ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Sean McDermott arrived in Buffalo in 2017, envisioning the day of looking out his office window and seeing a throng of fans celebrating a Super Bowl victory.That possibility ended on Monday, when McDermott was abruptly fired by team owner Terry Pegula following a nine-year tenure in which the coach transformed the Bills into perennial contenders but fell short of reaching the Super Bowl.The move came two days after a heart-wrenching 33-30 overtime loss at Denver in the divisional round of the playoffs.“Sean helped change the mindset of this organization and was instrumental in the Bills becoming a perennial playoff team,” Pegula said. ”But I feel we are in need of a new structure within our leadership to give this organization the best opportunity to take our team to the next level.”The new structure features general manager Brandon Beane being promoted to president of football operations. Beane will oversee his first coaching search since arriving in Buffalo five months after McDermott, who replaced Rex Ryan after two seasons in Buffalo.Beane is expected to target an offensive-minded coach to spur an offense in which quarterback Josh Allen was too often asked to carry the burden. Despite a seven-year playoff run and Allen setting many franchise passing and scoring records and earning AP NFL MVP honors last season, the Bills advanced no further than the AFC championship game, which they lost both times to Kansas City in the 2020 and ’24 seasons.Buffalo became the league’s first team to win a playoff round in six consecutive years but not reach the Super Bowl.McDermott was aware of the shortcomings, and addressed them in August.“We take a lot of pride in what we’ve done here. And nobody has more internal drive and internal expectations than I do or we do. And very confident in who we are,” McDermott said. “There’s one thing that remains. We know what that is. But you can’t get there tomorrow.”Tomorrow never came.The Bills …
