Browns’ prior interest in hiring Sean McDermott changes everything

The NFL’s 2026 head coaching carousel has officially gone bonkers, with John Harbaugh, Mike Tomlin, and now Sean McDermott all either changing teams, or taking a year off. That’s a combined 46 years of head coaching experience hitting the market this year — and that only accounts for 30 percent of the total openings league-wide.

For the Cleveland Browns, who have been taking a methodical approach to their search and should continue doing so with interviews expected to continue past the conference championship games this coming weekend, things just got complicated. Buffalo’s decision to fire McDermott after nine seasons changes everything; who wouldn’t want to coach in Buffalo, which thanks to QB Josh Allen has been an annual AFC contender for seven years running?

Browns fans rooting for their team to go with a bold hire, like 30-year-old Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator Grant Udinski, or star Los Angeles Chargers DC Jesse Minter, have to be concerned right now. Udinski, for instance, has quickly built a reputation for being a QB whisperer; he could be exactly what the Bills need to help Allen and company get over the hump, if paired with the right defensive mind.

There’s also the flip side of the coin: The Browns' potential interest in McDermott, the coach who slipped through their fingers in 2016, right before the start of the miserable Hue Jackson era.

Sean McDermott’s firing is the twist Browns fans weren’t ready for

According to longtime beat writer Mary Kay Cabot, the Browns were high on McDermott. In fact, if it wasn’t for owner Jimmy Haslam overriding his front office, the team might’ve chosen McDermott over Jackson prior to that 2016 season.

“It wouldn’t be surprising for the Browns to call about McDermott,” Cabot wrote for cleveland.com. “They interviewed him for their head coach vacancy in 2016 when they ultimately settled on Hue Jackson, who was fired midway through the 2018 season with a 3-36-1 record.

Former Browns Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta, former GM Sashi Brown (now Ravens president) and Andrew Berry, then-Browns vice president of player personnel and GM, preferred McDermott. But Browns ownership, led by Jimmy Haslam, favored Jackson.”

Now about a decade later, Cleveland’s front office looks a lot different. DePodesta, for one, is now back in basketball leading the Colorado Rockies' front office. Berry was in the building, though, in his first stint with the Browns, prior to his single year with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2019.

If Berry liked McDermott back then, he could be even more interested now, after watching him compile a 98-50 overall record and coach in 16 playoff games with the Bills; the Browns, in comparison, have only played in three total playoff games since the start of their expansion era in 1999.

The perceived frontrunners for the Browns job entering the week were guys like Jim Schwartz and Todd Moken, guys with experience whose hiring would have Haslam’s name written all over it. McDermott could quickly emerge as the middle man, as he both has a track record of success and some interview history with the team as one of Berry's guys.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that McDermott intends to coach in 2026, and with six positions to choose from, there’s a high likelihood that he surges to the top of teams’ wish lists, just like Harbaugh and Kevin Stefanski did this past week.

Browns fans have been getting to know names like Udinski and Nate Scheelhaase over the past couple of weeks, but McDermott’s now the known commodity who's impossible to ignore.