'BILLDING' IT RIGHT

Sean McDermott had been on the job as head coach of the Buffalo Bills for about a week. In those early January days in 2017, he would look out his office window across the parking lot at Bills Stadium and envision home playoff games. How it would look, sound and feel.

- CHRIS BROWN

Almost four years later that vision has become reality. Buffalo’s first division title ensures that there will be at least one home playoff game in Orchard Park this January.

McDermott knew from his time coaching in Philadelphia and Carolina that there was great value in playing in your stadium when the stakes were win or go home. But that vision had to have a plan. Fortunately for the Bills, McDermott’s plan was one that was fully supported by Terry and Kim Pegula.

From the time he took the job, McDermott knew there would be difficult decisions ahead. Decisions that would not make sense to outside observers. Decisions that would require an enormous amount of conviction to adhere to a philosophy that would eventually breed sustained success.

Brandon Beane would join him as general manager just a few months later, and the tear down and reconstruction began.

There would be no quick fixes like so many of the failed rebuilds of the past. The build would be methodical. A step-at-a-time approach that would have small setbacks on occasion, but one that with steadfast determination and commitment would succeed in making the franchise a perennial contender.

“I want to thank Brandon,” McDermott said after their division-clinching victory. “I wouldn’t want to work next to anybody else. He’s really put together a heck of a roster, not just this year, but as we built this thing through the years.”

That foundation was chiefly focused on getting the right people on board and moving on from those who wouldn’t be able to subscribe to what was soon to be asked of them.