National Football League

Do the Buffalo Bills have a toughness issue?

Published Jun. 15, 2023 10:00 p.m. ET

The Buffalo Bills have yet to make it to a Super Bowl despite being a force in the AFC in recent years.

And on Thursday's "First Things First," Chris Broussard said the reason it has everything to do with their mental toughness, namely that of head coach Sean McDermott.

"McDermott has done a very good job in Buffalo," Broussard began. "He [has] gotten in five playoffs [in] six years there, [but] I'm concerned about him having that locker room, though.

"To me, Buffalo's major problem is they're mentally weak, and you see it every year in the playoffs. I think you take on the personality of your head coach, and right now, McDermott does not look like a strong leader — like he has command of the situation. So I'm concerned about them starting from the head up."

The Bills, who just recently broke ground on a new $1.54 billion stadium, finished atop the AFC East last season at 13-3 and ended the regular season on a high note in the form of a seven-game winning streak (not including their canceled Week 17 matchup). The postseason was a different story, however, as McDermott's team narrowly defeated Miami in the wild-card round before falling to Cincinnati by double digits in the divisional round.

McDermott began his NFL coaching career as an assistant for Philadelphia in 2001, serving as defensive coordinator from 2009-10 before becoming the defensive coordinator for Carolina in 2011. Following six seasons with the Panthers, which included an appearance in Super Bowl 50, McDermott was hired by the Bills in 2017.

In his first season as head coach, McDermott led the Bills — which had been mostly unsuccessful for the prior two decades — to their first playoff appearance since 1999. The Bills missed out on the 2018 postseason altogether before returning in 2019. Both times, Buffalo didn't make it past the wild-card round.

During the 2020 season, the Bills clinched their division and won a playoff game for the first time since 1995 en route to their first AFC Championship Game appearance since 1993. McDermott helped Buffalo make it back to the divisional round again in 2021 and 2022, but the veteran coach has yet to get his team to the big game.

Quarterback Josh Allen, the seventh overall pick in 2018 under McDermott, is 4-4 all-time in the postseason with Buffalo.

The 49-year-old McDermott boasts a 62-35 (.639) all-time regular-season record in six seasons with the Bills, while having just a 4-5 (.444) postseason record over that same span.

Under McDermott in the postseason, the Bills have lost nine playoff games by an average of 12.2 points — five wild-card games by 9.2 points, three divisional games by 12.3 points and one AFC Championship Game by 14 points.

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