WHAT NOW? An extensive look at the Buffalo Bills' 2024 finish & 2025 offseason
Here's how Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott should attack the offseason, from their pursuit of an A-level talent on D to the "character" question to James Cook's contract & everything in-between.
ORCHARD PARK, NY — Marathon press conferences to wrap up the football season in Western New York typically sound the same. Year after year, the men running the Buffalo Bills promise to keep banging at that Super Bowl door. One chief argument, however, is starting to ring hollow. Exactly as he did at the end of the 2023 season, Sean McDermott brought up his old boss at the end of this heartbreaking 2024 season.
It took Andy Reid two decades to win Super Bowl No. 1.
“If you keep doing the right thing, eventually that door will open,” McDermott said. “I worked for a guy that went through something similar years ago and now he’s in the position that he’s in.”
A comforting thought for the generations of locals who’ve survived four Super Bowl losses, a Music City Miracle, a 17-year playoff drought and, now, seven playoff appearances in eight years under this head coach with no Super Bowl appearances. Maybe McDermott’s Bills do break through but it’s also true that Reid only won a Super Bowl after leaving Philadelphia. He was the Eagles boss for 14 years, then the Chiefs boss for seven. McDermott enters Year No. 9 as the Bills boss in 2025 and the list of head coaches in NFL history who’ve won a Super Bowl title this deep into their tenure with the same team is historically short.
Bill Cowher won a Super Bowl in his 14th year with the Pittsburgh Steelers, in 2005.
Tom Landry won it all in his 12th year with the Dallas Cowboys, in 1971.
Hank Stram won it all in his 10th year with the Kansas City Chiefs, in 1969.
That’s all.
The collection of coaches who’ve lasted nine seasons in one place and never won a Super Bowl is much longer and includes names such as Don Coryell in San Diego (nine seasons), Bart Starr in Green Bay (nine), Marty Schottenheimer in Kansas City (10), Bud Grant in Minnesota (18), Jason Garrett in Dallas (10), Wayne Fontes in Detroit (nine), John Robinson with the L.A. Rams (nine), Dennis Green in Minnesota (10), Jim Mora in New Orleans (11), Chuck Knox in Seattle (nine), Marvin Lewis in Cincinnati (16), and, of course, Marv Levy in Buffalo (12).
All coaches in this second bucket enjoyed division titles. Even Super Bowl appearances.
None of the above, however, hoisted the Lombardi Trophy.
Owner Terry Pegula is betting that McDermott can buck history. This could all end in a party on Delaware Avenue because this is a coach armed with a future Hall of Fame quarterback in Josh Allen and a roster talented enough to beat the Chiefs in four straight regular-season games. There’s no questioning McDermott’s burning desire to deliver hardware (as evident in our 1 on 1). He also changed in positive ways this past season as we’ll explore below. Finally, players en masse on this roster are fueled by genuine belief — a credit to their head coach.
Yet, the Bills ultimately fell short. Again. The Chiefs edged Buffalo at Arrowhead Stadium, 32-29, in the AFC Championship Game. Specifically, this defensive head coach’s defense caved. With all due respect to those lewd 13 seconds to cap the ’21 season, we may look back at 2024 as this team’s greatest opportunity lost. Allen was crowned the sport’s most valuable player. The Bills enjoyed exceptional health on the offensive line. Other than right tackle Spencer Brown missing one game, Buffalo’s Week 1 starters lasted all season. Each starter logged 900+ snaps. That’ll be difficult to replicate. The Bills finished with a freakish turnover differential of +28, by far the best in the NFL. Nobody outside of the QB turned it over once. That’ll be extremely difficult to replicate.
Then, there’s all of the split-second moments in the AFC title game itself: KC supplying a gift with its first turnover in an NFL-record 83 drives and a fourth-and-5 prayer fluttering off a tight end’s hands come to mind.
Back from Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, Go Long finally unpacked everything GM Brandon Beane and McDermott had to say about this crushing conclusion at One Bills Drive. There’s a ton to dissect. Another critical offseason awaits. Both sang the same tune in repeating the Bills must keep kicking… and kicking… and kicking. Both cautioned against doing anything drastic. Both cited the team’s ability to win year-in, year-out.
Neither would ignore the disappointment.
Beane promised that nobody had slept much since the Bills’ loss at KC.
“If you don’t win the championship,” Beane said, “if you come up short like we did and like we have, that’s what people are going to say: ‘Can you guys win the big one?’ We just have to keep kicking the door down.”
The fact these Bills were able to reinvent themselves after one crushing Chiefs loss in ‘23 to get to another in ’24 is admirable. Perhaps McDermott’s own Cowher moment is imminent because here’s another fact: Only nine head coaches in league history who’ve coached 8+ years have a higher winning percentage in the regular season than the Bills’ boss: John Madden (1969- ‘78), Vince Lombardi (1959- ‘69), George Allen (1966- ‘77), Blanton Collier (1963- ‘80), Ray Flaherty (1936- ‘49), George Halas (1920- ‘67), Don Shula (1963- ‘95), Paul Brown (1946- ‘75), Tony Dungy (1996- ‘08).
Which direction does this go? We’re about to find out.
These Bills cannot twiddle their thumbs this spring.
Those hinges on the door won’t break themselves.
On the ‘dangerous mindset’
Let’s start with the loudest demand from this organization’s constituents. Calls for a Myles Garrett-, Maxx Crosby-, Trey Hendrickson-level disruptor on the defensive line grow louder by the day. Especially after seeing the carnage the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles left all over the field inside the Superdome.
All this talk about “kicking” a door down? The Cleveland Browns’ 2023 DPOY could effectively arrive in Orchard Park, NY with both of his 10 1/4-inch hands clutching a battering ram.