The Bills tomorrow will introduce Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott as the team's "20th head coach," according to a front-page piece by Vic Carucci of the BUFFALO NEWS. Bills GM Doug Whaley led the team's "latest coaching search," but it was Owners Terry and Kim Pegula who were the "most enamored with McDermott when they first met with him over dinner on their yacht last week in Boca Raton." McDermott and Whaley are "expected to collaborate on the selection of the 53-man roster, something Whaley had overseen on his own since becoming GM" in '13 (BUFFALO NEWS, 1/12). In Rochester, Sal Maiorana notes McDermott was back in Florida yesterday for a "second round of discussions." That meeting "focused on determining McDermott’s responsibilities and to answer his own questions about the Bills’ front office structure" (ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE, 1/12).
BEEN HERE BEFORE: In Buffalo, Jerry Sullivan notes McDermott will be the 10th Bills head coach -- counting interim coaches Perry Fewell and Anthony Lynn -- "since Marv Levy retired" in '97. Sullivan: "When you've been through it so many times, there's a creeping skepticism, a wariness that comes from seeing a string of coaches show up at One Bills Drive, full of optimism and football know-how, only to be worn down by the dysfunction." McDermott will "need some luck, and the patience of the Pegulas." McDermott will likely want "control of the 53-man roster, which is typically the province of the GM." However, with Whaley a "weakened figure" now on his third head coaching hire, "any established coaching candidate would have demanded full control" (BUFFALO NEWS, 1/12). Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio said, “I still wonder why a guy with options would want to take that job without pretty clear assurances that it's not going to be a complete and total mess." Florio: "If I'm McDermott ... I want to know who I answer to, I want to know who I have to worry about, I want to know how these personalities fit together. I'm not taking this job without a clear understanding of what I have to deal with when I'm not coaching the team" ("PFT," NBCSN, 1/12).
TO TRUST OR NOT TO TRUST: THE MMQB's Albert Breer writes McDermott's hire is a "good sign on the Pegulas." The fact that the Bills are giving McDermott a shot "reflects well on the Pegulas, who didn't go with the most comfortable thing after all." Whaley was "widely believed to have favored" Lynn early in the interview process because it "would’ve made the delineation of control clear." Breer: "Credit the Pegulas for not defaulting to that" (MMQB.SI.com, 1/12). In Buffalo, Bucky Gleason writes when on the Pegulas that they "can’t be trusted to make sound decisions, so there’s little reason to believe they made the right call now." Gleason: "With all apologies to McDermott, the hierarchy doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt on any decision. ... Here’s hoping McDermott can wrestle power away from Whaley and push him one step closer to the door" (BUFFALO NEWS, 1/12).
