After another season ending in playoff heartbreak, the Buffalo Bills are making a change.
Head coach Sean McDermott was fired on Monday, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported and the team later confirmed.
“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 added that general manager Brandon Beane has been promoted to president of football operations/general manager, where he will oversee “all facets of our football operation, including the oversight of our coaching staff,” Pegula said.
McDermott, 51, went 98-50 with eight postseason trips in his nine seasons as the Bills’ coach. Each and every year, though, Buffalo went home before the Super Bowl in what was usually devastating fashion.
There were four losses to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, including one in overtime and three by one possession. There was a lifeless home loss to Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals in 2023. And the cherry on top was Sunday in Denver, where the Bills fell 33-30 to the Broncos in overtime.
For the Bills, it was simply time to shake things up. Former league MVP Josh Allen will turn 30 in May, and the roster around him has to improve for Buffalo to compete. By the end of this season, some of his top receivers included veteran castoffs like Brandin Cooks, Mecole Hardman and Curtis Samuel.
Under McDermott, Buffalo did transform from a forgotten franchise to regular AFC contender. His first season in 2017 snapped the Bills’ 18-year playoff drought, and they were a regular fixture in January over the next nine years. McDermott led the Bills to five AFC East division titles from 2020 to 2024 before that streak was snapped by the New England Patriots in 2025.
The Bills will now move forward as the 10th team needing a new head coach for 2026. The New York Giants (John Harbaugh) and Atlanta Falcons (Kevin Stefanski) have already hired their new leaders, leaving eight teams (including the Bills) still with vacant positions.
The Bills job immediately vaults to the top of the list of job openings, given their recent history and Josh Allen’s long-term presence. With other teams already having a head start on the interview process, we’ll see what candidates Buffalo brings in over the coming days and weeks.
