On way to join Belichick, Lombardi says hard to find coaching edge in Bills-Lions

In less than four weeks, no fewer than seven head-coaching jobs will be available. The Bills and Lions will not be in that group. And, surprisingly, Bill Belichick won’t be a candidate. The future Hall of Famer officially accepted an offer to craft his legacy with the North Carolina program on Wednesday.

One of Belichick’s first hires is Mike Lombardi to serve as the Tar Heels’ general manager, albeit a much-different role than Lombardi’s previous stops as a GM in the NFL. Before reuniting with Belichick in Chapel Hill, Lombardi on Wednesday morning shared his thoughts on the respective head coaches in Buffalo (10-3) and Detroit (12-1), who’ll clash in a potential Super Bowl preview on Sunday at Ford Field (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS). Both Sean McDermott and Dan Campbell have made mistakes this year, Lombardi said.

“Sean McDermott has made some incredible blunders,” he said on the Lombardi Line podcast. “His team is really well coached. They do a wonderful job; he’s won a lot of games there. But there are times that have occurred where you just wonder. The 13 seconds in Kansas City, which prevented them from winning, and last week. He did such a great job of saving his timeouts, and then he blew a timeout when he shouldn’t have; he should’ve been, ‘No, we don’t want to use that timeout.’”

In fairness, McDermott is 83-44 (.654) in the regular season since taking the Buffalo reins in 2017. Only Andy Reid (97-31, .758) has a better mark among coaches who’ve held their titles that long. McDermott’s obvious blemish is his inability to reach the Super Bowl in six prior trips to the postseason. And now that Buffalo has clinched the AFC East and a seventh trip to the playoffs, how the Bills execute a month from now will ultimately decide how history views McDermott.

Coordinators expected to interview in that hiring cycle will help McDermott write that history. Offensive leader Joe Brady has the Bills ranked second in the NFL with 30.5 points per game. Only Detroit (32.1) is better. On defense, Bobby Babich has guided an opportunistic unit that ranks third in league with 24 takeaways. Buffalo is tied with Pittsburgh for the NFL’s No. 1 turnover margin at plus-17.

“It’s hard to find a coaching edge here,” Lombardi said. “McDermott’s a really good coach to go along with Bobby Babich, who is their defensive coordinator.

“Conversely, Aaron Glenn’s done a wonderful job with the Lions but he’s dealing with Josh Allen, and that’s a problem. How do you stop that?”

The Rams couldn’t. Last week, Allen became the first player in NFL annals to register three touchdown passes and three rushing touchdowns in a regular-season game (Otto Graham did it in the 1954 NFL Championship).

Glenn and Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson also will be in the thick of head-coaching interviews next month, balancing their own push for the Super Bowl. While Glenn and Johnson have their plates full with the Bills this week, whenever they land with new teams, what’s interesting is whether they’ll adopt the same aggressive identity as their current leader, Campbell. Last week, the Lions’ head coach kept his offense on the field to attempt five fourth-down conversions, the last of which secured a victory.

“I think that’s wrong,” Lombardi said. “Winston Churchill once said, ‘To improve is to change and to be perfect is to change often.’ And I think, to me, every situation should lend itself to what’s going on. … The game was tied; he went for it on fourth down to win the game. Next week, it could be a different situation based on Josh Allen. It may not be, but it could be.”

Points machines: Detroit (32.1) and Buffalo (30.5) rank 1-2 among NFL teams in points per game. Buffalo has reached 30 in seven straight outings and become the fifth team ever to hit that mark in eight consecutive games within a season. Only the 2013 Denver Broncos, the 2007 and 2010 New England Patriots, and the 2000 St. Louis Rams have done it.

Historic accuracy: Detroit quarterback Jared Goff (276 of 381) is second in the NFL with a 72.4 completion percentage. On seven occasions this season, he’s finished games having completed at least 75.0 percent of his attempts. Against the Bills, the veteran can join Tom Brady (eight games in 2007) as one of two quarterbacks all-time to achieve a 75.0 completion percentage in at least eight games within a season (minimum 15 attempts per game).

For more information on the Bills and Lions, visit the Buffalo and Detroit team pages at ProFootballPost.com.