5 NFL head coaches who experience a glow up in 2020

After the 2020 season, we’ll look at Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott differently. In case you weren’t paying attention, the former Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator has quietly turned the Bills into a perennial playoff team. They’ve made the field two of the last three years. Before McDermott arrived in Orchard Park, 1999 was the last time the Bills made the postseason.

It’s not sexy, but it works. McDermott’s team wins with defense and discipline. He also has a great staff backing him up in offensive coordinator Brian Daboll and defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, as well as his former Carolina buddy Brandon Beane as his general manager. At this time, Buffalo feels like the third-best team in the AFC after the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs.

There is a pantheon of half-a-dozen head coaches or so who are the class of the NFL right now. Bill Belichick and Andy Reid are at the top, with guys like Pete Carroll, John Harbaugh and Sean Payton just a rung below them. All five of them have won Super Bowls. While McDermott won’t win one this year, Buffalo has an outside of playing in an AFC Championship game this season.

When you do your job consistently well, extensive preparation will turn into fortuitous situations. Maybe the Bills catch a lucky break or two this fall and play in a conference title bout? For now, they are the favorites to win the AFC East for the first time since Marv Levy was the head coach and Jim Kelly was their quarterback. McDermott becomes one of the NFL’s best coaches this year.