Sean McDermott: Where does the Bills coach rank amongst his peers? (2024)

An offer for Bills fans

Dennis Allen is the head coaching version of sitting on a whoopie cushion. The Saints have been dreadfully boring with no sense of direction ever since Sean Payton stepped away. They are 16-18 over their last two seasons and find themselves in quarterback purgatory as Derek Carr is clearly not the future. The Saints’ best option would be to finally blow everything up and begin to rebuild in 2025. It would be three years after they should have done it, but better late than never.

Eberflus is the latest example of a good haircut and beard being able to fix any sort of issue for a man, but the verdict is still out on if he will ever be a successful head coach. Both of his years in charge of the Bears have been suboptimal, and now he is standing on his last leg. Chicago has had a good offseason, and it had better yield good results on the field.

Working with Brian Daboll sounds like working with a combination of J. Jonah Jameson and Daffy Duck. If you read Pat Leonard’s tremendous piece on the dysfunction within the Giants’ coaching staff, the entire situation reads like Daboll will be gone by mid-season. This organization is a wreck that is somehow still clinging to the already-dead dream of Daniel Jones ever being good.

Robert Saleh has accomplished nothing since taking over as Jets head coach. And while last season felt like a cruel joke from the Football Gods, this is still very much a do or die year for Saleh. He is 18-33 in three seasons at the helm. If the Jets fail to make the postseason in 2024, there is no reason why he should return as head coach.

The second of the first-year head coaches on the list thus far, I do think this could work for the Titans. They’ve surrounded Will Levis with a lot of talent and given him an offensive mind that helped Jake Browning look awesome last year after Joe Burrow went down with injury. Callahan is the exact type of coach Levis needs to develop as an intermediate passer and become more precise rather than just throwing screens or piss missiles.

I said last season that Todd Bowles was the worst coach in the NFL- the Buccaneers then went onto make it to the divisional round of the playoffs. Now, while I credit most of that to a man who will be named later, Bowles does deserve to jump a few spots on the list.

The Raiders have tried the guru-type head coach twice and it backfired tremendously both times. Credit to the organization for hiring Pierce, who earned the job after taking over as interim coach and has the admiration and respect of his players. That’s more than can be said about Josh McDaniels, whose meal ticket Bill Belichick is no longer around for him to hitch his wagon to.

Dave Canales helped turn around the careers of Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield in consecutive seasons. Now, the Panthers are hoping he can do it with Bryce Young. I’ve liked what Carolina has done this offseason, specifically trading for wide receiver Diontae Johnson and drafting Xavier Legette. Along with Adam Thielen, that gives Young a nice trio to distribute the ball to and try to salvage the ruins of what was left from his rookie season. The Panthers knew they needed a smart offensive mind, and they got one.

While it was somewhat surprising to see the Seahawks move on from Pete Carroll, replacing him with one of the best defensive minds in the NFL today was a great move. Macdonald made the Ravens a top three defense in football a season ago, and will carry Seattle into this new era.

We all made jokes about the Gannon hire a year ago. Some of us even said he’d be a one-and-done head coach (whoops). It turns out that Gannon had his team playing as hard as any around the league for 18 weeks. While the record may not have been pretty, this was a team that everyone penciled in to have the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. It’s Year 2, and the defense still has a lot of holes to plug and a lot of young guys playing big roles, but Gannon proved himself as a capable head coach.

The 9-8 season in 2022 and the 9-8 season in 2023 carried polar opposite feelings for the Jaguars. In 2022, they were an underdog team that shocked the league. In 2023, they lost five of their last six games after being 8-3 and the No. 1 seed in the AFC. Now, a lot of that had to do with Trevor Lawrence being held together by whatever Tony Khan uses to keep Darby Allin from falling apart (look up Darby Allin wrestling bump videos if you have a minute to see what I’m talking about). While Pederson deserves a lot of credit for helping resurrect Jacksonville, another nine-win season just won’t cut it.

I wish I could just write “Bo Nix” and move on because that’s basically my thoughts on the Broncos. I don’t want to hear about a “Sean Payton bump” either- he had plenty of seven and eight-win seasons with Drew Brees. Denver is going to be bad, and Payton will still be around, but it’s okay to acknowledge that this isn’t 2009 Sean Payton anymore.

I’m just kind of over the whole Mike McDaniel schtick. Like cool, he vapes and wears Yeezys. So does every college sophom*ore that just slept through their 8:00 AM geology class. The Dolphins were all splash, no swim in 2023. They beat up bad teams and lost to good ones. They lost to the Bills twice, Eagles, Chiefs, and Ravens by a combined score of 177-84. That’s roughly an average score of 35-17. And yeah it’s fun when we look at their roster and say “Wow, look at all the fast guys they have,” but it’s also won them a grand total of zero playoff games.

Harbaugh’s probably a little too low for most people, but he hasn’t coached in the NFL since 2014 and I’m still rolling my eyes at the Greg Roman hire at offensive coordinator. Will the Chargers be a complete disaster like they were with Brandon Staley? I don’t think so, but I don’t expect them to be a powerhouse all of a sudden, either.

The Vikings were taped together like a car out of Mad Max- just sheet metal, hope, and vibes. While I’m not the biggest JJ McCarthy guy in the world, if he’s going to succeed anywhere, it will be Minnesota. An outside zone oriented offense that relies a lot on intermediate throws over the middle of the field will benefit the young quarterback. As will having a great duo of receivers, a great tight end, and a good run game. Being with O’Connell makes life easier, and that’s about as high a compliment as you can give a head coach.

Two teams in particular found out how great a coach Shane Steichen was last season — the Indianapolis Colts and Philadelphia Eagles. The Colts because he got them within a throw of winning the AFC South with Gardner Minshew, and the Eagles because they realized how vital he was to their success in 2022. Now with a (hopefully) healthy Anthony Richardson at quarterback, the Colts are in position to be a team that takes a leap forward in 2024 and gets back to the postseason.

Kevin Stefanski got the Browns to be an 11-win playoff team while having five different quarterbacks take a snap during the season. The only setback I have with the Browns is they got their starting quarterback back from injury and it makes them worse. Stefanski is a terrific coach, but can he overcome a quarterback who hasn’t been good in four years?

Motor City Dan Motor City Dan’d a little too hard in the NFC Championship Game this past season. While I admire the commitment to the bit, he tried to bite one kneecap too many and it cost the Lions a trip to the Super Bowl. However though, we’re talking about the Detroit Lions being a few plays away from playing in the Super Bowl. That alone puts Dan Campbell high on this list. The steady progression from lovable bad team to serious NFC powerhouse in the matter of three seasons just goes to show how well Campbell has done with this team, and they aren’t going away anytime soon.

Most of the admiration in Cincinnati goes to Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase, but you don’t get to consecutive AFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl with mediocre coaching. Zac Taylor doesn’t get nearly enough credit for turning the Bengals into one of the best teams in the NFL, and making the offense one of the most feared in today’s game. Expect a few more wrinkles thrown into the offense as well. We saw Joe Burrow go under center a little bit more last season before getting injured, which can open up the run game and play action pass attack for Cincinnati. With a fully healthy squad, they will continue to be one of the teams in the Super Bowl bubble in the AFC.

John Harbaugh has consistently had the Ravens in or around the playoff picture for the better part of 16 years. But similar to McDermott, he is in that group of guys where getting into the playoffs isn’t enough. The Ravens’ two biggest playoff games in the Lamar Jackson era came against the Chiefs this past season and against the Buffalo Bills in the 2020 divisional round- they scored a combined 13 points in those games. That isn’t going to cut it. He’s a great coach, but if he doesn’t get the Ravens back to the Super Bowl soon, they may find someone who can.

Matt LaFleur started his career with three straight 13-win seasons, and everyone said it was because of Aaron Rodgers. In 2023, Jordan Love had a breakout year while having the second most touchdown passes in the league, the Packers made the playoffs, and embarrassed the Cowboys in Dallas in the wildcard round. Green Bay has made it to the divisional round in four of the last five seasons, and they’ve appeared in two NFC Championship games in that span, as well. LaFleur has solidified himself as one of the elite coaches and play-callers in the NFL today, and it’s about time he got his flowers.