New Bills DC says it would be ‘stupid’ not to lean on ‘mentor’ Sean McDermott

Since Bobby Babich has been working in the NFL, he has been in a relationship with Sean McDermott.

The son of longtime NFL defensive coach Bob Babich, Bobby was retired from the collegiate ranks in 2011, leaving Eastern Michigan’s Division 1 FCS program to join Ron Rivera’s upstart team in Caroline. Babich’s official title with the Panthers was “administrative assistant to the coaching staff,” developing a relationship with new defensive coordinator Sean McDermott throughout his two years in Charlotte.

Their two paths diverged after the 2012 season, with Babich leaving to work with the Cleveland Browns before returning to the college level as FIU’s secondary coach in 2016. When McDermott was named head coach of the Buffalo Bills in 2017 after a successful stint as a FIU secondary coach. A defensive player for Carolina, Babich rejoined his staff, initially signing on as an assistant defensive backs coach.

He is one of the few coaches remaining on McDermott’s original staff, rising through the ranks over the past seven years; he was named safeties coach in 2018 before becoming linebackers coach in 2022. After interviewing for several defensive coordinator vacancies around the league during the 2024 offseason, Buffalo named Babich its defensive coordinator to prevent teams to poach him, a fitting culmination of his rise. assemble the staff.

Related: Bills sign 8 members of 2024 NFL Draft class to rookie contracts

He never really wanted to go anywhere else. He even finds it a bit poetic that his first chance as an NFL defensive coordinator will be alongside a head coach he’s known since he entered the league, a presence he anticipates to rely heavily on adapting to their new role.

“I’m a fool if I don’t use Sean McDermott,” Babich told reporters before an OTA practice Tuesday at One Bills Drive. “At the end of the day, he’s the head coach of the Buffalo Bills, not only because he’s a great leader and a great football mind, but he’s made a name for himself on defense. I have always considered Sean a mentor. Already, I ask him things every day. Every day I’m in his office: “Hey, how are you going to handle this?” And I’m probably wearing it out a bit.

“I think a lot of things happen for a reason. I think the situation we’re in right now, it’s funny, when you look back to 2011, I’m a 26-year-old kid who thinks he knows football, and I didn’t know football. Now I’m here in this position with him. I hope, and I sincerely believe, that the relationship we have had for 13 years now would contribute to this. Whatever you do, you create this relationship where, from my point of view, there’s a lot of respect and admiration for the work that he’s done and what he’s able to do and the way he think things. There’s no doubt in my mind that it’s an advantage to have that prior relationship.

Babich — given his relative youth (40) and the fact that all of his professional experience comes as a position coach — has no experience calling defensive plays, a responsibility typically assigned to coordinators defensive. McDermott told reporters last month that Babich will have the opportunity to call defensive plays throughout the summer and preseason, but he has not yet decided who will get the play sheet in September ; An experienced play-caller himself, McDermott called defensive plays for the team last season after the departure of former coordinator Leslie Frazier.

Babich isn’t overly concerned about who ultimately gets the blame, because the team’s success is his only real concern.

Related: Bills sign UDFA LB after previous tryout, waive OT Tommy Doyle

“You’re never ready until you do it,” Babich said. “I prepared, I think I’ve been in this league for 12 or 13 years, you’re constantly trying to prepare when you get to this position, but until you actually do something, you’re never ready I don’t have the ego to sit here and say “I’m ready”, this, that and the other. I’m vulnerable enough to say that I’m as prepared as I can be and I’m going to continue. to learn every day, every step of this process, I will continue to learn.

“I’m going to make mistakes in everything this job entails. It’s going to happen, just like players make mistakes, and like anyone new to a position makes mistakes. It’s going to happen, but I’m as prepared as I can be. I have a great mentor upstairs that I’ve been with for many years and can lean on, and I’m really, really, really excited about this opportunity, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes. it takes to help this team win a Super Bowl.