The Buffalo Bills have started to put their finishes touches on their 2024 NFL season.
Following an early exit by their standards after a 32-29 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC championship, players and coaches took in locker room cleanout day. During that, both speak with reporters for the final time.
Head coach Sean McDermott had his presser and discussed numerous topics during his chat.
Here are eight takeaways from McDermott’s end-of-season press conference:
Still Bill-eving
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Another year, another loss to the Chiefs in the postseason. The Bills are 0-4 in those scenario.
McDermott said he does not believe in building a roster just to beat one team specifically. Considering the Bills will face many foes in 2025, that’s probably smart.
But moving forward, McDermott expressed he still has confidence the job can get done:
Sean McDermott says if you keep doing things right, eventually the door will open for #Bills.
— Jon Scott (@JonScottTV) January 30, 2025
McDermott asked why he’s confident their process can get #Bills to Suoer Bowl
“You gotta believe in yourself if you want to accomplish anything. Then, it’s the people around you… then… what have you accomplished.”
— Thad Brown (@thadbrown7) January 30, 2025
Special teams confidence
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After being promoted to special teams coordinator in 2022, Matthew Smiley has had ups-and-downs with his unit. The 2024 season will be remembered for the struggles kicker Tyler Bass had.
Despite that, McDermott said Smiley will be back and he has confidence in him.
Sean McDermott on special teams coordinator Matthew Smiley- “I’m confident that Coach Smiley is going to learn from those situations and plays that came up this year. He knows we can’t give up some of those plays that we gave up and we have to be better.”#Bills #BillsMafia
— AJ Feldman (@AJFeldmanTV) January 30, 2025
Critical of Dalton
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Tight end Dalton Kincaid is in the spotlight now because of his late drop against the Chiefs. Beyond that, McDermott (and general manager Brandon Beane) challenged Kincaid for his efforts the entire year. They both wanted more from him.
To improve going forward, McDermott mentioned Kincaid needs to beef up to “set himself apart.”
Kincaid had 44 catches for 448 yards in 13 games in 2024. In 16 games played as a rookie, Kincaid had 73 grabs for 673 yards. He scored two touchdowns in both campaigns.
#Bills HC Sean McDermott says they remain confident in TE Dalton Kincaid, but there are areas to grow.
“He has to get to a level of health and playing strength…”#BillsMafia
— Andy Young (@AndyYoungTV) January 30, 2025
More from Keon, too
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Likewise to Kincaid, Keon Coleman was in the crosshairs. McDermott wants more in Year 2 from Coleman… which isn’t all that surprising regardless. Every coach would want their top-selected rookie to improve from their first to second season.
Coleman did deal with injuries at certain points and managed 29 catches for 556 yards with four touchdowns.
Sean McDermott says he thought Keon Coleman got off to a good start, was almost dominant thinking to the Seattle game, but did not play his best down the stretch and that was probably due in some part to coming off the injury.
— Andy Young (@AndyYoungTV) January 30, 2025
Chiefs reflection: Injury hurt, refs not to blame
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Two quick mentions from the loss in Kansas City from McDermott included Christian Benford and the topic many are discussing: The refs.
On Benford, McDermott admitted he thought losing him was “not easy.” Benford went down with a concussion and did not return. Former first-round pick Kaiir Elam replaced Benford, and this message from McDermott isn’t a good look for Elam.
McDermott said losing Christian Benford in the AFCCG was “not easy” and that the Chiefs exposed their defense after he left the game.
— Matthew Bové (@Matt_Bove) January 30, 2025
And on the officiating from the AFC championship, McDermott was not playing into that. No surprise there.
Sean McDermott on perceived poor officiating, leaving #Bills on short end of the stick on many calls in AFC Championship game: “That’s not the reason why we lost.. There are going to be (moments like that) and you have to be above that and play above that.” #BillsMafia
— alex brasky (@alexbrasky) January 30, 2025
Loves him some James Cook
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James Cook had a huge role in the Bills offense in 2024. Based on the huge praise McDermott had for his Pro Bowl running back, don’t expect that to change:
You don’t often hear this level of praise for Sean McDermott about a specific player.
It’s clear how impressed this team was by James Cook’s growth this season. pic.twitter.com/xkCg5r72er
— Matthew Bové (@Matt_Bove) January 30, 2025
Knows defense needs to be better
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After losing key pieces in the secondary, the Bills struggled a bit to recover from that in 2024. Most recently, Kansas City put up 32 on McDermott’s unit and two games saw Buffalo’s defense allow more than 40 points… and there were other games that left something to be desired.
McDermott admitted it has to improve.
“We’ve played really good defense for a long time here. I would say this year, not as good as we’ve played in the years prior. One of the things we did a really good job at this year is taking the ball way. Part of the scoring on offense is from taking the ball away. That being said, we didn’t perform well enough in the Kansas City game,” he said.
Praise for Joe
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Joe Brady continued to impress in his first full season as the Bills’ offensive coordinator. Naturally that shows with the head coach interviews he had around the NFL this offseason.
Some might think Brady’s job is easy because of quarterback Josh Allen (who naturally got great mentions as well from McDermott), but the OC and QB need to be on the same page and have a good relationship. Brady and Allen have that.
After all was said and done, it was a top review for Brady.
“You look at what we were able to do in the pass game, but also the run game, and 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 not really knowing or the opponent knowing who or what to take away,” McDermott said.