In nine years as head coach of the Buffalo Bills, seven of which included playoff trips with Josh Allen under center, Sean McDermott just couldn't get the team to the Super Bowl. Will his replacement be under the same pressure to win it all next season though?
If we're taking Bills owner Terry Pegula at his word, the answer is no.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Pegula dismissed the idea that the next Bills head coach is "Super Bowl or Bust" in his first year on the job.
“We can’t say that to somebody coming in,” Pegula said. “We’re making a change, and you know, it’s ‘do your best job.’”
He said that while he understands the risk of changing coaches under these circumstances, he also knows that there are plenty of people interested in the role.
“There is definitely risk,” Pegula said. “We’ve got to make the best decision. So that’s a fact.
“I don’t know about pressure right now, but there’s a lot of people that want to look at taking this job. There’s a lot of interest.”
Problem or no?
As much as fans are reveling in mocking the Bills for firing a coach with eight playoff trips in nine seasons, Pegula hit the nail on the head when he said the job will have plenty of interest.
It's rare that a team fires its head coach with an MVP quarterback in the middle of his prime that was just a few bad plays away from playing in the AFC Championship Game. If the Bills had fired McDermott a little earlier, they probably would have been able to pry away someone in the vein of John Harbaugh or Kevin Stefanski before they took their new head coaching jobs.
© Shawn Dowd/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images.
Whoever is the new head coach of the Bills will be going into a situation that is almost immune to screwing up. You would have to be a truly bad coach to mess up what the Bills currently have going on.
Of course, that's what makes Pegula's decision to fire McDermott risky in the first place...