In his final playoff game as coach of the Patriots, Bill Belichick suffered a 47-17 loss to the Bills.
Four years later, the Bills are looking for a replacement to Sean McDermott, whose seven straight playoff appearances weren’t enough to stave off a pink slip.
So if they’re willing to venture outside the box and interview former NFL quarterback and current high-school coach Philip Rivers, why not consider a six-time Super Bowl winner and current college head coach?
The fact that Belichick isn’t an immediate, no-brainer option for the Bills (or any other team) shows how far, and how fast, his NFL star has fallen. His name hasn’t come up once in the current cycle, despite 10 total openings.
Beyond the ill-advised decision to put a defensive coordinator in charge of the New England offense in 2022 and the baggage that a coach who previously railed against distractions has brought to Chapel Hill, there’s a nagging concern that Belichick would try to take over the entire operation.
Still, Belichick’s ability to cook up and implement a masterful game plan has never been questioned. And the Bills know it well.
Beyond Belichick’s 37-12 record against Buffalo from 2000 through 2023, he had a direct role in giving the Bills a loss in their first, and best, shot at a Super Bowl win. His game plan for slowing down the K-Gun offense, which focused on forcing them to run the ball (and shorten the game), delivered a 20-19 win for the Giants in Super Bowl XXV with a backup quarterback.
If the Bills are now casting a net wide enough to include a candidate with no pro or college coaching experience, why not talk to Belichick? Perhaps recent events have made him willing (and able) to just coach the team, and nothing else. Sure, he’d have to cut the cord with his consigliere, Mike Lombardi. And both owner Terry Pegula and G.M. Brandon Beane would need to be willing to make the leap of faith that Belichick could be trusted to just coach the team, and not try to run the show.
Buffalo’s obvious goal is to get over the top. If so, shouldn’t they at least talk to Belichick? Do their homework on him? Talk through whether there’s a way to make it work in a way that would deliver to Bills Mafia the Super Bowl win they’ve coveted since the moment Scott Norwood’s 47-yard field-goal attempt missed the mark?
Again, if they’re trying to figure out whether it could work with Rivers, whose NFL experience never resulted in playing in a Super Bowl, they should at least be discussing whether the greatest game-day coach in NFL history and his fists-full of rings could return to the AFC East, wreak havoc on a long-time employer he now hates, and potentially bust through the “proverbial playoff wall” like the Kool-Aid Man on bath salts.
Former Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel will interview for the Bills’ head-coaching job. Unless he won’t.
Per multiple reports, McDaniel canceled Friday’s interview with Buffalo, which is seeking a replacement for nine-year head coach Sean McDermott.
Given McDaniel’s propensity for verbosity, and Wednesday’s never-ending press conference featuring Bills owner Terry Pegula and G.M. Brandon Beane, maybe it’s a good thing. Once the three of them started talking, who knows when they would have stopped?
McDaniel recently opted not to go through with a second interview for the Browns’ head-coaching job. It was later reported that the Chargers plan to make him their new offensive coordinator.
Why would McDaniel not go through with a head-coaching interview? Such situations are both rare and ripe for all sorts of speculation. If it’s as simple as he doesn’t view a given job as an ideal spot for his next shot (which could be his last one) at a team of his own, it’s one thing to pass on the perennially dysfunctional Browns. But the Bills? With Josh Allen?
Maybe, after digesting Wednesday’s press conference and the widespread reaction to it, McDaniel realizes it’s a no-win situation, since the primary expectation will be to win enough games to get to the postseason — and to win more than one game once he gets there.
In Cleveland, there’s nowhere to go but up, but there’s no clear reason to think an ascension will happen under current ownership. In Buffalo, there’s nowhere to go but down, and there’s every reason to think that will happen under current ownership.
Again, dysfunction flows from the top. McDaniel already worked for one of those teams. For his next head-coaching job, it becomes critical to find a stable organization in which the owner stays out of the way (i.e., not Cleveland) and doesn’t make rushed, illogical decisions in the heat of the moment (i.e., not Buffalo).
Denver practice squad wide receiver Elijah Moore hasn’t played in a game for the Broncos yet. But he has already helped the Broncos get to the AFC Championship Game. And he might get on the field in that game on Sunday.
Moore signed with the Broncos’ practice squad last month after the Bills cut him, and when the Broncos were preparing to face the Bills last week, Moore said he helped prepare his new team with everything relevant he could tell about his old team.
“I did all I can in meetings. They asked me questions. Whatever they asked, I gave it to them,” Moore told Chris Tomasson of the Denver Gazette.
Now Tomasson reports that the Broncos may elevate Moore from the practice squad to play against the Patriots. Broncos wide receiver Troy Franklin has a hamstring injury, and Moore could take Franklin’s place.
Moore is undeniably talented, and was the 34th overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft. But in stints with the Jets, Browns and Bills, he never produced to the level of his talent. The Broncos would love to see Moore show what he can do tomorrow against the Patriots.
In 25 years of doing this, I thought I’d seen everything.
Here’s a new one. An online petition has emerged to reinstate Bills coach Sean McDermott. The petition, posted at Change.org, has more than 60,000 signatures, and counting.
Obviously, no number of signatures will put the toothpaste back in the tube. McDermott is out, and the Bills are moving on in their search for a new coach.
But the mere existence of the petition highlights how poorly the Bills have handled the situation. The decision to simultaneously announce the firing of McDermott and the promotion of G.M. Brandon Beane rubbed many the wrong way. (They could have, and should have, waited to promote Beane until a later date, perhaps after the 2026 draft.) Also, Wednesday’s press conference, which owner Terry Pegula and Beane surely believed would make things better, served only to make things worse.
The end result will be not a return of McDermott but even more pressure on the next Bills coach to instantly do as well as McDermott, at a bare minimum. It also puts more pressure on quarterback Josh Allen to justify the decision made by the guy who signs the checks.
And so, as the Bills continue to conduct interviews for their next head coach, the numbers on the petition will keep going up. And up. And up. Which will only make the entire situation more challenging for all executives, coaches, and players in 2026 — and beyond.
Philip Rivers made an improbable comeback as a quarterback with the Colts late in the regular season and he’s now in the mix for an improbable move to the NFL’s coaching ranks.
The Bills announced on Friday evening that they have completed an interview with Rivers for their head coaching vacancy. Rivers has coached at the high school level in Alabama, but has no professional or college coaching experience.
Jeff Saturday and Norm Van Brocklin are the only two people who have become NFL head coaches without having any experience at those levels.
That lack of experience would make Rivers’ an unexpected choice to lead the Bills and it remains to be seen if the team will seriously consider him for the position, but his acumen for the game and experience as a top NFL quarterback could keep him on the radar for teams in the future if he doesn’t land the job in Buffalo.
