Sean McDermott hasn’t been able to get the Buffalo Bills to a Super Bowl.
There wasn’t a shakeup at the top of the list of longest NFL coaching tenures this offseason. Last year, Bill Belichick moved on from the New England Patriots. This year, there was some mumbling around Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers as possibly being on the outs, but he remains in place.
When you look at the list of the longest-tenured head coaches in the NFL and see Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott near the top, he sticks out like a sore thumb for one reason. McDermott has never led his team to the Super Bowl.
Tomlin is atop of the list at 18 seasons in Pittsburgh followed by John Harbaugh in Baltimore with 17 seasons. Both of them have a Super Bowl victory.
Next on the list is Andy Reid with the Kansas City Chiefs (12 years), who has three Super Bowl victories and is a big reason the Bills don’t have one appearance in the last few years.
Then it’s McDermott at eight seasons coming in fourth. He was hired the same offseason as Sean McVay of the Rams who has a Lombardi trophy and another appearance. Kyle Shanahan was hired by the San Francisco 49ers that same year and he has two trips to the Super Bowl.
Of the guys in the top six, only Harbaugh and McDermott haven’t been to two or more Super Bowls.
After that group is Matt LaFleur of the Green Bay Packers and Zac Taylor of the Cincinnati Bengals, both hired in 2019. LaFleur made two NFC Championship games in his first two seasons but has never been to the big game. Taylor went once with the Bengals.
Coming in 11th on the list, Nick Sirianni of the Eagles has two Super Bowl trips including one victory in his four seasons.
This isn’t to say that it’s Super Bowl of bust for McDermott in 2025, but the longer it goes, the more he sticks out.