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Jim Kelly: Hope & pray McDermott is the coach we've been looking for

Posted at 4:37 PM, Jan 13, 2017
and last updated 2017-01-13 16:38:05-05

When it comes to winning in Orchard Park, the 90's Bills are still the standard.

Four AFC Championships and four straight trips to the Super Bowl are still accomplishments fans and the franchise boast about proudly.

But success has been few and far between since 1999, the last time the team advanced to the playoffs.

Since then, they've only had two winning seasons and cycled through nine head coaches. The front office is now entrusting Sean McDermott to end that cycle, and get the franchise back on track.

"I’m looking to build a culture of winning and that starts within these walls and extends to our community," McDermott said at his introductory press conference.

"Time will only tell," said Bills hall-of-fame quarterback Jim Kelly. "You hope and you pray that this is the coach we've been looking for."

The 42-year-old McDermott, who is the fourth youngest head coach in the NFL, is not one to make promises about how many games the Bills will win or if they'll make the playoffs in his first year.

But both Kelly and former Bills wide receiver Steve Tasker believe that changing the culture doesn't fall solely on the head coach, but to the players as well.

"It's who is your leaders in the locker room," Kelly said.  "Who are the guys who are going to pulling everyone together to buy in to what the new coach is coming in here to do."

"NFL games are won Monday through Saturday and the game on Sunday is just the evidence of that," Tasker added. "Having a coach who, by the strength of his personality, the type of words he speaks, the coaching style he has, gets players to be motivated from the inside, I think they're the most successful.  That's what you hope Sean brings to the table."