The Buffalo Bills announced on Wednesday that they have agreed to a multi-year deal with Sean McDermott.
While the focus has been on players who could be in line for contract extensions in the near future for the Buffalo Bills, head coach Sean McDermott was entering the fourth season of a five-year deal. Earlier this offseason, I wrote that the team should not wait to extend their head coach.
That is exactly what they did on Wednesday by agreeing to a multi-year extension, the team announced.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweeted shortly after the announcement that the contract extension is through the 2025 season.
Update: Bills gave HC Sean McDermott a six-year contract extension, tying him to Buffalo through the 2025 season, per sources.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 12, 2020
This was a no-brainer for a Bills organization that struggled through mediocrity until McDermott joined the franchise in 2017. They had the longest playoff drought in the NFL and only had two seasons with nine or more wins from 2000.
After the team fired Rex Ryan, they elected to go with a long term coordinator in Sean McDermott but a coach without head coaching experience. It also went against a trend in the NFL where teams were hiring more people with offensive backgrounds. Prior to joining the Bills, McDermott was defensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers from 2011 to 2016, a stretch that the Panthers regularly had one of the best defenses in the league.
There is no question that it was certainly a gamble but it has undoubtedly paid off.
In three seasons, the Buffalo Bills have gone 25-23 under McDermott including two playoff trips. He ended the playoff drought in his first season with a 9-7 record and after a down year in 2018, the Bills returned to the playoffs this past year with a 10-6 record.
While it remains to be seen how long the extension is for, this is a great step for the Buffalo Bills. There was a number of reasons for the team’s struggles over the years but one of the big ones was not finding the right head coach that could instill a winning culture.
This is something that Sean McDermott has done in a short period of time and it is clear that the players, and everyone within the organization, has bought in.