Sean McDermott On Top Of The List For Worst Replay Challengers

The NFL saw 222 challenges in 2019. It is a little less than one for every game. Of those tasks, coaches were right on only 83 of them. It’s a startling success rate of just over 37%. And the record of the worst calls goes to coach Sean McDermott!

Sean McDermott On Top Of The List For Worst Replay Challengers

The NFL has a lot of dubious calls, but if a coach feels that a call was incorrectly made, there has to be a reason to reverse it, right?

Well, when Sean McDermott is raising the flag, it doesn’t appear to be the case too frequently. Throughout his seven years as head coach of the Bills, the coach has had difficulty having plays reversed in his favor, which has made Buffalo fans cringe whenever he raises the red flag.

Just eight of the current NFL coaches are even halfway successful at making the proper judgments, and three of them—Kliff Kingsbury, Brian Flores, and Matt LaFleur—have only coached one season. These are the top five players who have led their teams for multiple seasons:

  • Doug Marrone 22-37 (59%)
  • Kyle Shanahan 11-19 (58%)
  • Mike McCarthy 47-93 (51%)
  • Mike Zimmer 19-38 (50%)
  • Bruce Arians 24-48 (50%)

That’s accurate! Out of a top five that appears to have been taken straight out of a Sesame Street “Which of These Is Not Like The Other” skit, Doug Bleeping Marrone is the most astute active NFL competitor.

Buffalo’s Sean McDermott can be found on the other top five list. As in the five least successful challengers in the NFL (more than one season of experience):

  • Sean McDermott 3-15 (20%)
  • Matt Nagy 2-8 (25%)
  • Mike Vrabel 3-10 (30%)
  • Frank Reich 3-14 (31%)
  • Jon Gruden 33-96 (34%)

Year Challenge record
2023 0-2
2022 1-3
2021 1-2
2020 2-3
2019 2-3
2018 0-6
2017 1-3
Total 7-22

In coach’s challenges, McDermott is 0-2 as of Week 9 of the 2023 NFL season. In the Bills-Jaguars game in London, he lost a challenge in which Trevor Lawrence found Evan Engram for a five-yard reception for a first down; but, it was the Week 9 challenge against the Bengals that infuriated Bills supporters.

With 5:40 remaining in the quarter, Buffalo was behind 24-10 when McDermott contested a Josh Allen ball to Trent Sherfield that had been called incomplete. The Bills missed a timeout as a result of the play being upheld, which ultimately proved to be significant in a game that they lost 24–18.

Although McDermott hasn’t said much about his approach, it’s obvious that it doesn’t work. It’s possible that he and the Bills are making more choices based on what they observe from the sidelines than on the information from the video review.

Although the issues facing coaches in the third decade won’t likely become much simpler, at least it won’t start with a stadium full of people who are only interested in sitting in the back row and second-guessing everything.

 

 

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