Report: Buffalo Bills fire head coach Sean McDermott

The Buffalo Bills have fired head coach Sean McDermott, per The Athletic‘s Diana Russini. This comes following their divisional round loss to the Denver Broncos.

Sean McDermott had been the Bills’ head coach since 2017. That nine-year tenure saw McDermott take Buffalo to the playoffs eight times, winning the AFC East five times in a row, from 2020 to 2024. However, the Bills were also never able to make it to the Super Bowl during that time and in the 2025 season, the New England Patriots would win the AFC East. That came at a time when the team was looking for a way to get over the proverbial hump.

2018 was the rookie season for franchise quarterback Josh Allen and the second for Sean McDermott. Together, the pair had developed one of the most consistently successful teams in the entire NFL. However, without that ultimate success in the postseason, the Bills are now turning to a new coach to lead the team into the future.

In the end, McDermott will finish his tenure in Buffalo with a 98-50 record overall. He also went 8-8 in the playoffs.

The Buffalo Bills have also reportedly made the decision to retain general manager Brandon Beane. He has been with the Bills since 2017, the same tenure that Sean McDermott has been there. With salary cap issues, there had been some thought that he could be on the move too. That’s not the case, though, and he’ll now lead their next coaching search.

A Pennsylvania native who would go on to attend William & Mary, where he played on the football team, McDermott began coaching for the Tribe in 1998. There, he was a graduate assistant. In 2001, he made the jump to the NFL, coaching for the Philadelphia Eagles under Andy Reid. There, he’d work his way up in several different roles, particularly on the defensive side of the football. By 2009, he’d become the team’s defensive coordinator.

In 2011, McDermott joined the Carolina Panthers staff as a defensive coordinator under Ron Rivera. He’d hold that job until the end of the 2016 season. That was when he landed in Buffalo with the Bills.

There are several head coaching positions currently open around the NFL. Sean McDermott will now have the opportunity to interview for those positions if he chooses to immediately jump back into coaching. He will likely also be looked at as a possible defensive coordinator for teams making a change there. Meanwhile, the Bills now begin their search for their next head coach.