Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott has certainly had a good start by team standards to his head coaching career. Nationally, McDermott should be in top-coaching consideration, too. But according to CBS Sports, he’s not just yet.
The outlet has released their top-10s across the NFL over the recent weeks and got to their coaching list. McDermott was left off.
Here’s their top-10 coaches:
Top 10 coaches in the NFL
(According to @seanjwagner)1. Bill Belichick
2. Andy Reid
3. John Harbaugh
4. Sean Payton
5. Kyle Shanahan
6. Sean McVay
7. Mike Tomlin
8. Pete Carroll
9. Doug Pederson
10. Mike Zimmer pic.twitter.com/JVVuns5Oj8— CBS Sports HQ (@CBSSportsHQ) June 29, 2020
It’s far too soon to push McDermott into the top-five of such a ranking. He’s still a very young guy in terms of head coaches. Putting him near the likes of Bill Belichick or Andy Reid would be questionabl. But in three short seasons, McDermott’s had enough successes to squeak onto such a list.
Yes, in 2018, the Bills had a bit of a stinker of a season. But that year was one the Bills were forced into playing not two, not three, but four quarterbacks throughout the year. Ask any of these 10 coaches, yes, even Belichick, if he’s going to do any better than 6-10 with his fourth-string QB.
In fact, that’s pretty damn impressive.
The other two seasons saw McDermott and the Bills crack the playoffs. Both were sort of “first” years. In 2017, the true first season for McDermott at the helm. He was pulling the strings on a ragtag roster that he and general manager Brandon Beane stripped of talent in order to refresh their salary cap situation. Instead, a playoff berth.
Then in 2019, it was kind of the first of McDermott and Beane’s true vision. That salary cap makeover was done, and now the club brought in a bunch of new faces, namely along the trenches. No easy task to bring a no-chemistry built team to the playoffs twice in two years, but it happened.
And let’s not forget the Bills defense. A Rex Ryan-led unit that couldn’t stop the run in 2016 was revamped in the blink of an eye in 2017, starting with what might be the best secondary in the entire league.
CBS Sports’ top-10 has some respectable names, but there’s some that could be bumped off for McDermott. Kyle Shanahan just made it to the Super Bowl, sure, but he’s a below .500 head coach (23-25). Even McDermott’s above that (25-23).
Others such as Pete Carroll and Sean Payton are also guys who’ve done this gig for many years long than McDermott. But it’d be interesting to see them do it without Super Bowl winning quarterbacks in their backfields.
The upcoming 2020 season for the Bills could go a long way for McDermott in terms of national respect if the team comes away with another successful year.
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