Former Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott sold his home for $1.6 million in Orchard Park on Sunday, further cementing the end of an era that brought a return to relevance for the Bills for the first time since the 1990s.
Under McDermott, Buffalo made the playoffs in eight of his nine seasons, winning seven times and making it to the AFC Championship Game twice. Even though they fell short in both instances, his tenure was a breath of fresh air for a fanbase starving for excitement on the football field.
The Bills had many exciting moments under McDermott as head coach from 2017 to 2025, but three stand out as the most enjoyable for Bills fans.
3. First playoff win with capacity crowd since 1995
The Bills won their first playoff game in 25 years by defeating the Indianapolis Colts in the 2020-21 playoffs, but only 6,772 fans were able to attend due to COVID-19 protocols. However, the following season, the Bills welcomed the New England Patriots, whom Buffalo had been the punching bag of in the 2000s and 2010s, in the wild-card round.
In 7-degree cold, the Bills avenged an earlier loss to New England on home turf by putting together an offensive performance for the ages, scoring a touchdown on every possession excluding kneel-downs in a 47-17 rout.
A crowd of 69,188 dealt with the cold to experience arguably the most satisfying playoff win in Buffalo’s history since they appeared in four straight Super Bowls in the 1990s.
Such a great moment had an equally painful exit, as 13 seconds was all the Kansas City Chiefs needed to send their divisional-round game against Buffalo to overtime and knock out Buffalo on their first possession in the extra period.
2. Hines’ two kickoff return TDs honor Damar
After Damar Hamlin, who’s still with Buffalo today, suffered cardiac arrest against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Bills returned home to face the Patriots for a Week 18 matchup to determine playoff seeding for Buffalo. The entire team and coaching staff represented Hamlin with either a patch containing his number 3 or a shirt with that number and the words “Love for Damar”.
Nyheim Hines, whom the Bills acquired at the 2023 trade deadline from the Indianapolis Colts, took the opening kickoff and bounced it to the right and sprinted down the sideline for a 95-yard touchdown to start the game.
In the middle of the third quarter, Hines took a kickoff right up the gut and bounced off a tackler for a 101-yard return touchdown to give Buffalo a 20-17 lead they would never relinquish. It went on to prevail 35-23.
Buffalo went on to earn the No. 2 seed in the AFC and defeated the Miami Dolphins before falling to the Bengals in the divisional round.
1. Bills break playoff drought on New Year’s Eve
17 seasons. That was how long the longest postseason drought in the four major sports leagues was in 2017, and it belonged to the Bills in McDermott’s first season manning the helm in Buffalo.
The Bills entered Week 17 with a chance to make the playoffs and snap that drought with a win and if the chips fell their way. They took care of business, defeating the Dolphins 22-16, but they needed another team to cooperate.
That cooperation came in the form of the Bengals, as Andy Dalton converted a 4th-and-12 with a 49-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Boyd with Cincinnati down to its last play. It put his team on top of the Baltimore Ravens, knocking them out of the playoffs and inserting Buffalo into the field.
The locker room, which watched the Bills’ fate unfold after their victory in Miami, and bars across Buffalo erupted in jubilation. It doesn’t matter if they lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the wild-card round the next week; breaking the drought was a moment Bills fans will never forget.
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