The Ringer NFL Show - Sean McDermott's Out! What's Next for Him and the Bills?

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

Sheil and The Ringer’s own Austin Gayle get together to share their instant reactions to the Buffalo Bills firing Sean McDermott as their head coach. (01:34) Buffalo Bills fire Sean McDermott (1:57) Was this the right move for the Bills? (11:05) Who should be the Bills’ next coach? (22:40) What’s next for Sean McDermott? The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Sheil Kapadia Guest: Austin Gayle Producer: Chris Sutton Video Editor: Stefano Sanchez Social: Kiera Givens and Brian Waters Production Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I am your host, Shield Capadia. More coaching news. Stunning coaching news. I'll call it stunning in the NFL. Sean McDermott out as the Buffalo Bills head coach. This is another one with league-wide ramifications. Who are they going to get to replace him and work with Josh Allen

and finally try to get that Bill's team over the hump? And to the Super Bowl, where to Sean McDermott land now with all these openings around the NFL? I've got some outside the box idea. with some of this stuff. To talk about it, we've got my friend from the Ringer. Austin Gale, let's take a break. We'll come back with Austin.

The Ringer NFL show is presented by Fandul. Fandual's got it all. Same game parlays, quick bets for jumping in live and your way so you can build the bet that fits your play. Plus, don't miss out on the NFL playoffs all month long. Download the Fandul app or head to fandul.com slash Ringer NFL to get started. 21 plus and present in select states or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming.

Gambling problem. Call 1-800-G-Hallorpe.com or visit RG-7-8-8-8-7-9-77 or visit cCPG. org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, welcome back to the Ringer NFL show. Here with Austin, Gail, we are breaking down the surprise Sean McDermott firing. I was thinking, Austin, that, like, losing to a non-patrick Mahomes team broke these franchises. the Ravens, the bills. They're like, no, we can handle it if it's just like Mahomes and Reid are awesome.

But after a season like this where we come up short, we got to make changes. So question number one here is, was this the right move? He's there for nine seasons. They made the playoffs eight times. They won 11 plus games in six straight seasons, yet they could not get over the hump and get to the Super Bowl. So if you're just taking a step back, all other things aside, and you say, was this the right move to fire, Sean McDermott? What do you say? I feel like it's a bad answer.

but I still feel like some of this is, like, to be determined. I want more reporting to come out on whether or not they're interested in Joe Brady as taking over as head coach. He's gotten some of the offense coordinator for the Buffalo Bills. He's gotten some interviews for head coaching jobs elsewhere. And then the other piece of this is, like, who are they going to hire? It was notoriously going into the off season a bad coaching cycle. It was hard to kind of drum up candidates.

There's no Ben Johnson. There's no Mike Vrable. There's no Liam Cohen. And, you know, easy to look at last year's class is like a really good crop. This year, you're firing Shaw McDermott. I think one of the most overplayed narratives in this postseason is like, there's no Mahomes, there's no Jackson, there's no Burrow, you have to win. It's like, there's a lot of other factors that come into this, the defense, they were going in on the road, all this stuff. Like, for me, you're firing Sean McDermott really quickly after the loss, by the way. Like, you're kind of firing him right out of the weekend. Yeah. And if you don't have, like, already have plans on talking with Josh Allen on like, do you want to keep Joe Brady or looking at this crop of candidates on guys that are going to come in and win right away, right? The expectation for Buffalo is for this next person to come in. And like, not just make the division around, it's go to the championship,

it's go to the Super Bowl. I just don't know with like this crop of candidates that we have. Like, is that in this crop of candidates? I don't know. And I think that there's a, I think there's more of a chance they look back on firing Sean McDermott

with regret than there is a chance of like, man, we made the right move. It was a splash play. And we finally got, you know, what everyone's also saying is get over the hump. We finally got over the hump with Josh Allen. I think that I feel less like excited by the McDermott firing than I did.

necessarily the John Harbaugh firing with Lamar Jackson and Baltimore because there was reporting that John Harbaugh was committed to Todd Monkin. He didn't want to move off of Todd Monkin and like that was part of the reason. And there was less playoff success with Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens. And honestly, more of like a string of playoff failure and catastrophic like losing in the postseason. With McDermott, I always felt like yeah, there was some other stuff and the defense hasn't been good in the playoffs or some of that. But with McDermott, I never felt like he was the reason they were losing games and not getting over the hump. And in this game specifically, Josh Allen crying in the presser,

four turnovers, one of the worst games he's played. Like, I don't know. It just felt like they want to make a change to make a change. But I'm really interested to see, like, what is the road ahead? What is the plan? Because Josh Allen's 30, and the expectations are a Super Bowl. So with these crop of candidates, you're going to have to find a guy that's as good, if not better than McDermott.

I don't know if that's there. Yeah, during McDermott's tenure, like you said, second best winning percentage in the NFL. Only the Chiefs were better. They did get to the conference championship game twice. So it's, you know, it does feel like they were more consistent. they had more success, just a little bit more than those Ravens teams with John Harba. I think the toughest thing here is like you're trying to answer the question, why haven't the bills gotten over the hump?

Why haven't they gotten to the Super Bowl? Why haven't they won the Super Bowl? And it just hasn't been the same thing every year. You know, I think I could argue that in the past, I could make a case that Sean McDermott was a reason why, because you need a defensive coach who can stand up to the best quarterbacks and the best offenses in the NFL in a big spot. We always talk about it, that game playing type of coach,

that he's got something cooked up. He's got something specific for this quarterback. McDermott hasn't been that guy. I mean, they've had games against the Chiefs where the offense has played awesome. I'm talking 90th percentile offensive performance and they still lose because the defense cannot get a stop. We just saw that last year against the Kansas City Chiefs.

We saw it in that 13 seconds game as well. So you could convince me that they got to just get a better defensive mind in there, someone who can come up with more wrinkles. But this year, McDermott did evolve a little bit. And his defense was not really the reason why they lost to the Denver Broncos. And Josh Allen had a bad game. And their offense, they made too many mistakes. And we know why they lost that game.

So it was different than the games in the past against Burrow against Mahomes. So I look at it. And I think the similarity with the Ravens is you have an MVP caliber quarterback. You have a Hall of Fame type quarterback. And you've given it a chance for what, eight years, whatever it is with Josh Allen. And you haven't been able to do it. So while Sean McDermott is a very good coach and he's going to get a chance elsewhere, we'll talk about where he might get a chance.

I do understand the idea that is this the only guy we want to coach Josh Allen in his problem? You mentioned he's 30. That's crazy. When they mentioned that at the end of the broadcast, I was like, whoa, I still view him in my mind as the young quarterback who got drafted. And, you know, maybe late 20s right now. But no, he's 30. So now you're trying to just change something up that gets you over the hum. So I understand it.

I don't know, I'm with you. I don't know that it's necessarily what I would have done, but I do understand wanting to do something different here. From what I've read out of this McDermott firing, it did not feel like the players in the locker room were like giving up on Sean McDermott. And they actually, like, there was a Dionne Dawkins tweet where like really looking up to him.

I can't imagine Josh Allen's leaving that game where he's crying at the press or saying he lost that game. He's like, we've got to move on from McDermott. I wonder how much Josh Allen was involved in the decision. When Steve Bishotti, the owner of the Ravens was asked about that. He said he got his opinion from Lamar Jackson. but he had no power in the decision. I wonder where that power opinion split was with Josh Allen,

I'm sure we'll get more reporting. And I think if there is one, like, clear ding in the McDermott resume, and like something that I think is accredits, like, maybe why you do move on is when you look at, there are 13 teams since 2019 that have had at least 50 opponent drives in the playoffs. So 15, you have 13 teams that have faced offenses of 50 drives or more. Of those teams, where do you think McDermott ranked in success rate allowed, EPA per drive allowed, and points per drive allowed?

I think it's low because I remember those games against Burrow and Mahomes, and they were literally some of the worst defensive performance of the playoffs. I'll say 11th or worse in all three metrics. And like, yeah, some of that small sample size and all that stuff. But I do think there is real numbers backing the fact that the defenses did not have success in the postseason. Like what you're saying, they didn't have this trump card against these really good offenses that make the postseason in the NFC, the Mahomes, the Burroughs, the Jacksons, or whatever it was. And I think that you want, maybe there is an upgrade at defensive schemer in this

Is it Jesse Minter? Jeff Hathley just went to the Dolph so it won't be him. Is it Vance Joseph? Is it Robert Sala? Like these are some of the names. Is it Chris Shula with the Los Angeles Rams? Maybe you do get a on-paper upgrade in schemer.

But there's no guarantee that that person also coming in is the leader of men that I think Sean McDermann has been since he's gotten there. And I think he, in my opinion, if he isn't that schemer that is like changing the game like Mike McDonald is and with Seattle, what he has done for me is he's constantly gotten the best out of his players, if not gotten more than what people expected in terms of on paper, the players that they brought. in like Christian Benford, Damar Hamlin, Terran Johnson, Micah Hyde, Jordan Poir. You go back to some of these early defenses. He, in my opinion, his like constantly made the players that the bills have had on defense

better than where they would be if they went elsewhere. And are you going to find that in this crop crop of candidates? I don't know. Okay, so this brings up an interesting dynamic to this whole thing because you're asking the question, why was he fired? Did Josh Allen want him out? Did he lose the locker room? Did he botched their loss? And all those things, I think the answer is no. It doesn't feel like any of those things are true. And then we zoom out and we look at the politics of an NFL organization. And you have GM and you have coach and you have owner. The owner ultimately makes the decision. And sometimes when there is a frustrating period like this, where you're saying, man, the owner's saying, I have Josh Allen and I'm not getting there. Why? How come I'm not getting there?

And Brandon Bean, the GM is in his ear. We know how the NFL works. But I'm with you. I look at this team. and it's hard for me to say that the talent level is so great that it's not a good coaching job. I mean, for all of McDermott's shortcomings in the playoffs as a defensive schemer, in the regular season, they have not had a bad defense with him. And they have not had the most talented defenses.

I mean, I look at the whole roster and I go, good running back, great quarterback, good offensive line. What about everywhere else? I look at this defense and I go, this,

where are the talented players on this defense? And he gets them to that level of, competency every single year. I'm not saying they're great, but he gets them to like the 15th to 20th best defense every single year. And you look at some of Brandon Bean's moves and you go, should there be a more talented roster around Josh Allen on the defensive side of the ball? And so I do think that's a big part of this where the owner looks at it and says who's responsible. And he might just say, well, I like Brandon Bean. Brandon Bean has been a confidant. I think he's done a good job. We're going to go ahead and fire the coach. So a lot of times in the NFL, that's certainly what it comes

down to. So that's another big, big factor here. All right, let's take a break. We come back. You mentioned some possibilities. This is an unbelievable job to get to coach Josh Allen at 30 years old and try to go win a Super Bowl for the city of Buffalo. I mean, this is a great job. We can talk about whether it's the best job in the NFL. I want to throw out some names there about guys who they should be looking at. All right. We're back here on the Ringer NFL show. Real quick, Austin. John Harbaugh. this, when he got the news here. Do you think he had an idea that this job could be open? Do you think he has any regrets? Do you think he would have been a great fit for them? Because I do think that's a question that people are asking. And to a lesser degree,

Kevin Stefanski, but certainly John Harbaugh going from Lamar Jackson to Josh Allen in their prime and basically trying to do the same thing, but in a different spot would have been very interesting. No, definitely. I think that it's hard to say of whether or not he had win that McDermott could let go. It sounds like there was, you know, there was rumors going into the playoffs that he was one of the coaches that if they didn't go on a run, could be like go. You made that prediction. Now I'm remembering.

On the show, you made that prediction that John Harbaugh is going to be coaching the bill. So, yeah, you were on it. I mean, and I think a lot of that, too, whether Harbaugh would have been the fit, like, him coming in as a CEO coach, like, it really does depend on who they're going to bring in it. Because then if you bring in Harbaugh, now you're going to have to bring in whatever defensive coordinator he's going to find, right? And it sounds like he's committing to his guys. And then he's going to probably bring in Todd Monkin.

Like, I don't even know if Harbaugh would have been the right fit for Buffalo. I think what they're looking for is a defensive schemer that gives them an edge on that side or an offensive schemer that thinks they can take the top off with Josh Allen. But I think if I'm the Buffalo Bills, I'm much more thinking I have an easy button with Josh Allen. And it's worked with Ken Dorsey at times. It's worked with Brian Dayball. It's worked with Joe Brady. And I think we can bring in an offensive play caller that maybe isn't this big name.

And I think he can find a way to make it work with Josh Allen, especially if they figure out how to keep the offensive line through for agency and maybe find a weapon like they had when they've traded for Stefan Diggs a few years ago. defensively, they just need to be, if they're moving on from Sean McDermott, they just need to find a scheme edge with whatever candidate that bringing in. That's why I do think that probably atop their list is Jesse Minter, who I went and looked which of the coaches or coaching candidates has the most interviews. Right now, Jesse Minter has the most with seven. There are other coaches with six, other coaches with five.

Seven head coaching interviews he's got? He's Falcons, Ravens, Browns, Raiders, Dolphins, Steelers, and Titans have all been either scheduled interview or reached out to schedule an interview with Jesse Minter. and I think there's probably other ones as well that are coming down the pike too. I think that Minter is probably high on their list and someone that they think can bring in, has this scheme advantage on defense and can do what they have, and then what Minter can bring in,

and they figure out the offensive play caller as they go. But honestly, for me, if you're not going Minter, is there another candidate that even excite you? Halfley's already with the Dolphins, DeVansky's with the Falcons, Harbaugh with the Giants. You could look at Clint Kubiak. But I just don't think they're an offensive play caller. like if Kubiak is the offensive schemer,

everyone is kind of praising him to be, or Matt Nagy, or are they going to promote Joe Brady? I don't think that's what takes this team up top. Like, they really need to, in my opinion, if they're going to replace Sean McDermott, figure out the defensive side of the ball, and then trust that Josh Allen with the offensive play caller is going to be able to figure out and work through those.

Work through new growing pains. When you have Josh Allen, we have a series of experiments that have been done, you know, naturally over the last, however, five, six years, that everything else on offense, you can switch up the receivers, you can switch up the offensive line, you can switch up the play caller,

you're going to look up at the end of the season, and you're going to have a top five offense. The data just bears that out. So I'm totally with you. I don't want to say, I don't care who the offensive coordinator is. I don't think it matters that much. I think you have a bar to clear of competency,

and then it's like, oh yeah, we have Josh Allen, James Cook, and a top five offensive line. I think the offense is going to, to be okay. So I'm with you there. I think Josh Allen establishes a floor in terms of performance for your team. I mean, they pretty much win at least 11 wins every single season, unless you have some weird season where everyone gets injured or you lose a bunch of one score games. You're going to win 11 games. You're going to have a top five offense. You're going to be in the playoffs. So it's kind of,

it is a very unique setup in that respect. And so I'm with you on Minter. I think that would be a very interesting hire. Somebody who looks like he has the qualities you look for in an NFL head coach. And again, this is from afar. We don't know for sure, but he looks like he's got those qualities and also has the defensive acumen where he say, hey, he can be a guy maybe that can compete with those top quarterbacks in the AFC. So I like that name. Brian Flores is a guy where I don't know if he has the intangibles and the other stuff you look for in a head coach. Obviously in Miami it didn't work out. But if you told me Brian Flores is going to scheme up a defense and I got Josh Allen as my quarterback, I feel like I have a pretty good chance there to

to win big with the Buffalo Bills. But I'm going to advocate for a guy, Austin, who I have brought up previously. He has not interviewed for a single head coaching job to my knowledge. He is not working as a coach in the NFL. He has no coaching experience in the NFL. But I was thinking about this. I think you need someone who can ease the pressure a little bit.

Because Sean McDermott is a very serious, intense guy. The franchise feels that pressure. With every season, they don't get over the hump, the pressure mounts, the emotions you mentioned with Josh Allen. are let out. And so I do think that's something you need to be cognizant of. I think I would call Fox analyst Greg Olson. And you can laugh at me if you want and let's have this conversation. I see you smiling there. I'm not even kidding. If the Pagula has called me today and said she'll give me a list of someone I should call to be our next head coach, he might be number one on my list.

Because I think immediately he's going to be great at game management. We hear him for three hours every Sunday. We know he knows what he's doing there. He knows the trends in the NFL. He studies them. That's clear. Anytime you hear him talk on a podcast, see him on social media or during the course, again, of him calling a game every weekend for Fox. He knows the personnel and the schemes around the NFL. I think he has a clear vision of what provides an edge from a CEO type head coach. Again, we see all these things every Sunday, like all these interviews and search firms. I watch him tell millions of people every Sunday. He's a former player who by all accounts is well liked. I think he would bring a nice refresh to the team and to the organization.

And the reason I'm bringing him up for this job specifically, Brandon B knows him personally from their time in Carolina. Now, I don't know what their relationship is, whether they're close, whether they're not close. I know towards the end of his career, he went there on a free agent visit, but there's some level of familiarity there. I think if you get Greg Olson, as your head coach. He's going to attract great coaching talent. It's already a very attractive job. Now you say, oh, Greg Olson's not going to call the plays. I get to go call plays for Josh Allen. Yes, please, sign me up. I get to go call plays for that defense. And I've got Josh Allen as my quarterback on the other side. Yes, I would love that. So I'm looking at these other names.

Like Jeff Hapley got, you know, hired by the dolphins today. And I'm looking at Brian Dayball and Joe Brady and Chris Shula and Jesse Minter and Clint Kubiak. And I like Minter. But the other guys, I'm like, I don't think these guys would be better candidates for me than Greg Olson. Tell me I'm just some crazy guy who gets obsessed with people going forward on fourth down, and I don't know what I'm talking about. Go ahead. I mean, I think hiring, take Greg Olson out of it for a second. Hiring a guy who's never a coached in the NFL before and never coached at the college level before

to come in, and the expectation is you have to win a Super Bowl. Like, the expectation going into Buffalo is you need to make the AFC championship at least in year one. Right? Is that not the expectation? You just fired McDermott for going to six straight divisional rounds. So you're going to bring in this coach who's never coached in college, never coached in the NFL and hey, you need to make the AFC championship. You need to make a Super Bowl in the next two, three years. That feels too steep for me. Like in it, even beyond, like say he is the smartest person in the world, the CEO coach and he gets two really good coordinators to come in, a lot changes when everything's on your plate and you go from, yeah, you're making these decisions

in the booth to your game planning week to week for these quarterbacks and all this stuff. Like, I don't know. I think that like part of me feels like, they need to bring in a coach that has definitely has experience coaching in the NFL and coaching at the college level because they're coming in with this expectation that you need to go have deep postseason success. And if Greg Olson comes in and let's say by chance, which is very likely, they lose in the wildcard round or worse, they don't make the playoffs. His head is going to be on a spike instantly.

Like almost instantly. That's everybody though. I don't think it is though. Yeah. What? Clint Kubiak's going to go there and reinvent football and they're going to be going to the Super Bowl? I mean, these are the names we're looking at. Harba. There's no Harbaugh. You're not getting Tomlin. You know, the Steelers aren't trading you, Tomlin. It's just like, I'm looking at the pool of candidates. And none of those guys really excite me where I go, they're going to be an upgrade

on Sean McDermott. And so I like the energy of someone again. I know he hasn't coached in the NFL. He played for a long time in the NFL. It's not called plays. I don't know. He's not like, he's not like a complete outsider. He knows the ins and outs of a week in the NFL. I don't know. I don't know. I I feel like it would depend on the coordinators coming in, and I also think that the pressure on the spotlight would be kind of disgusting, like, in terms of like how much that he needs to win right away and he's never coached before. That feels kind of like too much.

I think that you need to at least bring in someone. If you're going to bring in a young guy, he's like a clear defensive schemer that is going to have an edge in the league calling plays on offensive over the next two to three years as the game continues to change. If you're not, and you're going to bring in a CEO guy, you need to bring in someone that's going to bring in a defense coordinator

that, that again, gives you this edge and is going to maximize the talent on that side. And I don't know. I feel like it's, it's part of the reason why, like, when you first asked me, was this the right move to fire Sean McDermott? I don't know, because I don't know what the plan is. If you're considering Greg Olson and, you know,

there's other candidates that, like, I don't feel like excite anyone, it is a situation where, like, you're firing McDermott because you need to make a change, but how much evaluation was there to, like, figure out who this next person is? In the press release, they had a typo in the first sentence saying that Sean McDermott did an admiral job. Yeah, that doesn't inspire confidence. I feel like the fact that Bean is not just sticking, through this Sean McDermott's stuff,

but also getting promoted after this, feels insane to me because I feel like he is at least as much at fault for where they've fallen short in the postseason as McDermen, if not more so. And now Bean is going to bring in this coach and have all the control over this coach they're reporting up into him.

I don't know, man. I really do feel like there's dysfunction that gets worse if they go out and hire a coach that's never coached in the NFL before or even at the college level. It feels like a classic NFL power struggle. Owner not happy with teams results. has two options.

Fire coach, fire GM, fire both. And he decides, well, if I fire both, then who's leading the search to find me a new GM and a new coach? I mean, it sounds silly. I know people listening to this will laugh. That is kind of how it works in the NFL. These are not well-oiled machines.

These are not great organizations that think these things through and have a plan in place of what to do. So it can come down to simply, well, you know, I like Brandon Bean. he can help me find a new coach and we'll go from there. Okay, McDermott's fired and sorry for the typo there in the third line. So I'm with you.

Yeah, I'm absolutely with you there on being art. Austin doesn't like my Greg Olson idea. I'm not joking. This isn't a bit. This isn't for just takes. No, I am being serious with that one when I look at these coaching options available. All right, let's finish with this, Austin. Sean McDermott, now available to coach elsewhere.

You think he's going to TV? He's got that personality. Will there be a bidding more? I don't know if he's going to TV. I don't think he's going to go to TV. I don't think he has the edge that Tomlin has, or Greg Olson has, for that matter. But, you know, I think of the teams remaining,

the Falcons have already found their guy with Kevin Stefanski, the Giants have hired John Harbaugh. I think of the teams remaining where McDermott makes sense, the Raiders, the Browns, and the Titans.

I think those are three teams that I feel like are not, are looking to go from zero to good. And I think that's what John Harbaugh can do with the Giants to go from this laughing stock in the NFL to good. And we'll see if he can have deep postseason success. He hasn't had it in quite some time. With Sean McDermott, you know, I think if you're the biggest Big Dermott hater, you're kind of arguing that Josh Allen kind of carried him to these six straight divisional rounds and you don't know what he could be

with a different quarterback situation in the postseason. I feel like the teams that are going to be willing to accept that they're not going to get Jesse Minter or Clint Kubiak or these like new young hot schemers are going to say, hey, we're going to go get someone that has proven he can lead a team into the postseason and has, in the past, at least, I feel like elevated the defensive personnel. And I think that's where the Raiders, the Browns, the Titans, those are three teams that I think are in that desperation mode where they're probably not going to get one of the two or three best candidates remaining

and going to have to settle. And if you're settling in a bad coaching class or bad coaching class, Sean McDermott is a really good coach to settle on. He needs to go to a team that is looking to kind of snap a playoff drought or postseason any kind of success rather than kind of going to a team that has this expectation now, like, hey, we need to go win a Super Bowl. So you're a Raiders fan.

You wake up later, you wake up Friday morning. You check your phone. The Raiders have hired Sean McDermott. You're excited about that? I'll be honest. I'm kind of surprised to hear you mention the Raiders. I don't know why. In my head, I'm thinking Raiders get a young offensive coach,

draft Mendoza, and hopefully that works. It might not, but that's kind of my vision in my head for them. But you sound like you would have mind if they hired Sean McDermott. I wouldn't mind if I'm all. I wouldn't mind if I'm also waking up and Clint Kubiak is hired elsewhere. Chris Shula is hired elsewhere. Jesse Minter is hired elsewhere because I don't think the Raiders are one of the more favorable jobs open, especially now that the Buffalo job is open.

And if those young names aren't available and then McDermott is kind of where the Raiders have to settle, like they did last year, Tom Brady, wanted Liam Cohen, he wanted Ben Johnson, they settled for Pete Carroll, obviously didn't work out. I think settling for McDermott in this class is better than some of the other options. where like you're retrying. If I wake up and it's Matt Nagy, I'm gonna lose my mind. I don't want Matt Nagy again.

Well, that's a re-team in the NFL. If your team goes out and hires Matt Nagy, I mean, nobody try to talk me into it because that to me is just as boring and unoriginal and you have no new ideas as it gets. So yeah, I'm with you there on Matt Nagy. I thought, you know, the Titans, I think is maybe the most interesting one as you were going through them as I was going through them before the show

because you can kind of talk yourself into, all right, talented quarterback, numbers weren't great as a rookie, but the talent is kind of undeniable. It's not a pressure cooker. You're in one of the smaller markets in the NFL, where if you're competing for a wildcard next year, you don't even have to kind of make the playoffs, you're competing for a wild card.

Ward is showing progress. The players are into it. The defense, you're getting more with less. That might be a nice situation to be in. And you have some time to kind of grow into it. So if I'm McDermann and I like Cam Ward, I think that is one that would probably interest me. The Browns is just a tough one

because it's just like, I don't, I really don't know what their plan is or what they're doing. The Steelers, I sort in my head here, do you do this? I just picture the coach in the uniform. Okay, maybe. Aesthetically sure, but like that's not, you don't fire Tomlin.

They didn't want to fire Tomlin. He stepped down. Yeah. But you don't go from Tomlin to McDermen. They, in my opinion, have a philosophy. We're going to go hire someone who's under 40 years old. we feel like we're going to give time to. It's the same thing that the Ravens were kind of saying.

We're going to go hire someone who's younger, who we're going to give some patience to, some time to figure it out and become this leader of man in addition to kind of having this scheming edge out of the gate. I think McDermott to Pittsburgh doesn't make sense. I don't think McDermott to the Baltimore makes sense. It's going to be one of these teams that's desperate. It's Titans, it's Browns, it's Raiders.

And I think he accepts that job. I don't think he's going to TV. And I think those three teams are kind of lucky at this point, right? Because I think when we were going into the off season, it was like, oh, there's maybe going to be five or six jobs that open up. And it's going to be a bad crop of candidates. Kevin's DeFancy is going to get fired. He's immediately the best candidate and everything after that. You're working at retreads or guys, you're kind of talking yourself into being this next Liam Cohen, Ben Johnson, Mike McDonald type.

Now, you know, you have McDermott in the mix. Harbaugh's already been, you know, hired. And then in Cefansky, that's kind of the top three candidates. And it forces you down the list now with these teams where, like, getting McDermott, if you miss out on the hot young guru, is a way better consolation prize than maybe where some of these teams are going to end up with, like, a Matt Nagy, a Robert Sala,

Vance Joseph. Like, I think that there's some of these candidates where you're ultimately like, we're going to see if we can do this again and kind of forget about what happened when they were head coaches before. The other team here, as I'm going through these openings, another team that I don't know what they're doing

is the Arizona Cardinals. I think that the dolphins and the Cardinals, and honestly the Browns are all similar in that they have, quarterback problems on the roster right now, right? What do the Dolphins do with Tuatung Vaila in that contract? The Browns are paying Deshawn Watson this year no matter what.

And then the Cardinals are all signs point to that they're moving on from Kyle Murray and they're going to have to figure out the quarterback position without a top pick and a free agency class where the bell of the ball is going to be Malik Willis. Those three teams, whereas with the Raiders probably going to be selecting Fernando Mendoza, the Indiana quarterback at number one overall, and the

Titans have Cam Ward. Those are two situations where if you're looking to develop a young guy and at least have stability at that quarterback position, you can buy yourself, I think you can talk yourself into it a little bit easier than those other teams where it's like, your number one problem coming in is figure out quarterback. And that's going to be ultimately what determines the success you have in this stint. And it's so much I think for these, for these, you know, it's, I think reminiscent with what Harbaugh did picking the Giants is like, hey, I need to know who the quarterback is going to be because at the end of the day, like, that's going to be what the tenure's tied to.

All right. We'll see what happens. Who knows? Another coach might get fired tomorrow. This is what this is probably the craziest coaching cycle. I can remember 10 openings. Three are now filled with Halfley, Harbaugh, and Stefansky. McDermott is now in the mix to land one of the remaining seven jobs. Seven jobs for now. Maybe there will be more than seven jobs. His name is Austin. Thank you to Austin.

Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing Stefano Sanchez on video care, Givins on social, and additional production supervision by Conor and Evans and Arjuna Ramgopal. I'm Shil Kapalya. We will be back tomorrow on the Ringer NFL show. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Helph.com. Call 1-888-789-77-7-7-7 or visit cpgg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MDGamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here.

Visit gambling helpline, MA.org or call 800-32750-50 for 24-7-7.com. in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-8-N-Y or text Hope N-Y in New York.