Sean’s best coaching came during the 2018 season

[Another Fan]

I’m in no way comparing COVID-19 to football but sometimes you do find out a lot about people under bad times/stress.   For as poor as 2018 was, McDermott never lost the team when they were still trying and at times struggling to find their way.   He never lost focus on “the process” either.   Though Im probably guilty of laughing at some Trust The Process gags that year.

 

By the final game that year against the Dolphins most fans saw the team was going on the right direction.   The foundation had been set for 2019 and beyond 

[Mr. WEO]

"Lose the team" in his second year, after their 1st playoff season of the century?

 

 

 

 

 

[LABILLBACKER]

He's the best coach we've had in a very long time. His philosophy is perfect for this city and the players. He's not without some fixable flaws in game and time management. And hopefully his conservative nature doesn't get reflected too much on the promising future of our offense. This probably will be the best qb/hc/gm combo we've had since Jim, Marv and Bill. Very optimistic times especially with Diggs.

[Another Fan]

1 minute ago, Mr. WEO said:

"Lose the team" in his second year, after their 1st playoff season of the century?

 

 

 

 

 

People can have short memories.   I mean there was some ugly games that year.  For instance the 47-10 loss to the Bears 

[Mojo44]

No kidding there were some bad games! This was not a very talented team. I think you’re missing the point of the thread with what I consider to be a nitpick. They got into the playoffs that you’re primarily because of great coaching and the defense that played its heart out for the last few games. Remember, the team was led by an absolute loser of a quarterback who couldn’t even lead the team to a fourth quarter touchdown for the last five games of the season when they badly needed it. They also got some luck, obviously, to get in.

[NoHuddleKelly12]

Vontae walking in Week 2 IIRC, and becoming the laughingstock of the league yet again as a franchise, and suddenly 2 years later and word on the free agent street is Buffalo's where you want to be? Yep, fully agree with OP. Sean keeping the team playing hard throughout that year and pulling out 6 wins from a squad that arguably was XFL level starting quality, is saying something.

[Mr. WEO]

2 minutes ago, Another Fan said:

People can have short memories.   I mean there was some ugly games that year.  For instance the 47-10 loss to the Bears 

 

New rookie QB, 1 year after playoffs.  There were new guys starting.  There was no chance at any time during that season that McD was at risk of losing the team.  I don't agree that that makes sense.  Did he lose the team this year when, after starting 6-3, they lost to the Browns and then lost 3 of their last 4?

 

Nope.

[Mr. WEO]

2 minutes ago, NoHuddleKelly12 said:

Vontae walking in Week 2 IIRC, and becoming the laughingstock of the league yet again as a franchise, and suddenly 2 years later and word on the free agent street is Buffalo's where you want to be? Yep, fully agree with OP. Sean keeping the team playing hard throughout that year and pulling out 6 wins from a squad that arguably was XFL level starting quality, is saying something.

 

Allen, McCoy, McCloud, Dimarco, Foster, Croom, McKenzie, Hyde, Poyer, Edmunds, Milano, White, Lorax, Hughes, Kyle, Harris and Jordan Phillips, Murphy, Star---most are still there. 

 

Zay Jones even had 652 yards and 7 TDs.

[loveorhatembillsfan4life]

Be thankful we got him, Sean gets A lot of respect from his peers around the league. I hope he is here for a long time. 

[jletha]

1 hour ago, Another Fan said:

People can have short memories.   I mean there was some ugly games that year.  For instance the 47-10 loss to the Bears 

Green Bay.

[MJS]

1 hour ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

Allen, McCoy, McCloud, Dimarco, Foster, Croom, McKenzie, Hyde, Poyer, Edmunds, Milano, White, Lorax, Hughes, Kyle, Harris and Jordan Phillips, Murphy, Star---most are still there. 

 

Zay Jones even had 652 yards and 7 TDs.

Agree with you, but all of the offensive players (outside the raw rookie Allen) you mentioned are depth or special teams players at best now, or off the team. The offense was pretty devoid of talent. McCoy was basically all we had and he was on his very last legs. The oline was hot garbage. Guys like Foster and Zay Jones are now barely roster worthy but were major contributors that year.

 

But yeah, the defense had talent.

[Utah John]

The Bills built the defense first, but even that was not always good in 2018.  The Bills started 2018 as one of the worst teams in the league.  They were getting blown out over and over because the offense couldn't hold on to the ball.  Also remember the opening part of the 2018 schedule was brutal. The Vikings upset was a feel-good moment but the fact that it was so shocking shows how most of the league felt about the Bills.  By the end of the season, the team was much more solid, and I agree McD deserves a lot of credit for keeping the players moving ahead in the right direction.

 

I keep pointing this out, but the Dolphins' 2019 season was a lot like the Bills' 2018 season. Started out really bad, and got better with a strong coach.  Miami is going to be really tough this year if they get a QB.

[Mr. WEO]

22 minutes ago, MJS said:

Agree with you, but all of the offensive players (outside the raw rookie Allen) you mentioned are depth or special teams players at best now, or off the team. The offense was pretty devoid of talent. McCoy was basically all we had and he was on his very last legs. The oline was hot garbage. Guys like Foster and Zay Jones are now barely roster worthy but were major contributors that year.

 

But yeah, the defense had talent.

 

Over the first 8 games of the 2018 season, that Bills team played the hardest schedule of any team in the league to that point in the season.  The 2019 team had the 2nd easiest schedule.  Big difference.  Obviously the players knew how rough their first half of the season would be.

 

Even given that fact, the 2019 Offense scored 19.6 ppg; only 2.9 more ppg than the 2018 team. 

 

So, this was clearly not XFL level talent and there was never a time that the players would have given up on the 2nd year HC. 

 

 

 

 

[MJS]

18 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

Over the first 8 games of the 2018 season, that Bills team played the hardest schedule of any team in the league to that point in the season.  The 2019 team had the 2nd easiest schedule.  Big difference.  Obviously the players knew how rough their first half of the season would be.

 

Even given that fact, the 2019 Offense scored 19.6 ppg; only 2.9 more ppg than the 2018 team. 

 

So, this was clearly not XFL level talent and there was never a time that the players would have given up on the 2nd year HC.

Yep, I agree. But it's pretty easy to tell that the 2019 Bills offense had much more talent than the 2018 Bills offense.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

2018 was on Beane not McD.  Beane put a non-competitive product on the field.  O-line and WR groups were the worst in the league.  We will all forget about it in a year or two if they make a deep playoff run or two.  

[Ethan in Cleveland]

1 hour ago, Utah John said:

The Bills built the defense first, but even that was not always good in 2018.  The Bills started 2018 as one of the worst teams in the league.  They were getting blown out over and over because the offense couldn't hold on to the ball.  Also remember the opening part of the 2018 schedule was brutal. The Vikings upset was a feel-good moment but the fact that it was so shocking shows how most of the league felt about the Bills.  By the end of the season, the team was much more solid, and I agree McD deserves a lot of credit for keeping the players moving ahead in the right direction.

 

I keep pointing this out, but the Dolphins' 2019 season was a lot like the Bills' 2018 season. Started out really bad, and got better with a strong coach.  Miami is going to be really tough this year if they get a QB.

It's fascinating with the defense first philosophy that his defense gets steamrolled at times.  Multiple 200 yard rushing games allowed.  Collapse at Houston.  I think that probably happens with every team - 49ers against the Saints last year.  The lack of a pass rush has got to get fixed.  Pass rush leads to negative plays, holding penalties, and turnovers.  Even if it means blitzing.  The Bills have the secondary that can hold up even if the blitz is picked up.  Most of the QB pressures were coverage sacks especially Lawson's.

[Mr. WEO]

41 minutes ago, MJS said:

Yep, I agree. But it's pretty easy to tell that the 2019 Bills offense had much more talent than the 2018 Bills offense.

 

Not at OC....hence a similar result.

[Nick the Greek]

3 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

"Lose the team" in his second year, after their 1st playoff season of the century?

 

 

 

 

 

The team was bad in 2018. It was another 6-10 for the Bills. 

[Call_Of_Ktulu]

I think he is a very good young HC that is still learning. The only issue I have with him is that he is super conservative. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

I mean, no offense, but the guy is still an active football coach.

 

Hopefully his "best coaching" is yet to come.

[njbuff]

He had a very raw rookie QB and NOTHING else on offense, yet he got 6 wins out of that bunch.

 

Not a bad coaching job if you ask me.

[Mr. WEO]

1 hour ago, Nick the Greek said:

The team was bad in 2018. It was another 6-10 for the Bills. 

 

 

Oh, wait...they were 6-10??  Oh well that changes everything.

[billsfan89]

3 hours ago, Ethan in Portland said:

2018 was on Beane not McD.  Beane put a non-competitive product on the field.  O-line and WR groups were the worst in the league.  We will all forget about it in a year or two if they make a deep playoff run or two.  

 

To be fair they were digging themselves out of a lot of dead cap due to bad contracts. Glenn was hurt and traded for good value, Clay and Shady were far from productive and on big contracts, the team was eating a big part of that Dareus bonus that year, Eric Wood and InCog retired with significant cap penalties, and Tyrod also was carried some cap charge too. The 2018 purge was needed. They didn't have much cap space going into that year and I think InCog retiring when he did torpedoed the O-line what little chance it had. Overall I think McBeane saw through the mirage that 2017 was and just kept going forward with the necessary rebuild. 

[Freddie's Dead]

His worst coaching came at the end of the 2019 season.  

[Ethan in Cleveland]

18 hours ago, billsfan89 said:

 

To be fair they were digging themselves out of a lot of dead cap due to bad contracts. Glenn was hurt and traded for good value, Clay and Shady were far from productive and on big contracts, the team was eating a big part of that Dareus bonus that year, Eric Wood and InCog retired with significant cap penalties, and Tyrod also was carried some cap charge too. The 2018 purge was needed. They didn't have much cap space going into that year and I think InCog retiring when he did torpedoed the O-line what little chance it had. Overall I think McBeane saw through the mirage that 2017 was and just kept going forward with the necessary rebuild. 

Beane admitted he didn't put a competitive team on the field at the end of that year. The dead cap was his own doing but as you said it was probably needed to move forward. 

 

[blacklabel]

That was probably a 2-14 roster that he coached to 6-10. We all knew they would have to endure the "growing pains" year and I feel like despite the losses and the holes on the roster, he still had full trust and belief from his players. 

[billsfan89]

58 minutes ago, Ethan in Portland said:

Beane admitted he didn't put a competitive team on the field at the end of that year. The dead cap was his own doing but as you said it was probably needed to move forward. 

 

 

The biggest sin of 2018 was the lack of a competent plan at QB. Allen was rushed in because they did not have a coherent plan after trading AJ. But the team carrying 40 million (I don't remember the  in dead cap, 18 million on aging declining players in Clay and Shady, and the trading of a lot of draft capital to trade up for Edumonds and Allen were all going to be hard to manage. They spent about 24 million on new contracts that off-season (Vonta, AJ, Star (whose deal was backloaded and only cost 6 million year one), Murphy, and Bodine) and while 24 million isn't chump change it is hard to fill a roster filled with holes with that kind of money. 

 

I will not hold 2018 against McBeane, they effectively had 40 plus million dead due to necessary trades and another nearly 20 million in cap tied up to lesser effective players and a retirement of a key O-line player right before the season started (which I think pushed up their dead cap another 6 million.) 2018 was the necessary completion of a rebuild whereas 2017 was a 7 win team overachieving a bit while getting lucky to break the playoffs. 

Edited March 26, 2020 by billsfan89