ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — A friend of mine, who has only a casual interest in pro football — she’s actually a Green Bay fan — listened with interest to Sean McDermott’s Monday press conference, specifically about evaluating whether to start Tyrod Taylor or Nathan Peterman at quarterback Sunday in Kansas City.

“You know,” she said afterward, “I think he’s in over his head.”

It’s a hard conclusion to ignore, just past halfway into the new Bills’ head coach’s tenure.

Three games after Buffalo’s unexpectedly uplifting 5-2 start, this franchise is in disarray, mostly of McDermott’s making due to mixed messages and an inexplicable QB change.

Mercifully, he announced in Wednesday’s session with the media, that Taylor would start against the Chiefs.

The decision seemed a no-brainer except McDermott had strongly hinted Peterman might get the call for a second straight road game after he threw five interceptions in the first half of a 54-24 loss to the Chargers in L.A. and was pulled at intermission.

In announcing Taylor’s start, he maintained, “Like any position, we evaluate every week. The right thing for this team is to start Tyrod.

“You trust your gut … you get the feel, the pulse and understand where you are as a team and where you’re trying to go, now and in the future, how you’re trying to establish a standard, what’s expected, all that goes into the decisions that we make.”

But McDermott’s choice wasn’t as hard as he made it sound.

Peterman’s a talented, mentally tough kid but after having been pulled at halftime of the worst performance of his football career, then being sent back out against a division leader in a particularly tough road environment would be way beyond the “calculated risk” McDermott called starting him in Los Angeles.

Another poor performance might well have wrecked him emotionally for the immediate future.

But McDermott might have had a more immediate influence on his decision.

Had he started Peterman against the Chiefs, it’s likely he’d have lost the locker room … at least the veterans.

Eleven players on the Buffalo roster have been in the NFL for at least eight seasons — closer to the end of their careers than the beginning —  and starting a rookie QB again on the road with the Bills still in the playoff picture would tell them the team was totally committing to the future.

It would also tell the fan base, that “the tank” is on, no matter how much he denied the franchise was playing for the best possible draft choice.

And though he made the absolute right call in reinstating Taylor (he never should have been benched at that point in the first place), McDermott comes off as weak and indecisive … in over his head.

He did concede that part of his decision was based on Peterman’s mental state.

“No. 1, it’s important that mentally, he’s in the right frame of mind,” McDermott admitted. “What did he take out of the experience? There were some good plays in there too … and some plays that didn’t go our way. He also has to understand that was not all him.”

But McDermott reiterated that his didn’t second-guess the decision to start the fifth-round draft choice from Pitt.

“(It was) the same process I go through to make other decisions,” he said. “It starts with doing what’s right for our football team. I’m pretty much a process-oriented guy. Anything other than that would be irresponsible as a coach. I’m focused on one thing and that’s this organization moving forward.

“(It’s) all part of the process … at some point rookies have to play. That’s how you get better, you play young players, they develop — you’re seeing that with a number of young players  (in the NFL) —  they get experience, they learn from things and they get better. That’s how you develop the future of the organization, that’s how you develop sustained success.”

But there’s been little success as Buffalo has been blown out the past three weeks.

And McDermott offered mixed messages on the Bills’ bid for the postseason this year.

“A lot of it is looking at the big picture,” he said in answer to one question. “Looking around the league, there’s a lot of teams in the hunt … we’re in the hunt. Thanksgiving and close to the end of November and we’re in the hunt … there are a lot of teams that wish they were in the hunt (actually only six).”

But in response to another query, he maintained, “It’s how we continue to grow and develop … that’s what we’re looking for. We’re not focused on the playoffs, we’re focused on a grander vision of what we’re trying to accomplish. When we get there, you’ll know it.”

But when asked about what was learned in the quarterback fiasco he started only a week earlier, McDermott punted.

“You look in the rearview mirror too long in this league, you lose sight of what’s in front of you,” he said.

McDermott did concede of the defense, his specialty unit, that has surrendered a franchise-worst 135 points the past three games, “We’ve got a lot of work to do, we’ve spent a lot of time the last couple of days looking at that side of the ball as we did the week before and that starts with me. We’ve got to do some things better there.”

But he did allow of the QB controversy, “I think about my older guys, my younger guys … because I don’t believe in making irrational, snap decisions. If you make a decision, you go with it. I felt it was the right decision (to start Peterman) and right now the best decision for us is to focus on the Kansas City Chiefs (and start Taylor).

“There are a lot of coaches who sit on their hands and make comfortable decisions … that’s not why I’m here.  I’m here to win and sustain winning and in order to do that you’ve got to be willing to make (some) uncomfortable decisions.”

Even if they’re tragically flawed and reversed within a week?

(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)