For the first time since the end of the 2016 season, the Buffalo Bills are in search of a new head coach after the team fired Sean McDermott on Monday morning. The Bills have built themselves up into a consistent playoff team that has been consistently on the door step of the Super Bowl. However, they have not reached the final game of the season and with their loss against Denver this past Saturday, that was the final straw for McDermott’s tenure in Buffalo.
While McDermott was shown the door, Brandon Beane was retained as not just the general manager, but he has been promoted to President of Football Operations for the organization and part of his responsibility is to oversee the structure of the coaching staff.
Buffalo is late to this coaching cycle as three teams have already hired new head coaches. John Harbaugh, Kevin Stefanski, and Robert Saleh have all been hired so now the Bills must act fast.
B/R says Buffalo must focus on hiring an offensive head coach in offseason
Moe Moton from Bleacher Report said that now the Bills have been eliminated from the playoffs, and are now looking for a head coach, they must “hire an offensive HC who can develop talent around Josh Allen”.
Specifically, Moton listed candidates Mike McCarthy and Klint Kubiak as possible candidates that the Bills could pursue:
"The Bills must hire an offensive-minded head coach like Mike McCarthy or Klint Kubiak who can elevate the talent around Allen. If the team promotes offensive coordinator Joe Brady to lead skipper, general manager Brandon Beane should make a move for a big-play wide receiver like A.J. Brown or Brandon Aiyuk."Moe Moton, Bleacher Report
The last true offensive head coach the Bills had was Doug Marrone, who was in Buffalo from 2013-2014, before leaving the Bills after the 2014 season. The Bills hired Rex Ryan in 2015, but then was fired near the end of the 2016 season. Former Bills’ running backs coach Anthony Lynn was the interim head coach after Ryan’s firing.
Then the Bills brought in Sean McDermott, who was the defensive coordinator for the Panthers from 2011-2016 before joining the Bills. It’s been a long time since the Bills have had an offensive head coach in the building. It will be extremely interesting to see if that’s what they do, and whether it’s in-house or out of the building.