In the past several years there have been four quarterbacks who have been universally regarded as the four truly elite quarterbacks in the game. Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs, Lamar Jackson of the Ravens, Joe Burrow of the Bengals, and lastly Josh Allen of the Bills. Patrick Mahomes has been winning Super Bowls on a consistent basis with the Chiefs, while many point to Lamar Jackson not winning falling back on him as a result of consistent subpar postseason performances. As a result, Zac Taylor as head coach of the Bengals and Sean McDermott as head coach of the Bills have been brought into question as many state those two elite quarterbacks are being underserved by those head coaches. As many pundits and football aficionados state that Burrow and Allen are not one iota weaker as NFL QB’s than Patrick Mahomes, but they have a combined zero Super Bowls to Mahomes’ three Super Bowls. The head coach is likely the biggest thing that many point to as the barometer for seeing success in the league outside of the quarterback position. As a result, Taylor and McDermott, although both are competent and capable NFL head coaches have consistently been brought into question because no one questions Joe Burrow and Josh Allen as quarterbacks when healthy. Taylor and McDermott in my estimation are fine NFL head coaches but many, including myself, question if the Bengals and Bills are getting a next level coach for their elite quarterbacks. A next level head coach such as Andy Reid for the Chiefs, which Reid proved to be before getting Mahomes as his quarterback and as Reid has proven to be since getting Mahomes as his quarterback in winning three Super Bowls.
In an assessment of McDermott, I can offer the following. McDermott with a defensive background held several roles such as linebackers coach, defensive quality control coach, and defensive backs coach before landing his first defensive coordinator role with the Eagles in the 2009 season. His run as the defensive coordinator of the Eagles did not blow me away as his defenses in both years ranked below average in points allowed each season. Regardless, he still landed a defensive coordinator role with the Carolina Panthers right after from 2011-2016. Likewise, his defenses struggled for long periods of time with the Panthers but did show some high-end capabilities. In six seasons as defensive coordinator for Carolina, his defense ranked below average in terms of points allowed in four of the six seasons. Twice, however, the defense performed very well ranking in the top six including having the #2 scoring defense in the 2013 season. Heading into the 2017 season he landed the head coaching job for the Bills. In the early portion of his head coaching tenure with the Bills his defenses indeed struggled as the Bills ranked below average in terms of points allowed in each of his first two season as head coach. In his first season with the Bills, he got the team to the postseason and lost a narrow game in the wild card round. This was with having a largely ineffective QB position as Tyrod Taylor who has been a backup for much of his career took the majority of starting quarterback snaps for the Bills in McDermott’s first season with the team.
In the 2018 season which was McDermott’s second season on the job, he had a rookie unrefined Josh Allen start at the QB position for the team. Allen really was a raw unrefined player in his first season in the NFL and the Bills regressed to 6-10 while missing the postseason. McDermott’s defense in terms of points allowed also struggled ranking 18th in points allowed, below average in points allowed now in each of McDermott’s first two seasons as head coach of Buffalo.
In McDermott’s third season as head coach which was Allen’s second season as the starter, the team started to come into its own. Allen really improved in regards to throwing the football, and McDermott’s defense started to really flex its muscles finishing as the #2 scoring defense in the NFL. While the Bills went 10-6 and made the postseason but lost in the wild card round in overtime unfortunately. The Bills took another step forward the following season in 2020 as Josh Allen started to emerge as a superstar at quarterback and the Bills made the conference title although losing by multiple possessions in it. McDermott’s defense however took a step backwards ranking 16th in terms of points allowed that season.
In the 2021 season onwards the Bills with McDermott as head coach really started to emerge as a title threat on perennial basis. From 2021 onwards the Bills consistently fielded top 5 defenses and consistently came up just inches short of the eventual AFC Champion Chiefs in the postseason with McDermott as head coach. In three of the four seasons from 2021 to 2024 the Bills had a top 5 scoring defense, in three of the four seasons from 2021 to 2024 the Bills came up just one possession short of the Chiefs in the playoffs who have won the AFC 5 of the past 6 seasons. The question marks asked of Buffalo in this time frame as true contenders stems from the following. In the one season they did not narrowly lose to the Chiefs in the postseason, they suffered an embarrassing three possession defeat to the Bengals in the playoffs. The defense under McDermott also really regressed this past 2024 season finishing 11th in points allowed, while being graded as the #27 defense in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus, while also being the only team to allow 30 points to the Chiefs in regulation in the 2024 season in Buffalo’s postseason loss to Kansas City. Questions are also to be asked of Buffalo in this time frame in that when the Bills and Chiefs play a neck and neck game in the playoffs, why does Kansas City come out on top every single time. This trend is especially alarming since the Bills with Allen-McDermott are 4-1 against the Chiefs/Mahomes in the regular season but 0-4 against them in the playoffs. Yes, the margins of defeat between the Bills and Chiefs in the postseason have been as razor thin as possible on three separate occasions in the playoffs. But one certainly questions the Bills perhaps lacking some big game intangibles under McDermott that the Chiefs have under Andy Reid.
In a league that is transitioning to the offensive side of the ball favoring offensive minded coaches, McDermott as a defensive minded coach is also to be questioned in that regard. Out of 32 teams, only 11 teams currently have head coaches with a defensive background exemplifying the importance that the league places on the offensive side of the ball. In my estimation it is an offensive league more than it is a defensive league and as a result I am more sharply critical of defensive minded head coaches. The two biggest things that indicate how strong an NFL head coach I deem an individual to be is his team’s success in terms of wins and losses and how successful the side of the ball is that the head coach has a background in. The only two other defensive minded head coaches who are just as good if not better than Sean McDermott in that regard are Mike Tomlin and Pete Carroll, each of whom have won a Super Bowl. Out of the remaining eight defensive minded head coaches, none of them have McDermott’s track record in terms of wins-losses and defensive performance on a consistent basis.
Commanders head coach Dan Quinn in seven seasons as a head coach has never seen his defense rank in the top five in terms of points allowed while ranking in the top ten in that category only once. With Dan Quinn’s defenses as a head coach ranking in the bottom half of the league in terms of points allowed in five of his seven seasons as head coach as well. Raheem Morris, currently with the Falcons as head coach, in four seasons as a head coach in the NFL has seen his defense rank in the bottom half of the league in terms of points allowed on three of four occasions. Although on the one occasion in which it performed well, it ranked in the top five in terms of points allowed. Jonathan Gannon in two seasons as an NFL head coach both with the Cardinals has never had his defense rank higher than 15th in terms of points allowed including a #31 ranking in that department in his first season on the job. Mike MacDonald of the Seahawks in his first season as head coach saw his defense rank 12th in terms of points allowed. Todd Bowles, who is currently head coach of the Bucs in seven seasons as an NFL head coach has seen his defense rank in the top 10 in terms of points allowed only twice and never rank in the top five. DeMeco Ryans in two seasons as the Texans head coach has never had his defense rank in the top ten in terms of points allowed. Mike Vrabel, although he was very successful in his first head coaching tenure with the Titans, only had his defense rank in the top ten in terms of points allowed in 2 of his 6 seasons in charge. When comparing McDermott to the remaining defensive minded head coaches who are currently his contemporaries, he unequivocally ranks near the top. McDermott has won more as a defensive minded head coach than anyone outside of Tomlin and Carroll. In eight seasons as head coach of the Bills, he has seen his defenses consistently be very good as well. In eight seasons, he defense has ranked in the top five in terms of points allowed four times, be exactly average at 16th once, and above average at 11 once. With the remaining two instances being his first two seasons on the job where the defense ranked just slightly below average in terms of points allowed ranking 18th each year. The lower rankings those years is in large part due to inept quarterback play with a journeyman backup QB in Tyrod Taylor and a very raw unrefined rookie Josh Allen.
The only four other defensive minded head coaches who one could argue are better than McDermott would be Mike Tomlin, Pete Carroll, Mike Vrabel, and Dan Quinn. One could certainly make the strongest argument for Tomlin as his defenses are consistently up there and he has reached multiple Super Bowls while winning one. In comparing McDermott to Carroll, one could certainly argue Carroll due to Carroll’s success in the early portion of his tenure with the Seahawks. Where the team under Carroll made multiple Super Bowls while winning one and had a historically great defense with Carroll as a defensive minded head coach. However, Carroll was out of the league last season and after the Seattle Legion of Boom defense left its prime the defenses and teams under Carroll really underwhelmed. From 2017 to 2023 Carroll never had the Seahawks defense finish in the top ten in terms of points allowed. While finishing 1st in that category in four consecutive seasons from 2012 to 2015 including a #7 finish in 2011 and a #3 finish in 2016. So once the personnel of that Seahawks defense led by the likes of Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, and Richard Sherman left the team along with defensive coordinator Dan Quinn leaving the team, the defense was no longer nearly as good along with the Seahawks in terms of wins and losses no longer being nearly as good either. With Carroll’s lack of success in the back half of his tenure with Seattle it remains to be seen how good Carroll is as a defensive-minded head coach and one could certainly argue McDermott over him as of now as a defensive-minded head coach.
The aforementioned Dan Quinn, who is currently head coach of the Commanders, is another defensive minded head coach one could argue over McDermott as well. Quinn is an individual who many point to as the primary party responsible for the historically great Seahawks Legion of Boom defense. A defense that finished 1st in points allowed in four consecutive seasons while making two Super Bowls and winning one in large part because of the defense. Quinn as head coach also held a 28-3 lead deep into the second half of a Super Bowl with the Atlanta Falcons. However, McDermott is still to be taken over him as a defensive minded head coach primarily because of the weak defenses that Quinn consistently has seen his team’s field as a head coach. In seven seasons as a head coach, Dan Quinn has had his defense rank in the top 10 in terms of points allowed only once and never rank in the top 5 in that department. In seven seasons as a head coach, Quinn’s defenses have ranked in the bottom half of the league in terms of points allowed on five of seven occasions. In the year Quinn made and nearly won the Super Bowl as a head coach many point to offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan as the primary reason the team saw so much success that year. With Quinn as a defensive minded head coach the offense was explosive led by offensive coordinator Shanahan but the defense under defensive minded head coach Quinn indeed struggled ranking 27th in terms of points allowed that season. Many point to the collapse of Quinn’s defense allowing 31 points from the ~3 min mark in the 3rd quarter to overtime as the primary reason the Falcons squandered that lead in the Super Bowl as well. Although the performance of Quinn’s defense until that point holding Brady and the Patriots to only three points was indeed remarkable. Because of the failures that Quinn’s defenses consistently have with him as the head coach of the team despite his almost unparalleled track record as a defensive coordinator, McDermott is to be preferred over him in my estimation. As McDermott’s defenses with him as the head coach consistently are top notch in terms of points allowed with some exceptions, however.
Mike Vrabel is the only remaining defensive minded head coach who could be argued over McDermott at this point. Vrabel consistently led the Titans to overachieving seasons including a conference title appearance and a #1 overall seed in the AFC despite having an average caliber quarterback in Ryan Tannehill along with the Titans consistently being one of the weaker organizations in the NFL. However, in six seasons as the head coach of the Titans his defense ranked in the top ten in terms of points allowed only twice. Perhaps the presence of Derrick Henry and Deandre Hopkins, who were both in the discussion for being the best players in the league at their respective positions led to the Titans seeing an increased level of success with Vrabel. With Vrabel now as the head coach of the Patriots after seeing diminished returns in terms of wins and losses in the latter portion of his Titans tenure, it remains to be seen how effective of a head coach he indeed is.
Outside of Tomlin, Carroll, Quinn, and Vrabel one would be hard pressed to argue any defensive-minded head coach over the likes of Sean McDermott as of now. As no other current defensive minded head coach has a strong enough or a long enough track record of seeing success in the league. Although a few such as DeMeco Ryans and Mike MacDonald have proven to be very capable in shorter time frames.
One could make the strongest argument for Mike Tomlin over McDermott, as Tomlin has won a Super Bowl and consistently has his defenses rank near the top of the league. One could make strong arguments for Carroll, Vrabel, and Quinn as well but they would be flawed arguments. As Carroll’s defenses in recent memory in the second half of his Seattle tenure left much to be desired not ranking in the top ten in terms of points allowed for seven consecutive seasons. With Seattle missing the playoffs in three of those seven seasons as well despite having a star quarterback in Russell Wilson. Mike Vrabel obviously won a lot in his tenure with the Titans but his defenses consistently underwhelmed in terms of points allowed. Additionally, Vrabel’s background before being hired by the Titans is a big question mark as well. As before being hired by the Titans, Vrabel held a defensive coordinator position for one season and one season only in which his defense finished last in the league in terms of points allowed. Vrabel and Carroll both were out of the league in terms of coaching last year as well. Dan Quinn’s defenses have consistently and drastically underwhelmed as a head coach and Quinn has not proven he can have his defenses even be consistently average as a head coach. Tomlin is the only defensive minded head coach who one could say with a strong level of certainly is to be preferred over McDermott at this point. However, Tomlin has not won a playoff game since the 2016 season, almost a decade. Whereas McDermott has won seven playoff games since the 2020 season. Although the Steelers lacking a true franchise quarterback under Tomlin for most of that time frame, and the Bills having one of the four to five premier quarterbacks in the NFL during that time frame certainly contributed to that as well.
In totality, relative to his peers as a defensive minded head coach, one could make a very strong argument that Sean McDermott is the premier defensive minded head coach in the game today. However, questions are still asked of him for several reasons which include the following. The league is transitioning to an offensive league preferring offensive minded head coaches with McDermott being a defensive minded head coach. Almost every time the Bills lose in the postseason, his defenses really underwhelm and are one of the biggest reasons if not the biggest reason why the team indeed loses come playoff time. With Allen being one of the only four truly elite quarterbacks in the NFL today, many state that several head coaches could see a similar level of success with him as the quarterback. Given how rare and special of a quarterback talent Josh Allen is, the organization and the coach around him are viewed in an even more critical light than usual. Finally, with Josh Allen being one of the only four truly elite quarterbacks in the league today, while not struggling with injuries or postseason performance like two of the others in that group in Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson do. The Bills not winning or even getting to a Super Bowl as of yet while the remaining elite quarterback in that group named Patrick Mahomes has reached five Super Bowls while winning three of them is alarming to many. However, the Bills with Allen and Mahomes have lost a game by inches to the Chiefs in the past three postseason matchups with Allen/McDermott being 4-1 vs Mahomes/Reid in the regular season. With that in mind, many, including Bills head coach Sean McDermott state that it is only a matter of time before the Bills with Allen at the helm end up winning it all.
Sean McDermott is not on the hot seat and ruminations of his job security are not circling as of now nor should they be. However, with Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes being essentially doppelgangers of one another as quarterbacks but Mahomes having three Super Bowls compared to Allen not having any, McDermott is certainly brought into question. If the Bills continue to consistently fail to get over the hump come postseason time and continue to lose to Kansas City on their way to coming up short in the playoffs. Ruminations of McDermott’s job security as the head coach of the Bills will unequivocally begin to mount. Especially if his defenses underperform as they did this past 2024 season and as they have in multiple postseason losses as well. I am of the mindset that McDermott is fine as a head coach, but as of now, is nothing special. If you reference my head coach ranking article that you can find under the NFL News and General Articles Section on the NFL dropdown, you can see that despite his strong track record, he is still in the middle of the pack among NFL head coaches as of now.
McDermott is fine but if Kyle Shanahan were to be in a position to leave the 49ers, I would unequivocally hire Shanahan as the head coach of the Bills 99 times out of 100 over McDermott as of now. If Bill Belichick were to become available after one season at North Carolina, I would 65 times out of 100 hire Belichick over McDermott, and the only reason that is not higher is because of Belichick’s age. McDermott as of now is a fine NFL head coach who I think is capable of winning a Super Bowl and who is perhaps the premier defensive minded head coach in the NFL today. McDermott is a flawed but a very capable defensive minded head coach in an offensive leaning league. McDermott is fine but has not proven to be a game changer as of yet like Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Jim Harbaugh, and Andy Reid have. With the team in the Chiefs, who consistently beats the Bills in the playoffs on their way to winning Super Bowls while having an equivalent quarterback talent to the Bills, does indeed have that game changing offensive minded head coach in Andy Reid. McDermott is a very good but not as of yet a great defensive minded head coach in an offensive oriented and leaning league. Despite McDermott’s strong track record and my belief in him, one certainly ponders if superstar and uniquely rare/special quarterback talent in Josh Allen is indeed being underserved with McDermott as head coach. As of now or likely in the near future I would not move off of Sean McDermott for any coach outside of Bill Belichick or Kyle Shanahan. But if one of those two coaches were to become available it would be behoove the Bills to make a switch. As although I think McDermott is fine, I do question if Josh Allen is being underserved with him as the head coach whereas I would not question that if Belichick or Kyle Shanahan were to be hired with the Bills and Josh Allen.
