Sean McDermott

Sean Michael McDermott (born March 21, 1974) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL).

McDermott first attended North Penn High School before transferring to La Salle College High School, where he was named All-Southeastern Pennsylvania at defensive back in 1992 and graduated in 1993.

He was also a national prep champion wrestler in 1992 and 1993.

He also received Academic all-conference honors in 1996 and 1997 and NSCA Strength and Conditioning All-America accolades.

He received a bachelor's degree in finance while at the College of William and Mary, where he was an all-conference safety (1997).

He was teammates with future Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, who was a wide receiver and faced McDermott frequently.

In his first season, he led the Bills to their first playoff appearance since 1999, ending the longest active postseason drought in the four major North American sports.

McDermott originally joined the Philadelphia Eagles in 1999 as a scouting administrative coordinator, a position he held until being promoted to Andy Reid's coaching staff in 2001.

He became defensive quality control coach and later assistant defensive backs coach.

McDermott was reunited with new Panthers head coach Ron Rivera, a former Eagles assistant whom McDermott served alongside from 1999 to 2003.

McDermott's head coaching tenure in Buffalo has seen improved fortunes for the franchise, which had been mostly unsuccessful during the 2000s and 2010s.

He began his NFL coaching career as an assistant for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2001, serving as defensive coordinator from 2009 to 2010, and was later the defensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers from 2011 to 2016.

In 2003, he replaced Steve Spagnuolo as defensive backs coach, as Spagnuolo was assigned linebackers coach.

In 2004, McDermott saw both of his starting safeties (Brian Dawkins and Michael Lewis) earn Pro Bowl berths for the first time in team history.

McDermott and the Eagles appeared in Super Bowl XXXIX that season but lost to the New England Patriots, who won their second straight Super Bowl title.

Under McDermott's watch, Dawkins went on to earn two more Pro Bowl berths following the 2005 and 2006 seasons.

In 2007, McDermott was assigned linebackers coach, after Spagnuolo had left to take the defensive coordinator job for the New York Giants.

On January 28, 2008, Eagles head coach Andy Reid named McDermott as the secondary coach again.

On May 18, 2009, McDermott was named the interim defensive coordinator as a result of defensive coordinator Jim Johnson's medical leave of absence.

On July 24, of that same year, due to the continuing decline of Johnson, the Eagles announced McDermott would take over as full-time defensive coordinator.

Johnson died four days later.

Thanks in part to what he learned under Johnson, McDermott would go on to implement a variety of blitzes in his later defensive gameplans.

McDermott was fired as the defensive coordinator on January 15, 2011, after 12 years with the Eagles.

McDermott was hired as the defensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers on January 17, 2011.

As the Panthers' defensive coordinator, McDermott led the team to finishes in the top ten in overall defense from 2012 to 2015.

McDermott was Pro Football Focus's second runner up to their Defensive Coordinator of the Year award in 2015.

In the 2015 season, McDermott and the Panthers reached Super Bowl 50, which was played on February 7, 2016.

His defense only gave up one offensive touchdown in the game, but the Panthers fell to the Denver Broncos by a score of 24–10.

Following his six seasons with the Panthers, which included a Super Bowl appearance in Super Bowl 50, he was hired in 2017 as the Bills head coach and assumed defensive coordinator duties in 2023.

On January 11, 2017, McDermott was hired by the Buffalo Bills as the 19th head coach in franchise history.

On September 10, 2017, McDermott won his NFL head coaching debut in the season opening 21–12 victory over the New York Jets, becoming just the third Bills head coach to win his first game with the team after Marv Levy and Rex Ryan.

Just after a Week 2 loss to the Carolina Panthers, also McDermott's first return to Charlotte since leaving the Panthers organization, McDermott would lead the Bills to 4 wins in the next 5 games, including a win against the reigning NFC champion Atlanta Falcons.

However, they lost the next two games, including a 47–10 loss to the New Orleans Saints, which prompted him to make the controversial decision to bench starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor in favor of rookie backup Nathan Peterman.

Peterman played poorly against the Los Angeles Chargers in his first career start, throwing 5 interceptions in the first half.

He was benched for Taylor during the second half of the 54–24 loss, which dropped the Bills to 5–5.

Despite the string of losses, the Bills then went on a 4–2 run to finish the season at 9–7, clinching the AFC's 6th seed and their first playoff appearance in 18 years, thus ending both the NFL's and the North American professional sports franchise's longest active playoff droughts during McDermott's first year as head coach.

The Bills would go on to lose to the Jacksonville Jaguars 10–3 in the AFC wild card game.

In 2020, the Bills won a playoff game for the first time since 1995 en route to their first AFC Championship Game appearance since 1993.

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, McDermott grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs.

His family lived in West Chester and Paoli before settling in Lansdale when McDermott was in second grade.