ESPN analyst just voiced the Sean McDermott concern Bills fans already have

With Week 18 in the books, all of the warm, fuzzy feelings wafting through Highmark Stadium’s final moments as the Buffalo Bills' home have dissipated. The pressure for the Bills to capitalize on what many would consider an advantageous AFC playoff field is back on.

As Black Monday unfolds across the NFL with head coaches losing their jobs, those in the postseason aren’t guaranteed absolute safety either, and that isn’t limited to Sean McDermott’s friend Mike Tomlin out in Pittsburgh. McDermott himself has surely noticed the rising temperature in his coaching seat with the Bills after a tumultuous 2025 campaign.

ESPN NFL analyst Ben Solak pointed out McDermott as the coach with the most to lose this week as Buffalo prepares for the red-hot Jacksonville Jaguars.

Why Buffalo Bills HC Sean McDermott has more at stake than any coach left in the playoffs

“It’s McDermott, because if the Bills make an AFC playoff field that lacks Patrick Mahomes, and Joe Burrow, and Lamar Jackson and then they lose, one and done to the Jaguars, which these Jaguars are a very good team, but on the scale of NFL owners being embarrassed, losing to the Jaguars is kind of up there,” Solak said on Up and Adams Monday morning. “I could see, not that, like, McDermott would be fired on the Tarmak, but there’s going to be a big sit-down, there’s going to be a conversation, ‘well, how did this all go wrong?’ It’s going to be a ‘oh, you need to make an offensive coordinator change,’ or ‘oh, you know, the general manager this-’ and, like, things could precipitate and trickle down such that, eventually, it leads to that mutual parting of ways, you might call it.”

Solak is right in that McDermott won’t be fired immediately simply for losing to Jacksonville this week. The Jags, backed by quarterback Trevor Lawrence and the league’s top rushing defense, won eight straight to close the season. Even if Lawrence hasn’t yet joined Josh Allen among the league’s established elites at the position, he’s poised to take that step at the Bills' expense.

And while Bills fans may be justifiably exhausted by the notion that there are few excuses to fall short of a Super Bowl LX appearance, the reality is that the Bills don’t have the same kind of firepower heading into this postseason as years past when those other elite QBs stonewalled the Bills in the postseason.

“Simply because, like, the Bills have been a little bit unfairly set up for very high expectations in this particular AFC playoff field because the other star quarterbacks aren’t in it, despite the fact that this Bills team, outside of Josh [Allen], not as good as maybe you’d like for the Bills to be, not as good as we’re accustomed to them being,” Solak said. “And so, I could see an embarrassing one-and-done loss in Jacksonville leading to some, like, you know, domino effects that gets McDermott out of there.”

The Bills aren’t unique in having a sect of their fanbase that doesn’t believe in the head coach. After all, a defensive-minded coach with an inconsistent defense in Year 9 is justifiable cause for concern. Not ensuring that Allen has the weapons at his disposal in the passing game to make his magic is a failing on McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane as well.

READ MORE: Bills staring down a challenging 2026 slate once the dust settles this postseason

It’s a frustrating position for Bills fans to sit in. Even with the full context of how the 2025 regular season settled, the expectations from the summer haven’t changed. The Bills are a Super Bowl or bust team, and a bust in these playoffs will raise questions about McDermott’s future heading into next season.

If McDermott and the Bills fail here, especially in the first round to the upstart Jags, then Bills fans will be forced to ponder if McDermott and Beane can right the ship ahead of the 2026 season, when Mahomes, Burrow, and Jackson will be back with a vengeance, while Bo Nix, Justin Herbert, C.J. Stroud Lawrence, and Drake Maye continue to grow as postseason threats.