W&M alum McDermott to coach Buffalo Bills

The Buffalo Bills have hired Carolina Panthers no-nonsense defensive coordinator Sean McDermott as their new head coach, NFL.com reported on Wednesday.

A pupil of of the legendary coach Jim Johnson, McDermott led Carolina to the Super Bowl past year with the leagues’ best defense. McDermott’s William & Mary ties were featured in this piece on CBSSports.com past year during Super Bowl 50 week.

The Bills finished 7-9 in 2016 and missed the playoffs for the 17 straight season. While he has flown under the radar this season, keep in mind that McDermott was a hot head coaching candidate last season when the Panthers went 15-1 en route to Super Bowl 50.

McDermott also joined the Eagles in 1999, as a scouting administrative coordinator.

Also, McDermott will have to work with a front office that appeared a bit foolish with the benching of Taylor, how it handled Ryan’s firing and the postseason media conference with GM Doug Whaley that raised more questions than it actually answered.

Lynn was promoted from running backs coach to offensive coordinator after Greg Roman was sacked from that position two games into the 2016 season, then ran the team for the final game after Ryan’s dismissal. He oversaw a top-10 defense in four of his six seasons, and was the only coordinator to lead a top-10 unit every year from 2012-2015. Holcomb started off as a defensive quality control coach for a team in the NFC East (just like McDermott), and then worked up to be a defensive assistant.

Carolina finished 21st in yards allowed, giving up 500-plus yards three times. He runs a 4-3 scheme that is derived from former Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson’s blitz-heavy attack of the early 2000s.

Schwartz’ unit ranked fourth in the National Football League in 2014, only to fall to the 19th-ranked unit the past two seasons under Ryan. He has been tabbed to get the most out of players such as Marcell Dareus, Jerry Hughes, Lorenzo Alexander and Stephon Gilmore.