Bills need to make these 3 moves next after firing Sean McDermott to save Josh Allen

The Buffalo Bills fell short, 33-30, in a brutal overtime loss to the Denver Broncos in the AFC Divisional Round. Once again, Josh Allen was given the football with a chance to play the hero on a postseason stage — and he couldn't get the job done. It was an uneven effort all around for Allen, who threw two interceptions and lost two of three fumbles. He still put up numbers, but it was yet another blown opportunity for Buffalo. This time, they can't blame Patrick Mahomes.

Thus it should come as no surprise, really, that head coach Sean McDermott is officially out of a job on Monday morning. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport broke the news. Buffalo now joins the long list of teams looking for new captains in 2026.

Sean McDermott will probably work again soon

McDermott spent nine largely celebrated years in Buffalo. He has an impressive career record of 98-50 in the regular season, with only one sub-.500 campaign. McDermott is, in many ways, responsible for shepherding the development of Josh Allen, elevating him from a fun project QB to the single most dominant force in football.

That said, McDermott finishes his Buffalo career 8-8 in the playoffs, without a single trip to the Super Bowl. It's hard to scale the mountaintop. There are factors well beyond McDermott's control that have contributed to these shortcomings and disappointments. But, at the end of the day, when Allen is your quarterback, expectations are heightened. This was, evidently, a Super Bowl or bust season for the 51-year-old playcaller.

McDermott has a ton of respect around the league and he offers a high competitive floor, so it's tough to imagine him staying out of work for long. This is a competitive coaching cycle — mainly because a third of the league's coaches were just fired — but expect McDermott to pick up interviews in the coming days, assuming he wants to coach.

As for Buffalo, here are the ideal next steps:

Buffalo needs to fire GM Brandon Beane

Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott have been joined at the hip during their respective tenures in Buffalo, so this is a notable parting of the ways. Beane essentially has the same résumé as McDermott at this point. Nine seasons, eight playoff appearances, a lot of winning, but not so much success in mid-to-late January.

So why exactly did Beane keep his job, but not McDermott? From the outsider's perspective, it feels backward. Coaches are the easiest scapegoats for on-field failure, and oftentimes it's the GM passing down that decision — or at least pitching it to ownership.

That said, the majority of Buffalo's issues this season stem from failures of personnel, not failures of scheme. That's not to say McDermott pitched a perfect game against Denver on Sunday, or that he has never made questionable decisions in the heat of the moment. You can even argue that firing McDermott was a correct, necessary shock to the system. But keeping Beane around undermines it entirely.

Beane has effectively let the roster crumble around Josh Allen. How often has the discourse this season boiled down to "does Josh Allen have enough help?" The answer: quite often!

Buffalo refused to pay Stefon Diggs and, by extension, left Allen — the best QB in the NFL — with a WR room of Khalil Shakir, Brandin Cooks and Keon Coleman. The former led Buffalo this season with 719 receiving yards. That just is not enough support. So much of Buffalo's offensive success has equated to a) can James Cook and Josh Allen stampede the opposing defense or b) can Josh Allen manifest explosive plays out of thin air despite a deeply unreliable group of pass-catchers. Neither pathway was Super Bowl-level sustainable.

Buffalo has won on pure talent and, frankly, good coaching a lot this season in particular. But the absence of a dependable receiving corps, compounded by Buffalo's atrocious run defense, makes it hard to really pin the blame on McDermott. Beane signed an extension through 2027 and he's going to stick around to lead this coaching search, per Tom Pelissero. But Buffalo is making a mistake.

Buffalo needs to address its run defense in the NFL Draft

The Bills need to beef up the wide receiver room, no doubt, but we've seen the Bills invest premium draft capital on offense. The real area of weakness for this team is defense, primarily when it comes to stuffing the run. Buffalo's defense allowed .09 EPA (estimated points added) per play against the run in 2025. Equipped with the 26th overall pick in the upcoming NFL Draft, this is the time for Buffalo to add a new defensive cornerstone.

FanSided's Cody Williams has Buffalo doing just that, selecting Clemson edge rusher T.J. Parker in his latest mock draft:

"The Bills might fall backward into exactly what they need if they're able to snipe someone like T.J. Parker at the back end of the first round. Buffalo's defense has been an issue for them this season, more so against the run than the pass, but overall still lacking. Parker is someone who could help in both departments. He's been one of the better edge rushers in college football in run defense for the past couple of years, and has the chops to get after the passer. Buffalo needs more depth on the edge, and Parker looks like a plug-and-play option to assist with that."

There are options beyond Parker, of course — Oklahoma's R Mason Thomas, Illinois' Gabe Jacas and Miami's Akheem Mesidor are all edge rushers floating in the 20s-40s range on PFF's big board. Buffalo has several months now to evaluate all possibilities and come to a front office consensus on which prospects to target at 26. This is, perhaps, one of the upsides to keeping Beane as GM. The Bills can focus on draft prep, rather than on finding somebody to do draft prep.

Bills need to trade for AJ Brown — or at least add a quality receiver

The Bills should focus on defense in the NFL Draft and at the top of the free agent market, too. Trey Hendrickson is a dream signing. The upcoming free agent receivers, by comparison, just don't offer much. Deebo Samuel or Hollywood Brown won't move the needle. That said, if a star wideout becomes available via trade, Buffalo ought to leap at the opportunity.

Everyone has made this connection a dozen times already, but let's check it off the list once more: A.J. Brown in Buffalo would be completely sick. Brown's frustrations with the Philadelphia Eagles' offense boiled over too many times to count in 2025. According to Joseph Santoliquito of Bleeding Green Nation, Brown requested a trade (which was not granted) multiple times throughout the season.

Such is life with Kevin Patullo calling plays.

We should probably wait for the heavyweights of NFL reporting to predict Brown's future, but the Eagles are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Brown clearly regressed this season. You can argue that he wasn't targeted enough (true), but many of Brown's struggles were self-inflicted. He whiffed on catches he has made a thousand times before. Whether it's a true decline or a product of his waning engagement within the Eagles offense, only time will tell.

Despite the concerns over contract and age, Brown is still worth a phone call from Buffalo. He's going to receive a much steadier target diet from Josh Allen than he did from Jalen Hurts and the Eagles' ultra-conservative scheme. When he's at his peak, Brown is on the shortlist of the best receivers in football. Even if that chapter of his career is closed, he stands head-and-shoulder above the current receiver options in Buffalo.

Fix the defense, add A.J. Brown (or another quality vet, if the Brown pipe dream falls through), and hire the right coach (duh). Those are the next steps to build a Super Bowl contender in Buffalo. Speaking of coach:

Bills should hire Mike McDaniel as next head coach

We can yada-yada through the irony of this suggestion. Buffalo has punked Mike McDaniel's Dolphins many a time, and yes, McDaniel has a lot of bad experiences in cold weather stadiums. But put him in the frozen tundra of Upstate New York full-time and he should adjust quickly. Give him a quarterback of Josh Allen's caliber, and man oh man, fun things will happen. That much is a guarantee.

This past season in Miami was a slog for McDaniel, and his firing was understandable — if not entirely justified. The Dolphins finished the campaign remarkably strong. For a team most folks were ready to put the kibosh on in Week 1, Miami stuck around the Wild Card race much longer than expected. McDaniel deserves more credit than he received for rallying the troops and elevating the Dolphins to a baseline of respectability, despite all the locker room turmoil and existential questions about the future.

McDaniel's last couple years in South Beach were ultimately a prolonged bummer, but there was a time when Miami was consistently the most productive, explosive offense in the NFL. And that was with Tua Tagovailoa under center.

With all due respect to Tua Tagovailoa, he is not Josh Allen. And while Buffalo does not have its Tyreek Hill or Jaylen Waddle equivalents at the moment, Hill could be looking for a new team next season. If A.J. Brown is not on the table, just saying: other options will arise. The Bills can hire McDaniel and then focus their energies on building a roster that complements his coaching style.

Really, though, Allen and McDaniel feels like enough combined magic to infuse this Bills locker room with a bit more life, a bit more juice. McDaniel represents a diametric philosophical change compared to McDermott, and it could be the shot in the arm Buffalo is looking for.