Sean McDermott: ‘What’s left is to go win a world championship’

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — On the doorstep of the Super Bowl for the better part of a decade, the brain trust of the Bills still believe in their process on the path of glory.

“You keep doing the right thing, eventually that door will open,” coach Sean McDermott said Thursday in assessing Buffalo’s season after losing in the AFC championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

With a 68-27 record since 2020 including postseason games, the Bills have put together the winningest five-year run of any NFL team that has not reached a Super Bowl. Champions of the AFC East division in each season, a five-peat that Buffalo’s Super Bowl teams from the 1990s didn’t accomplish, the Bills have lost three times in the divisional playoff round and twice in the AFC title game. Four of those defeats have come against the dynastic Chiefs, who are trying to win their fourth Super Bowl in six years.

“You don’t want to lose sight of the success we have experienced, knowing that we won some big games,” McDermott said. “No one in this building, myself included, is comfortable or content with where we’re at. What’s left is to go win a world championship, which is a lofty goal, but one that we pursue relentlessly.”

What the Bills have been able to achieve since ending their 17-year playoff drought in McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane’s first year on the job in 2017, “a lot of people would sign up for that,” the GM said.

“I’ve heard it told to me by multiple people that have been in this league longer than I have, keep kicking the door,” Beane said. “Keep kicking the door and you’re going to knock it down. And that is my mentality. That is our mentality. We are not giving in. We’re frustrated. We want to win. And all that’s doing is making our chip bigger.”

In the face of criticism that McDermott and star quarterback Josh Allen have been unable to get over the hump in the biggest games, Beane said “it’s unfair to pin that on one person.”

“There’s always going to be noise if you don’t hold the trophy up,” Beane said.

Calling back to Buffalo’s 27-25 win against Baltimore in the divisional playoff round that was decided by a few pivotal plays, “if you don’t win the game, they’re going to say they out-executed you and out-coached you,” Beane said. “But no one said last week, because we won by two points, no one was saying we go out-anythinged.”

“If you come up short like we did and like we have, that’s what people are going to say,” Beane added. “Can you guys win the big one? We just have to keep kicking the door down.”

Allen said he was “so proud” of McDermott’s growth on the job in his season-ending remarks Monday. The quarterback also proclaimed he was “extremely confident” the Bills have the right coach in place to lead them to the Super Bowl.

“Time in and time out, he’s got us in position,” Allen said. “Obviously, we’re fighting to get over that hump. He gives his life to this. I will tell you that he’s so committed to doing whatever it takes. And to see him adapt and really grow as a coach has been fun to watch.”

McDermott drew a comparison to his mentor Andy Reid, who lost five conference title games and a Super Bowl coaching the Philadelphia Eagles and Chiefs prior to winning his first championship.

“I worked for a guy who went through something similar years ago,” said McDermott, an Eagles assistant under Reid from 2001-10. “So I’ve just learned that firsthand that you got to keep doing, because if you don’t do things the right way, you’ll fall and you won’t be ever heard from again.”

McDermott expects the Bills will be heard from year in and year out.

“One of the things we’ve been able to do, I feel like, is sustain success, which is very difficult to do,” he said. “There’s a lot of teams that get to the AFC championship game let’s say, but they’re never to be heard from again. And I don’t know what the narrative is around those teams. You probably can’t say they come up short because they’re never there again.

“So I’d rather be in the position we’re in,” McDermott concluded, “where we’re continually knocking on the door.”