The Eagles have the best record in the league, as they did last year. They are defending NFC Champions and have as good a chance as anyone in the NFC to repeat. This is a team built to win now that is winning now.
The Bills are built to win now even more than the Eagles are, they have more players 30 or older than the Eagles. Last season they won 13 games and their third straight AFC East title, and fourth straight double digit win season. They are currently not a playoff team.
Things can change fast in the NFL. The Houston Texans are having a better season than the Bills. The pressure is on Sean McDermott. He’s responding the only way he seems to know: blame others.
Love What Sean McDermott Is Building Up There In Buffalo
After Sean McDermott’s first season as Bills head coach, the one where he benched Tyrod Taylor only to bring him back at halftime after Nathan Peterman threw five interceptions, one of the worst QB decisions in ages, McDermott fired his offensive coordinator, Rick Dennison. He hired Brian Daboll to replace him, and that worked out.
In his second season the Bills lost 47-3 in the season opener and then were down 28-6 at the half in Week 2. McDermott took over play calling for the defense from defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier at the break, and the Bills gave up just 3 points in the second half. The next week with a shared responsibility with Frazier, they gave up just 6 points. The rest of the season had more blowout losses, but the short term solution worked.
This offseason Lezlie Frasier left the team to take a year off from coaching, and McDermott took over play calling. Two weeks ago the Bills had too many men on the field against the Broncos and gifted the Broncos another game winning field goal attempt. McDermott fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and replaced him with former future head coach Joe Brady (remember him?). The Bills won last week by blowing out the Jets, who just got blown out again yesterday. In the short term, the change worked. And maybe it continues to “work” on Sunday against the Eagles, Josh Allen is capable of being any team by himself, even if sometimes that team is the Bills.
But where does McDermott go from here if it doesn’t? The Bills are an old team. Their cap situation next year is pretty poor, they have the 3rd worst effective cap space for 2024 according to OverTheCap. They’ll be able to get out of that hole by restructuring Josh Allen and maybe Stefon Diggs, but they’re not going to be able to make significant additions without making significant subtractions. They can run this core back for 2024 but if they aren’t successful they’ll have to blow it up. Starting with McDermott, who has no one left to blame.
