When the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills face off in Week 6, there will be plenty of stories dominating the headlines. Both teams have the same record in the AFC conference, they’ve got two of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL. For the two head coaches involved, it’s a chance to one-up an old friend.
Bills HC Sean McDermott is an Andy Reid disciple, coming up through the Philadelphia Eagles organization. His first job title in the NFL was, “Assistant to the Head Coach.” That coach, of course, was Reid. McDermott would eventually advance through the coaching ranks, working defensive quality control, secondary, cornerbacks, and linebackers coaching jobs before landing the job as defensive coordinator in 2009. He’d eventually fill the same role with the Carolina Panthers before landing as the head coach of the Bills in 2017.
McDermott and Reid will face off for the second time since Reid has been in Kansas City. McDermott got the first game in the series with his Bills notching a 16-10 win over the Chiefs in 2017. McDermott has a pretty good idea of what to expect from his mentor’s approach to this upcoming game.
“I’m sure he wants to kick my butt and we’re going to want to do the same,” McDermott told reporters on Wednesday. “I mean that’s the one thing I know about Andy, the offseason is the offseason and in-season is the in-season. So when we play each other we go hard at each other and then before and after the game we’re friends. I think we have a mutual respect for each other and a good friendship.”
That mutual respect was ever apparent as Reid commented on McDermott on Thursday. It also seems that McDermott was spot on about Reid’s approach to the upcoming game. Once the kickoff happens, they’ll be opponents.
“I would tell you that I’m proud of those guys and the job they do,” Reid said. “I mean, Sean is tremendous. He’s got a couple of guys on his staff who were with us too in Philadelphia. I think he’s done a great job out there. I’m proud of him and the job that he’s done. . . . It’s different, once the kickoff happens you’re into play mode. You don’t think too much of it at that particular time.”
McDermott continued to talk about Reid and the current Chiefs’ team. He knows how they’ve built a championship team in Kansas City. He even modeled his vision for the Bills franchise in a similar fashion.
“You know I learned a lot from Andy and we could talk for hours about what I learned from Andy,” McDermott said. “I mean he’s probably, professionally my biggest mentor in the business. I think the biggest thing I learned from Andy is just— when he got the job in Philadelphia he had a plan and a vision. A lot of people have a vision for where they want to go but the day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month plan to accomplish that vision, I think, was probably the biggest thing [that I learned from Reid]. And how to execute that and adjust as need be.”
Ultimately, McDermott knows that Buffalo stands in the way of the Chiefs getting back to the Super Bowl. Similarly, if he wants the Bills to be taken seriously as a contender, knocking off his old mentor and the reigning Super Bowl champions is the best way to do it. It should make for a competitive and dramatic showdown in the early evening on Monday.
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