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McDermott says a Lombardi is "not a matter of if, just a matter of when"


Ray Stonada

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You know, that interview explains a lot, while saying pretty much nothing at all. I particularly liked this:  

 

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McDermott simply doesn’t see any competitive value in being chatty. And he’s still not going to disclose what happened in those 13 Seconds. He iterated he knows what happened, and it was addressed internally.

 

“Protect the team and give it the best chance to win, that’s my No. 1 goal,” he said. “My job is to do everything that I can to help this organization win and do what we haven’t done yet, which is win an AFC championship and a Super Bowl.”

 

It drives us all crazy, the fact that he says practically nothing about the biggest plays, the biggest mistakes, the biggest things to go wrong.  But Graham gets it.  "McDermott simply doesn’t see any competitive value in being chatty."  Everything McDermott does, he does with a purpose.  Everything.  Talking to the media is part of his job, so he does it, but he understands that no part of talking to the press will help make his team better.  He knows what happened in 13 Seconds, but taking that discussion outside One Bills Drive won't make the team better.  Talking to the media is just time away from actually working on making the team better.   He is very much like Belichick in that way.  It's frustrating to everyone on the outside, the fans and the media, because he doesn't say anything, but his job is not to minimize our frustrations. 

 

We learned a lot about McDermott when he arrived and quickly removed the pool table from the team clubhouse.  He was asked why the ping pong table stayed and the pool table was gone.  Ping pong develops eye-hand coordination and other skills relevant to football performance, pool doesn't.  It's all about focus on the game. 

 

And I was interested in this:

 

Quote

“In those moments right there — on that TV — you get frustrated,” McDermott said, “very frustrated from the fact that it hasn’t happened yet, and I think that’s the key word: ‘Yet.’

 

“Man, come on. I know that we’re doing things right. I know we’re right on the edge.”

 

Whether it's good or bad, it's important to remember that McDermott is a disciple of the continuous improvement, lifelong learning gurus.  I bought one of those books, a book by a woman who studies and promotes the concepts.  The book opens describing some research that found that a simple attitude change makes all the difference in what kids accomplish.  When faced with a problem they tried to solve and didn't, kids generally had one of two different reactions:  They said either "I didn't do it," or "I didn't do it yet."   And here it is in McDermott's final comment.  "It hasn't happened yet."   Earlier McDermott says you've only failed if you've stopped trying. 

 

And this is why I have confidence in McDermott, and why I think people are wrong when they say he's locked in on his style of defense and won't change.   Resisting change is not at all how McDermott operates.   McDermott's philosophy is to embrace change whenever change is necessary, and he and the people around him are constantly asking themselves what has to change.  That's how he operates.  He's changed coordinators, he's changed players, he's changed styles of play.  

 

He just hasn't won the Super Bowl - yet. 

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1 hour ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

He’s never going to have those weapons unless the Bills get really lucky in the draft.


He needs a true primary target, true secondary target, and a solid OL. 
 

Diggs - primary

Kincaid - secondary 

OL - solid

 

They do need to replace Diggs soon and that’s where they need to draft well.

 

But you said Allen has had weapons, did you not? He's had a true number one for 4 years. Beasley was an upper echelon slot, but we only had that production for two years with Diggs and three years overall. Other than that, his "weapons" were average to below and well below compared to some other teams. 

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For an article that's patting McD on the back for being great at self-evaluation.... there's a stunning lack of self-evaluation actually going on. 

 

He insisted he trusts his system because he has won more often than any coach in Bills history.

 

All those wins might have more to do with Josh Allen than it does your system coach...

 

“Had I not faked that punt, with what I knew going into that situation, it would have been a failure had I not tried,” McDermott said. “I would have gone home that night saying, ‘What would have happened had I faked that punt?’

 

Why aren't you saying "Maybe I should've left my franchise QB out there to go for it instead of a fake punt to a guy with 0 career touches" ?

 

McDermott simply doesn’t see any competitive value in being chatty. And he’s still not going to disclose what happened in those 13 Seconds. He iterated he knows what happened, and it was addressed internally.

 

McD knows what went wrong and 'fixed' it. He refuses to share with the class though...

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3 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

You know, that interview explains a lot, while saying pretty much nothing at all. I particularly liked this:  

 

 

It drives us all crazy, the fact that he says practically nothing about the biggest plays, the biggest mistakes, the biggest things to go wrong.  But Graham gets it.  "McDermott simply doesn’t see any competitive value in being chatty."  Everything McDermott does, he does with a purpose.  Everything.  Talking to the media is part of his job, so he does it, but he understands that no part of talking to the press will help make his team better.  He knows what happened in 13 Seconds, but taking that discussion outside One Bills Drive won't make the team better.  Talking to the media is just time away from actually working on making the team better.   He is very much like Belichick in that way.  It's frustrating to everyone on the outside, the fans and the media, because he doesn't say anything, but his job is not to minimize our frustrations.

Or maybe he took over the play calls and completely ***** up that 13 seconds and just wanted to move on without talking about it. 

Explaining yourself after one of the all time worst meltdowns in NFL history would be 'being chatty'?

  Blaming others and taking no responsibility is the high road evidently. 

 

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1 minute ago, DabillsDaBillsDaBills said:

 

McD knows what went wrong and 'fixed' it. He refuses to share with the class though...

Of course, he shared with the class.  The class is inside One Bills Drive.  You're not inside, and he didn't share with you.  

 

 

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2 hours ago, Ray Stonada said:

https://theathletic.com/5299472/2024/02/26/buffalo-bills-sean-mcdermott-nfl-combine/

 

Also, about people who say he can't win a Super Bowl: “You can’t listen,” said McDermott, who’ll turn 50 next month. “I believe we’re doing things the right way. You only fail if you quit, and I’ve never done that. I’ve never been about that. Whatever it is, you always figure it out. You always find a way to get there. The only thing left to do for us at this point is win an AFC championship and win a Super Bowl, which is pretty darn good. There’s not too many organizations that can say that over the last seven years. We’ve done everything else you can do, and that is what gets us out of bed in the morning.”

 

About the tough losses the Bills have had: “Anybody that says they’re not affected by a loss in this line of work isn’t being honest,” McDermott said. “There’s a degree of, ‘Hey, did I do the right thing? Did I do enough to help my team?’ But then you need to be able to come back to ‘No, I know I gave it my all. I put in everything I could have put into it.’

“We’ve played those games once, but I’ve played them a million times in my mind. Every last one of them from the first game against the Jets in 2017 to that game right there a million times. That’s where your confidence gets affected the most because then you start to lose who you are and trusting your gut and your experience and your preparation.”

 

About the fake punt to Hamlin against KC: “Had I not faked that punt, with what I knew going into that situation, it would have been a failure had I not tried,” McDermott said. “I would have gone home that night saying, ‘What would have happened had I faked that punt?’ It didn’t work out that specific situation in that in that particular moment, but I need to do everything I can to help our team win.”

 

 

 

we’d

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1 minute ago, Turk71 said:

Or maybe he took over the play calls and completely ***** up that 13 seconds and just wanted to move on without talking about it. 

Explaining yourself after one of the all time worst meltdowns in NFL history would be 'being chatty'?

  Blaming others and taking no responsibility is the high road evidently. 

 

You guys are just unhappy with (1) the loss (whichever loss we're talking about at any particular time), and (2) the frustration over the loss that causes you to want to blame someone.  If McDermott explained exactly what happened in 13 Seconds, people would criticize him for making the wrong choices.  He doesn't explain, so people criticize him for not explaining.  Can't you see that McDermott's right about this?  He's damned if he does, and he's damned if he doesn't, and talking about it only prolongs the focus on the history.  Anything that takes the focus off getting better today is a waste of time.   McDermott owns the past lives with it, and works to get better.  It isn't very satisfying to us, because we'd like to understand more about things that happened, but enhancing our understanding doesn't make the team better. 

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I have no problem with playing aggressive. In fact, i would rather lose a game from being too aggressive, than too passive or soft.....however, when you try a fake punt and not get the ball into your playmakers hands, but rather a D guy who played 2 snaps all season, that is just dumb.

Dumb, i say.

 

 

sorry......not sorry.

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17 minutes ago, H2o said:

But you said Allen has had weapons, did you not? He's had a true number one for 4 years. Beasley was an upper echelon slot, but we only had that production for two years with Diggs and three years overall. Other than that, his "weapons" were average to below and well below compared to some other teams. 

The guy was naming Hill and Waddle and Chase and Higgins and the 49ers many high priced weapons. AJ Brown and Smith. Thats just crazy.

 

The only real beef about failing Allen would be 2022 when they failed replacing Beasley in the slot and the OL was below average. 

 

 

 

 

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I for one am glad that for the most part no one that has any kind of true NFL experience at coaching listens to the "Arm Chair HC's" in the Mafia or other fan bases . 

 

Yah this guy that is a plummer, mechanic, salesmen, heavy equipment operator, knows more of how the Bills should be coached than a person that has not only played the game but has been coaching at some level for most of his adult life & learned from the likes of Andy Reid, Jim Johnson, yah i'm listening to the plummer for sure 🙄.

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1 minute ago, T master said:

I for one am glad that for the most part no one that has any kind of true NFL experience at coaching listens to the "Arm Chair HC's" in the Mafia or other fan bases . 

 

Yah this guy that is a plummer, mechanic, salesmen, heavy equipment operator, knows more of how the Bills should be coached than a person that has not only played the game but has been coaching at some level for most of his adult life & learned from the likes of Andy Reid, Jim Johnson, yah i'm listening to the plummer for sure 🙄.

 

 

 

Yeah, you never listen to the plumber.....he's full of sh*t.

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26 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

Of course, he shared with the class.  The class is inside One Bills Drive.  You're not inside, and he didn't share with you.  

 

 

I have no problem with this, but he can't preach about accountability if he doesn't take any himself. And he does preach about accountability.

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30 minutes ago, Steptide said:

The thing that sticks out to me is the part where he says those games go through his head a millions times. I get that, it's human nature, but maybe that's part of the issue. The over thinking it a bit. 

 

If he said he hasn't given the game another thought, people would be saying he doesn't try to learn from his mistakes and get better. People will see what they want to see. 

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19 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

You guys are just unhappy with (1) the loss (whichever loss we're talking about at any particular time), and (2) the frustration over the loss that causes you to want to blame someone.  If McDermott explained exactly what happened in 13 Seconds, people would criticize him for making the wrong choices.  He doesn't explain, so people criticize him for not explaining.  Can't you see that McDermott's right about this?  He's damned if he does, and he's damned if he doesn't, and talking about it only prolongs the focus on the history.  Anything that takes the focus off getting better today is a waste of time.   McDermott owns the past lives with it, and works to get better.  It isn't very satisfying to us, because we'd like to understand more about things that happened, but enhancing our understanding doesn't make the team better. 

 

I actually prefer that he NOT publicly throw anyone under the bus. After 13 seconds our ST coach quietly moved on. They were trying to get better. 

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27 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

You guys are just unhappy with (1) the loss (whichever loss we're talking about at any particular time), and (2) the frustration over the loss that causes you to want to blame someone.  If McDermott explained exactly what happened in 13 Seconds, people would criticize him for making the wrong choices.  He doesn't explain, so people criticize him for not explaining.  Can't you see that McDermott's right about this?  He's damned if he does, and he's damned if he doesn't, and talking about it only prolongs the focus on the history.  Anything that takes the focus off getting better today is a waste of time.   McDermott owns the past lives with it, and works to get better.  It isn't very satisfying to us, because we'd like to understand more about things that happened, but enhancing our understanding doesn't make the team better. 

So do you think that every time after a game where Josh gets in front of media and says “it’s my fault”, “I can’t make that pass”, or “I have to be better for my teammates” Sean thinks he is not helping the team win?  Why does he allow Josh to always fall on the sword but finds that if he did that “it doesn’t help the team win?”

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49 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

You know, that interview explains a lot, while saying pretty much nothing at all. I particularly liked this:  

 

 

It drives us all crazy, the fact that he says practically nothing about the biggest plays, the biggest mistakes, the biggest things to go wrong.  But Graham gets it.  "McDermott simply doesn’t see any competitive value in being chatty."  Everything McDermott does, he does with a purpose.  Everything.  Talking to the media is part of his job, so he does it, but he understands that no part of talking to the press will help make his team better.  He knows what happened in 13 Seconds, but taking that discussion outside One Bills Drive won't make the team better.  Talking to the media is just time away from actually working on making the team better.   He is very much like Belichick in that way.  It's frustrating to everyone on the outside, the fans and the media, because he doesn't say anything, but his job is not to minimize our frustrations. 

 

We learned a lot about McDermott when he arrived and quickly removed the pool table from the team clubhouse.  He was asked why the ping pong table stayed and the pool table was gone.  Ping pong develops eye-hand coordination and other skills relevant to football performance, pool doesn't.  It's all about focus on the game. 

 

And I was interested in this:

 

 

Whether it's good or bad, it's important to remember that McDermott is a disciple of the continuous improvement, lifelong learning gurus.  I bought one of those books, a book by a woman who studies and promotes the concepts.  The book opens describing some research that found that a simple attitude change makes all the difference in what kids accomplish.  When faced with a problem they tried to solve and didn't, kids generally had one of two different reactions:  They said either "I didn't do it," or "I didn't do it yet."   And here it is in McDermott's final comment.  "It hasn't happened yet."   Earlier McDermott says you've only failed if you've stopped trying. 

 

And this is why I have confidence in McDermott, and why I think people are wrong when they say he's locked in on his style of defense and won't change.   Resisting change is not at all how McDermott operates.   McDermott's philosophy is to embrace change whenever change is necessary, and he and the people around him are constantly asking themselves what has to change.  That's how he operates.  He's changed coordinators, he's changed players, he's changed styles of play.  

 

He just hasn't won the Super Bowl - yet. 

Well Shaw, you have to get there before you can win one.  He has shown no ability to do so.  Marv Levy hasn't won one, yet either.  At least he knew how to get there.

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