Former Bills HC Sean McDermott on What Drives Josh Allen’s Greatness

Sean McDermott was the head coach who pushed his chips in for Josh Allen in 2018, and on The Rich Eisen Show the former Buffalo Bills coach walked through the nerves, the trade, and the texture of the quarterback he helped install as the face of a franchise.

McDermott told Rich that the Bills knew before the night started they would have to climb the board, and the first dance partner did not pan out. "We felt like we had a couple partners to that would possibly dance with us," McDermott said, before adding that the original target trade-back fell through and Buffalo had to pivot to option two. The pivot landed Allen, and McDermott described the result plainly as "drafting one of the best quarterbacks in league history." When Rich pressed for the name of the partner that walked away, McDermott declined, citing potential ramifications and refusing to put a current franchise on blast.

Asked for his favorite Allen story off the field, McDermott went straight to the image that has become Buffalo folklore: Allen in a Sabres sweater, chugging a beer in front of a hockey crowd before a playoff game. "That's that's it, right?" McDermott said. "That's what makes him part of who he is." The coach said Allen "owns the locker room" and "naturally has that it factor," but stressed that the part outsiders rarely see is who he is in the building day to day, and how he carries himself with kids, families, and the community.

The physical story McDermott picked was Allen's rookie year in Minnesota, when the quarterback went airborne over a Vikings linebacker on a scramble. "Just like I'm just going to jump over this NFL player," McDermott said, marveling that Allen made it look effortless and predicting the league would not see anything quite like it again, even from Allen himself, who has since learned to protect his body. McDermott said the coaching staff had to inch into the conversation about not turning that play into a weekly habit, working toward a version of Allen who could keep his identity without sacrificing longevity.

The through line, McDermott told Rich, is competitiveness across every surface, from practice fields to golf courses to whatever in-building game the Bills cooked up. "There are very few if any tougher in the game than Josh Allen," McDermott said, closing a conversation that doubled as a reminder of how thin the margin was between Buffalo getting its quarterback and watching him land somewhere else.