The countdown is in its final few days.
Come Sunday, the Bills open their training camp at the newly renamed St. John Fisher University. Buffalo and the Rams get a two-day start on the other 30 NFL teams as they open the season on Thursday, Sept. 8 while the rest of the league commences three days later.
How excited are the fans?
All 11 practices at SJF — July 24, 25, 27, 29, 30, Aug. 1, 2, 4, 10 and 11, each starting at 9:45 a.m. and Sunday, Aug. 7, beginning at 11:45 — are already sold out.
The only other shot at seeing a training camp practice is Friday, Aug. 5, at 5:30, in Highmark Stadium, the details of which will be announced soon.
So what has the Buffalo faithful so fired up?
Potential.
Every major Las Vegas bookmaker has the Bills favored to win the Super Bowl AND quarterback Josh Allen to claim the MVP ahead of Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow.
Yet, oddly, Buffalo’s over/under win total is only 11.5, tied for the most with the Packers and Buccaneers. It would seem that the Super Bowl favorite’s number should be more like 13, which was Green Bay and Tampa Bay’s preseason total last year.
Then there’s this curiosity.
The betting favorite for Coach of the Year is the Chargers Brandon Staley, heading into his second season, and No. 2 is Giants rookie Brian Daboll, the former Bills’ offensive coordinator.
Buffalo’s Sean McDermott?
He’s tied for 20th with the Jets’ Robert Saleh, Cardinals’ Kliff Kingsbury, Saints’ Dennis Allen and Commanders’ Ron Rivera.
In fairness, though, the Chiefs’ Andy Reid and Steelers’ Mike Tomlin are tied for 26th of the 32 head coaches starting the season.
Fact is, it’s hard for coaches who are expected to do well — McDermott and Reid, for instance — to win Coach of the Year.
But there are other factors for McDermott.
For all his organizational and team-molding skills, he hasn’t distinguished himself on the sideline. McDermott has committed some memorable game-day gaffes. Just last season there was the embarrassing 9-6 loss to the pathetic 3-14 Jaguars whose over-his-head coach Urban Meyer didn’t manage to last the season.
But the burden he will carry for the rest of his career is the final 13 seconds of regulation in the 42-36 overtime divisional playoff loss at Kansas City. What actually happened on the Chiefs final possession has been cloaked in secrecy by the team since that night. Did McDermott call for the deep kickoff after the Bills took the lead? Special teams coordinator Heath Farwell was seemingly scapegoated as he was let go shortly thereafter, then immediately hired in Jacksonville.
And did McDermott overrule his defensive coordinator, Leslie Frazier, and call for an alignment that left both wide receiver Tyreek Hill and tight end Travis Kelce wide-open on consecutive plays that put KC in position to kick the tying field goal?
After the game and in the post-season press conference, McDermott admitted that ultimately the responsibility was his, inferring that he wouldn’t throw a coach or player under the bus.
But it came off as expected coachspeak rather than an admission.
What’s certain is McDermott and his team will still get plenty of questions about one of the most disastrous defeats in Bills’ history, at least until the new season begins.
Meanwhile, Buffalo will be weighed down with the pressure of expectations in a new campaign whose toughest games come in the first seven.
Still, McDermott maintains his team is equal to the pressure.
“Obviously we know the noise that’s out there,” he said of the lofty predictions. “When you’re doing things right and when you’re having success that’s going to be there. That’s what we’ve worked for, quite honestly, where we’ve come from the last five years to where we are now. There’s been a lot of hands in that and I’m extremely grateful for that and proud of this organization.
McDermott added, “We’ll see where this season goes … I’m excited about it. Right now, it’s names on paper and we’ve got to bring those names to life and the team has to come together. How we handle distractions, the commitment level that we all commit to one another as a team and how this thing comes together ultimately will govern where we go.”
(Chuck Pollock, an Olean Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
