Have the Buffalo Bills Lost Faith In “The Process”?

Trust The Process, or “TTP”. That’s what this regime has been preaching since coming to Buffalo in 2017. The players, the fans, and the local media loved it and they couldn’t get enough of that saying. It’s what the players have lived by and what they’ve mentioned in every press conference since then. Every post game interview you’ll hear Josh Allen or Sean McDermott mention how “it’s a process” or something to that extent. But, have the players lost faith in the one thing that has brought this community hope?

The Buffalo Bills started this year out hot, like they have every year since 2020. But since then, everything seems to have gone downhill. From a lack of motivation the players are showing, to the coaching staff showing no enthusiasm at all with the media. There’s some players that seemed to have given up mentally. And one of them is Josh Allen, who showed absolutely no emotion after the Cincinnati Bengals game just a few days ago.

This was just Josh Allen after the loss Sunday night. You can’t tell me that’s a good sign for how this team is going to look down the last stretch of the season. If your starting QB, the leader of this football team, is dejected and looks like he just witnessed something heinous, is it a good look for the team morale? Something will have to drastically change in the off-season before star players like Stefon Diggs truly want out of Buffalo.

Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane are going to die by this “process” they’ve created. However, that has only gotten them so far in the seven years they’ve been in Buffalo. It has included two conference championship losses, two divisional round losses, and a wildcard loss. At some point, “The Process” has to either change or result in a Super Bowl appearance before this team they’ve built heads for the retirement home. (That process has already started with how our Safety duo is looking.)

“The Process” looked like the best thing since the K-Gun offense in the ‘90s. Now, it’s looking like the 2017 Buffalo Bills did — Average. Good enough to win games, but not against the top tier teams when it matters the most. This may seem like a Sean McDermott knock, which it is. And he truly built this organization from the ground up. But if this is what his process looks like seven years later, the Bills are going to have to look elsewhere to get them over the proverbial hump.

This is the hump we expected to climb over when we gave a boatload of money to Von Miller. And, to his defense, he hasn’t seen the field enough to make a playoff-caliber impact. But if you’re making all these moves after what was now our best chance at a Super Bowl, and this is the product being put out there, there needs to be some changes come February.

The 2023 Buffalo Bills have too much talent on this team, even after injuries, to look this bad. Going into this season, all the talk was how well-rounded this team is; there were “no holes anywhere”. If that is true, there can only be one reason for the team’s lack of success as of late… The coaching. Josh Allen is a unicorn, and what this coaching staff has done to him is a criminal offense.

You took one of his best attributes, locked it up at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and threw the key away. You took the style of offense that has worked this season, and put it on the back burner to test out “other offensive styles”. It’s Week 10 and you’re still toying around with the offense like it’s training camp. At some point, you can’t direct blame away from Sean McDermott and have to see it for what it is. And that’s a lack of execution from the leader of this organization.

The Bills gave Sean McDermott an extension before the season began. However, with how they’ve been playing so far, his seat could — and should — be hot right now. Sean McDermott’s Bills have eight more games to figure this out, starting on Monday night against the Denver Broncos. If they can’t do that and the team misses the playoffs, big changes need to come before the 2024 season.

The city of Buffalo and Western NY will always have a special place in their heart for where Sean McDermott took this franchise. But it has to come to an end if this season goes down the drain.

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