Sean McDermott
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Bills head coach Sean McDermott.
Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott is heading into the 2025 season with something to prove — and a chip on his shoulder.
McDermott spoke to reporters on Tuesday as the team begins preparation for the season opener against the Baltimore Ravens. The Bills are looking to move beyond last year’s loss in the AFC Championship game and get into the Super Bowl for the first time in more than three decades, and McDermott has a strong message for those who doubt the team can do it.
Sean McDermott Wants New Narrative
McDermott told reporters that he’s ready to author a new narrative, putting aside the team’s reputation of falling short in the big game. The Bills head coach referenced the team’s four consecutive Super Bowl losses in the 1990s, saying critics have downplayed their accomplishments both past and present.
“Just overall changing the narrative on Buffalo, that is honestly probably the number one thing for me,” McDermott said, via reporter Josh Reed. “It bothers me, it honestly pisses me off because people don’t know this town, they don’t know how hard that is to get to four straight Super Bowls, it’ll never happen again.”
“ Honestly, it pisses me off”
Sean McDermott hates some of the national narrative surrounding Buffalo. The Bills head coach was fiery during a recent interview. pic.twitter.com/1p8BWSqUtD
— Josh Reed (@4JoshReed) September 2, 2025
McDermott defended the team but also the city itself, saying Buffalo is a resilient community and not a city of “losers,” as critics have said.
“I hear it on TV,” McDermott said. “Not even watching a football game or a football broadcast, and they refer to this area — and I’m not even going to say it. They don’t know this community, they don’t know us, and just because it didn’t work out four years in a row, nobody’s ever going to do that again.”
The Bills have strung together five straight AFC East titles since 2020, but fallen short of the Super Bowl as they have lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs in four of those seasons. The last three losses have all been by one possession, with the Bills failing to capitalize on late opportunities to win.
Sean McDermott Has Defended His Adopted City in the Past
This is not the first time that McDermott has defended the city of Buffalo against critics. Before last season’s playoff game against the Ravens, Baltimore radio personality Jerry Coleman revived a comment he made years earlier calling Buffalo a “City of Losers.”
After the Bills knocked off the Ravens 27-25 to advance to the AFC title game, McDermott made sure to address the criticism.
“Now it’s a city of winners,” McDermott said. “It really is. These people and this town are winners. I’ve been here just eight years but I consider this my hometown. This place is different, the people here are different and they deserve more than whoever said that about him.”
The Bills will face pressure in the coming season, which they will enter as one of the top Super Bowl favorites. Quarterback Josh Allen is coming off a season where he won the first league MVP award of his career, beating out Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson in a tight vote.