With the 2024 season coming to an end, Bills head coach Sean McDermott spent an hour with the media on Thursday afternoon. McDermott shared the emotions he's feeling after Sunday's loss, highlighted the incredible leaders on the team, assessed his coordinators and players and looked ahead to next season.
Here are some key takeaways from McDermott's final press conference of the 2024 season.
"Confident in who we are" | The emotions after Sunday's loss
Buffalo finished their 2024 season with a 15-5 record and an undefeated home record (10-0). They won their fifth straight AFC East title and locked up the No. 2 seed ahead of the postseason. In the playoffs, Buffalo went 2-1, making it the second time in the McDermott era that Buffalo won multiple playoff games.
McDermott addressed the many things he loved about the 2024 season but also acknowledged the pit in his stomach knowing the team fell short of the ultimate goal.
"Good season, came up a little bit short and that feeling never goes away," McDermott said of Sunday's loss to the Chiefs. "I know some people say it goes away, at least for me it doesn't ever go away until you get to a spot where you can say, 'Hey we were the best in the world.' And that is a lofty goal but it's our goal every season…we were just short of it this year in terms of a couple plays here and there and that's what happens in the playoffs, every play gets magnified."
Coming to terms with the fact that the AFC Championship game came down to a few plays is not easy but for McDermott, but it reveals how close the team is to getting it done. Going back to the final few drives from the game, McDermott said both sides of the ball could have been better, and the offseason is about addressing how that can happen.
"On the last drive of the game, we came up short in figuring out why," McDermott shared. "When we have the ball in a position to tie or win the game, we weren't able to get it done. And so now getting into the weeds on it, defensively we have to perform better than we did…I would say that we're very aware of where we're at and where our team is. It doesn't mean you start there next season, but you certainly feel good about the day-to-day and our methodology of what we're doing."
While it has been frustrating to win a playoff game five years in a row but not win an AFC Championship game, McDermott said he would rather do that than not be in the conversation.
"I'd rather be in the position we're in, where we're continually knocking on the door," McDermott explained. "But I don't deal well with sitting right on the edge and being like, 'Hey, well, it was a good season.'…I'm confident in who we are. I'm confident that over the years we've developed players who usually have played better here than elsewhere…you keep doing the right thing, eventually that door will open."
McDermott acknowledged it's hard to get to the AFC Championship every season and it's not something that's guaranteed. That's why he, Brandon Beane and the staff are already addressing what needs to be done differently ahead of the 2025 season.
"I want it for the Pegula family," McDermott said of winning it all. "I'd love to be able to hand that thing off to them. That's some of why I was brought here. And that fire burns deep within. And you should know, it's not like we stick with things, just to stick with things…that's part of becoming better is, 'Hey, we're gonna throw a million things at that wall.' And we may agree, we may disagree, but we're gonna come out of it with the best darn answer we can for this football team."
Where Buffalo can improve in 2025
Since his tenure in Buffalo, McDermott has preached that good teams are builts though the trenches and with a star quarterback. All five members of the Bills offensive line are under contract for 2025; the team will have decisions to make regarding how it builds the defensive line.
"You guys know what I believe in and how you build a team. We have a quarterback, I think our offensive line has done a really good job and in some cases, our defensive line has done a really good job. The defense, a really good defense starts up front. Winning games, winning the line of scrimmage is critical. And I felt like we did that at some times this year, not enough," he said.
When asked about the D-line specifically, McDermott anticipates adding to that group this offseason.
"I believe we have some good players and pieces and it's how do we add around those guys to complement who they are and what they do already as we look into the free agency period and the draft as well," he said.
The Bills aren't without talented players on the defensive side of the ball. However, McDermott acknowledged that perennial contenders require elite talent on both sides of the ball. Buffalo hasn't had a player selected to the Pro Bowl in each of the last two seasons.
"The AFC is just loaded with really good quarterbacks, really good coaches. So the short answer is they are hard to find, like Brandon (Beane) said. You do need difference makers. Again, in my experience, you need 2 or 3 on each side of the ball that are difference makers like that," McDermott said.
"I'm not suggesting we have them or don't have them. I'm just saying, what gets a team to the Super Bowl, philosophically, for me, when you look at it and you study it, you've got about 2-3 on each side of the ball that are top 1-3, 1-5 at their position. And that's real."
Grading Buffalo's coordinators in 2024
Buffalo's offense and defense featured new coordinators in 2024 as Bobby Babich moved from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator and Joe Brady moved from interim offensive coordinator to full-time OC. McDermott thought the two brought some great things to both sides of the ball.
Brady coached an offense that averaged 30.9 points per game (2nd best and 2nd most in Bills history) and 359 total yards per game (10th).
"I thought Joe did a really good job," McDermott said. "He took what he had in this 'everybody eats' slogan and I think that was really the approach all year. And again, you look at what we were able to do in the pass game but also the run game. Keeping a team a two-dimensional offense, is hard to do.
"I thought Joe did a really effective job at doing that throughout the course of the year and the opponent not really knowing who or what to take away."
Buffalo's offense became the first team in NFL history to record at least 30 passing touchdowns and 30 passing touchdowns. Running back James Cook tied for the NFL's most rushing touchdowns with 16 and had his second straight season of at least 1,000 rushing yards.
"Joe is wired the right way," McDermott shared. "I thought he did a really good job in taking what he had, in terms of finding the strengths of the players, connecting with them as people, keeping us on a pretty good path all season long, which is hard to do when you go through some ups and downs."
Following Sunday's loss, McDermott said there are some plays that both Brady and Babich want back.
In his first season as a defensive coordinator, Babich coached a defense that racked up 32 takeaways (3rd best) and added four more during the postseason. McDermott thought Babich did a nice job of improving throughout the season.
"He's a go getter," McDermott said of Babich. "He knows football. Calling plays, as I've said before, is probably the hardest job in the building, and he'll learn from that."
McDermott said he thought special teams coordinator Matthew Smiley did a nice job this season but knows there are some plays he also wants back. The HC said some of the injuries that happened throughout the season made it tougher to create chemistry on special teams.
"The special teams coaches feel the cumulative effect because the special teams players get slid up into defensive roles and then they are left with what's left in terms of how can I formulate a group to go out there and play effectively," McDermott shared of how the injuries affected the group. "All that being said, I'm confident that Coach Smiley is going to learn from those situations and plays that came up this year."
Evaluating TE Dalton Kincaid and WR Keon Coleman's seasons
McDermott spent part of Thursday's press conference discussing his last top two draft picks and what he thought of their production. In tight end Dalton Kincaid's second season, Kincaid recorded 44 catches, 448 receiving yards and two touchdowns in 13 games. The TE missed three games during the season due to a knee injury.
Brandon Beane announced that Kincaid was dealing with PCL injury that happened during Week 10's game against the Colts. McDermott said Kincaid should not be facing backlash due to the final play because it never comes down to just one play.
"Dalton makes those plays, and it never comes down to just one play," McDermott said. "I want to make sure everybody knows that my confidence, our confidence in Dalton, is extremely high. He knows, and we know, that he has to get to a level of health and strength, playing strength, so that he can remain healthy for the course of a full season."
McDermott believes Kincaid can set himself apart from other young tight ends that are a similar build by adding more play-strength.
Wide receiver Keon Coleman finished his rookie season with 29 catches, 556 receiving yards and four touchdowns. The WR averaged 19.2 yards per catch, which was the third best in the league. McDermott thinks Coleman's game against Seattle where he had five catches for 70 yards and a touchdown was one of his best.
"Thought Keon really got off to a good start," McDermott said. "I'm going back in my mind to the Seattle game. He was almost dominant in that game, both catching and blocking, and was really started to get it. That's some of the journey for these rookies, of getting them to understand the 'it,' how hard it is, how hard it is to play in this league and play week to week."
Like Kincaid, Coleman suffered an injury (wrist) in the middle of the season that sidelined him for four games. McDermott thought the rookie didn't return as the same player once the wrist injury healed.
"He didn't play his best down the stretch, and some of that probably was due to coming off the injury – kind of get out of sync, out of rhythm a little bit," McDermott said. "But it is something that he can learn from and improve on moving forward."
Team leadership "steers the ship" in 2024
When looking back on how the season unfolded, McDermott came away impressed with how new faces stepped up as leaders throughout the season. McDermott praised the leadership of Josh Allen, James Cook and Dawson Knox, among others this season.
A deviation from previous seasons, Buffalo had just two team captains (Josh Allen, Terrel Bernard), but had a player-driven leadership council of roughly 10 players that helped set the direction of the locker room culture throughout the season.
"The players group that have led this football team, led by Josh, I couldn't do my job if they didn't do what they did this year, in particular, this season, and the way that they went about their business. And when you deal with adversity like you do every season, you need that leadership, that player-driven leadership piece to steer the ship in the right direction," McDermott said.
Starting with Allen, McDermott saw his QB take more command of the team and be a steadying presence at all times this season.
"Josh Allen's leadership, his consistent leadership, was the biggest reason why we did what we did this season. So anybody that tries to say otherwise, I know better. I've seen it, and him now doing that every season for us is not an easy undertaking. But he is, and was the reason, his leadership," McDermott said.
Running back James Cook took his game to another level both on the field and off the field. Cook tied Derrick Henry and Jahmyr Gibbs for the most rushing touchdowns; he also became a trusted voice within the locker room.
"What a game he played, what a year he had, and that's a great example of these players – we really drafted James to be a pass-catching running back, right? And he comes in and blossoms and just develops in more ways than one: on the field, off the field. He's in our leadership council meeting,"
Another player that stood out was TE Dawson Knox.
"When you get around a person that, again, knows who they are. Dawson served on our leadership council. Was a huge component to our success this season. A, from his play, and B, from his leadership. Just a real steady type of person, and a guy that Josh has a huge amount of trust in," McDermott said.
McDermott shared that having strong player-driven leadership is a hallmark of a good team and that it allowed him to coach more freely this season, knowing he could trust that the high standards he has are being met. RB Ty Johnson and WR Mack Hollins are other players McDermott mentioned by name.
"I trust our leadership group, and I told them that at the end of the season. You can do some of these things where it frees you up to really be who you really want to be, and what makes the job enjoyable and so I think all those things were just kind of going hand in hand this year," he said.
