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Alaina Getzenberg
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills fired head coach Sean McDermott on Monday after another season that failed to end in a Super Bowl appearance, but the team promoted Brandon Beane to president of football operations.
“Sean has done an admirable job of leading our football team for the past 9 seasons,” owner Terry Pegula said in a statement. “But I feel we are in need of a new structure within our leadership to give this organization the best opportunity to take our team to the next level. We owe that to our players and to Bills Mafia.”
The Bills lost 33-30 to the Denver Broncos in overtime of the AFC divisional round to cap another season of disappointment. It was the fourth time in five seasons that the Bills exited in the divisional round.
McDermott, 51, leaves Buffalo with a 98-50 record, with an 8-8 mark in the postseason, including two AFC championship losses to the Kansas City Chiefs (2020, 2024 seasons). He won five consecutive AFC East titles from 2020 to 2024, finishing second at 12-5 behind the New England Patriots this season.
“Sean helped change the mindset of this organization and was instrumental in the Bills becoming a perennial playoff team,” Pegula said in his statement. “I respect all the work, loyalty and attention to detail he showed for this team and the community.”
McDermott could emerge as a head coaching candidate for other NFL teams that now have an opening. McDermott told his staff on Monday that he intends to continue coaching, a source told Schefter.
Besides the Bills, seven NFL teams currently have coaching vacancies: Miami, Tennessee, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Arizona and Cleveland.
Beane, who will remain in his role as general manager in addition to taking on increased responsibilities, will help direct the team’s search for a new coach to lead the Bills’ debut season in their new stadium.
“Brandon will oversee all facets of our football operation,” Pegula said. “… I have full faith in and have witnessed Brandon’s outstanding leadership style and have confidence in his abilities to lead our organization.”
The loss to the Broncos continued the Bills’ streak of not reaching the Super Bowl since losing four straight from 1990 to 1993. And it extended their record of the most wins in a seven-season span without a Super Bowl appearance, including playoffs (91).
The change will lead to reigning MVP quarterback Josh Allen, 29, having a new coach for the first time in his professional career. Allen is going into his ninth NFL season next year and has the most playoff wins (eight) and starts (15) by any quarterback without a Super Bowl start in the Super Bowl era.
The postgame locker room and news conference following Sunday’s loss was a more emotional one than after the team’s other recent exits with Allen tearing up on the podium. McDermott pronounced he was defending both Buffalo and the entire organization after a lengthy answer about a controversial call by the referees in overtime.
McDermott, 51, went 0-3 in postseason overtimes during his Bills career.
McDermott’s 98-50 record in the regular season marked the second-best winning percentage and second-most wins in the league during that time (behind only the Chiefs). He led the team to break a historic 18-year playoff drought.
Defensive tackles Jordan Phillips and DaQuan Jones showed their frustration to McDermott’s firing in Instagram story posts.
“This s— here is so stupid honestly sickening,” Phillips posted. “The best coach I’ve ever been around.”
Posted Jones: “Don’t make sense but ya got what ya wanted.”
McDermott has been a consistent defender of Buffalo, often speaking up about what the western New York community means to him and the drive of establishing a culture and bringing a Super Bowl title to the area for the first time.
“Yes, I want to win a Super Bowl and a world championship. What’s also important to me, however, is doing things the right way and giving a community hope maybe that they hadn’t experienced lately,” McDermott said before the start of the 2025 season. “And one day, even if and when we win a world championship, those wins and losses are, unfortunately, sometimes fleeting. And what’s most important is how you do the job and you do your best in the life that you’re trying to live. Because I think that impact is more lasting than anything, wins and losses.
“So, I do try and keep things in perspective. That doesn’t mean that at all … that I don’t wake up every day with that on my mind.”
Since 2019, the Bills have the most wins in a seven-season stretch without a Super Bowl appearance, including playoffs. The Bills became the fourth team in the Super Bowl era to win a playoff game in six straight seasons; the previous three all won Super Bowls in those spans.
Allen, who turns 30 in May, finished with 3,668 yards and 25 touchdowns passing this season — his lowest output since his second season in 2019. The Bills, however, did get a boost from running back James Cook, who became Buffalo’s first player to win the NFL’s rushing title since O.J. Simpson in 1976.
The defense struggled in part because of a transition to youth and a rash of injuries. Though Buffalo’s defense finished ranked seventh in the NFL this season, the unit had difficulty stopping the run. And it’s in the playoffs where the defense was criticized for collapsing too often, as Buffalo allowed 30 or more points in four of its playoff losses.
Buffalo was McDermott’s first job as a head coach, hired after being the defensive coordinator for both the Carolina Panthers and Philadelphia Eagles.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.