Bills trusting they have winning duo with head coach, GM extensions

The Buffalo Bills are trusting their process and committing to head coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane through the 2027 NFL season.

The team announced matching contract extensions for the duo on Friday morning, trusting that they will be the people to bring a championship to Buffalo. 

The McDermott-Beane duo has produced one of the most successful eras in Bills franchise history. Ever since they took over at the start of the 2017 season the Bills have been built into a legitimate Super Bowl contender in the AFC, making the playoffs in five of their six seasons together. The 2017 team — their first year in charge — ended what had been a 17-year playoff drought.

When they reached the AFC Championship game in 2020 they were able to snap what had been a 20-year run without a playoff win. 

So that is the good news. 

The concerns are whether or not McDermott and Beane — and perhaps most specifically McDermott — can help get the Bills over the hump and back to the Super Bowl. 

The Bills have reached a point now where simply making the playoffs is no longer acceptable. They have done that, and they have done it for a while. They have to win there, and that has been a challenge. The Bills are just 4-5 in the playoffs over the duration of the McDermott-Beane tenure, reaching just a single AFC Championship Game. 

The 2022 team, which looked to be the Bills’ best chance to win a Super Bowl, ended up struggling at home against a Miami team playing a third-string quarterback, and then getting dominated at home one week later in a bitterly disappointing loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. 

As good as the Bills’ record has been the past few years there are some legitimate questions as to whether or not this duo can get them to where they want to be. McDermott’s in-game decision-making has been criticized harshly in Buffalo, and his decision to kick deep against Kansas City late in the 2021 Divisional Round played a huge role in the Chiefs’ win. 

The roster also has a surprising number of question marks for a team that is considered a Super Bowl contender. A lot of their success seems to be built on the fact that Josh Allen is an incredible talent at quarterback and can mask a lot of flaws (until his own flaws creep into games). The extensions keep continuity in Buffalo and give the two men in charge a big vote of confidence, but it also only further increases the expectations they have been falling short of.