McDermott in Buffalo feels like Dungy in TB: did a great job in making them a perennial contender, but seems unable to get them over the hump. Like with the Bucs, it feels like it will take a new coach to get them there.
Very good analogy. This franchise absolutely needed a culture change when McDermott arrived in 2017, replacing the likes of Rex Ryan, Chan Gailey, and **** Jauron. And he provided one! McDermott absolutely changed the locker room and the entire mood of the team, and you could see the results on the field almost immediately. But there's just something about him -- I don't pretend to know what -- that causes this team to vapor lock when we're in high-stakes situations.
No offense to any of the other teams here, but we should have blown out an injury-riddled Pittsburgh team last week. We should have blown out a Skyler Thompson-led Miami team last year. Instead, we struggled to put Pittsburgh away and nearly lost to Miami. We nearly lost to a Colts team that was led by a 58 year-old Philip Rivers. At some point, those skin-of-your-teeth escapes against inferior opposition are no longer outliers and become a pattern. Toss in the inability to defeat an actual peer in
any playoff game (by my count they are 0-4 against the Chiefs and Bengals) and I'm ready to see what somebody else can do with this roster.
Sure, they have cap issues, but so do lots of teams, and those are temporary. The Bills have one of the 2-3 best QBs in the league and good (not great) talent across the entire offense. This isn't like the drought years when people would turn down interview invitations. We'd have candidates lined up out the door if McDermott was out of the picture.