The Buffalo Bills seemingly did not take player opinion into account too much when deciding to fire head coach Sean McDermott.
The Bills fired McDermott on Monday, two days after the team lost in heartbreaking fashion to the Denver Broncos in the AFC Divisional round. The decision came as a shock to many, as McDermott had been consistently successful in his nine seasons with the organization.
Among those shocked was defensive tackle Jordan Phillips. He reposted a graphic about McDermott’s firing on Instagram and bashed the team for what he saw as a short-sighted decision.
“This s–t here is so stupid honestly sickening,” Phillips wrote. “The best coach I’ve ever been around.”
If Phillips’ opinion is shared by others in the locker room, the Bills may have made a significant mistake here. There was no evidence that McDermott had lost the locker room, and his dismissal appears to have been motivated by the team’s inability to get over the hump in the playoffs.
It is not yet clear who the Bills might target to replace McDermott. The most accomplished candidates on the market already went elsewhere, which takes several options off the board. This is a quality job that many candidates would want a look at, but the Bills are joining the process well after most other teams have done the majroity of the legwork in finding a new coach.
McDermott went 98-50 in his nine seasons as Buffalo’s head coach. He went just 8-8 in the playoffs, however, and never got past the AFC Championship game. That does not matter to some Buffalo players, who clearly liked their coach and might not be very happy with the franchise’s decision to let him go.
