.

It's kiper And again nobody was downplaying Josh Allen's potential .. even the scouts and pundits who thought he would not make it All agreed he had tremendous talent just thought he had too many flaws to correct at the NFL level There's a difference between having tremendous talent versus being polished .. quarterbacks go in the top 10 every year with tremendous talent and 60% of them bust lol People's couldn't stop raving about Zack Wilson's talent and he went top three.. and didn't last two seasons in New York ... Jay Cutler was 6'3 235 with a cannon and was trucking SEC linebackers.. he had all the talent in the world That could have been Josh Allen's fate if it wasn't for his work ethic and for our coaching staff... But guess what most quarterbacks have good work ethics especially if they're going in the top 10 and plenty of them still bust Josh Allen deserves credit but so does our coaching staff including Sean McDermott Feel deep shame because I think Sean McDermott is a good coach who would get snatched up in a second if we fired him? Deep shame because I don't think it would be really easy to upgrade if we got rid of Sean McDermott? Deep shame because Josh Allen's my favorite player in the world but I do think Sean McDermott has helped develop him? Even though Josh also has to help himself Yeah I don't really have much deep shame in any of that because anybody with common sense would know it could get a lot worse with a different coach Grass is not always greener

And some people(Kyper) thought Allen should be the 1st overall pick in a loaded QB class. McDermott is an excellent coach, if he were fired, he would have a job of his choosing before cleaning out his office, but let’s not pretend he’s some QB whisperer lol. Allen’s incredible self belief, evidenced by his collegiate origin story coupled with offseason determination to get better every year and his historic physical talents are the reason he’s turned himself into the leagues QB1.

I’m fine with you having your opinion. It just seems absolutely no one agrees with you by reading the replies. Doesn’t mean you’re wrong, but it sure does point in that direction. Again, without Josh, he’s nothing. And don’t even give me the Andy Dalton led team that got us to the playoffs as a sign of Clappy’s ability to lead a non-Josh team to the playoffs. Plus that year our strength of schedule was basically negative. You seem a bit over the top with your defense of a coach who is simply not good enough defensively to take the world’s best football player to the Super Bowl. It’s cool if your his brother or something but your passionate defense of him is a little odd.