We’re belaboring it at this point, but that doesn’t diminish its importance.
Sean McDermott’s defense was a problem in the playoffs and some part (small or large) of why the Bills did not reach a Super Bowl in any of the last six seasons despite otherwise massive success.
After the 2026 NFL Draft, Ty Dunne at Go Long TD, wrote a vintage in-depth piece examining at the state of the Bills that included some new nuggets on how the Bills and, maybe just as critically, opposing teams viewed McDermott defenses over the past few seasons, in the most crucial moments.
Here’s the (paywalled) link to Dunne’s piece, and if you aren’t subscribing to GoLongTD.com already, you need to be. Yesterday.
This quote first jumped off the page from Dunne’s piece, on the Bills’ in-house perspective:
They believe McDermott was the problem even more than anyone thinks. Specifically, in this case, his ability to coach defensive football. Agree. Disagree. For nearly a decade, a defensive coach was supplied resources on the defensive side of the ball and owner Terry Pegula expected more in the games that matter most.
Just a few lines later, Dunne wrote: “…they identified the overall philosophy of the defense as the true infection. Stagnation. Predictability. Bend-don’t-break logic that works vs. Geno Smith and Tua Tagovailoa but never in the postseason.”
You’ve read this many times before, but Dunne again referenced the staggering 3.83 points per drive Buffalo allowed in its last six playoff losses, and reminded everyone it’s a higher figure than offense of the vaunted 2007 Patriots.
But the assessment of McDermott’s defensive failures were not solely conclusions drawn from internal self-examinations. Also from Dunne’s piece:
As nine interviews for the HC vacancy raged on, Pegula was likely thinking that he made the right choice. Through those conversations, the Bills learned a lot about themselves. One enlightening tidbit of information? Around the NFL, offenses viewed their defense as elementary by modern standards. Pre-snap, candidates said they knew what McDermott was trying to do and effectively audibled into the correct play.Architectural design, gameplanning and playcalling were re-confirmed as major problems.
Those are some damning revelations, from outside sources, and the Bills got direct knowledge during their head-coach hiring process.
Dunne also astutely described the vast difference in clutch-situation philosophy between Steve Spagnuolo’s all-out pressure package on 4th down on Buffalo’s final drive in the 2024 AFC Championship Game compared to a bevy of conservatively-leaning coaching mishaps from McDermott (and former defensive coordinator Bobby Babich) in the most recent divisional-round defeat in Denver.
Frankly, defensive problems started even before that, in the regular season, even as the Bills were one of the NFL’ steadiest teams during the McDermott era.
Not even counting the playoffs, since the the start of the 2023 season, the Bills played 19 games against the following quarterbacks in the regular season: Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Matthew Stafford, Lamar Jackson, Drake Maye (2x, only counting ‘25), Jared Goff, Trevor Lawrence, Dak Prescott, Baker Mayfield, Jalen Hurts, and C.J. Stroud.
Their combined statistics in those games were as follows:
Those figures, adjusted to 17 games (full season), would look like this:
Those statistics are almost identical to Jordan Love’s breakout season — and first year as the Packers’ full-time starter — in 2023 and very similar to Bo Nix’s 2025 campaign across the board.
Collectively, the 11 high-end quarterbacks used in my quick research here averaged a passer rating of 99.4 over the past three seasons. Strictly from a passer rating perspective, the Sean McDermott defenses caused an ever-so slight dip in the average production of that quarterback group in games against Buffalo from 2023 – 2025 in the regular season.
You can decide for yourself if that minor dip was good enough in the regular season for a team that was (and still is) desperately striving for a No. 1-seed in the AFC postseason and failed to achieve that goal during McDermott’s tenure. Me, personally? I don’t think it was, especially for a defensive-minded head coach on a team that was regularly one of the most expensive defenses in football as part of a team that has spent the least draft capital on offense of any NFL team since 2020. Point is, no one can point to a lack of resources or investment as a way to… defend McDermott’s defenses against top-tier quarterbacks and particularly, when it mattered most and fell the most flat, in the playoffs.
Dunne’s piece is chock full of fantastic nuggets, sourced anecdotes, and smart insights regarding the 2020-2025 Bills and how the new era of the franchise plans to be different. Because we all can agree — things need to be different in January.