The Buffalo Bills are stuck in an awkward middle ground right now. It’s not just about firing Sean McDermott. But it’s also about what comes next. With Championship Weekend now in the rearview, Buffalo has two paths in front of it. Either they continue the head-coaching search immediately or wait a couple of weeks for the candidate they appear to like most. And that’s where things start to get complicated.

According to reports, Josh Allen’s Bills are interested in Seattle Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak as a potential next head coach. The problem is timing. Kubiak just guided the Seahawks to the Super Bowl, where they’ll face the New England Patriots on February 8. Because of that, Buffalo isn’t allowed to interview him until Super Bowl week is officially over.

The reasoning behind the delay is fairly straightforward. The Bills never conducted an initial interview with Kubiak before Seattle reached the Super Bowl. Without that first interview on record, NFL rules prevented Buffalo from starting the process during the two-week lead-up to the game.

Complicating things further was when Buffalo made its coaching change. The Bills fired McDermott a few days after their Divisional Round loss to the Denver Broncos. Under NFL rules, teams that fire a head coach after the Divisional Round lose access to the early interview window and must wait for later hiring periods, which, in this case, means waiting until after the Super Bowl.

Those rules exist to keep coaches fully focused on preparing for the biggest game of the season. So for Buffalo, everything now circles back to February 8. If the Bills are serious about Kubiak, they’ll have to sit tight for a couple of weeks and hope nothing changes.

But waiting comes with real risk. Of the ten teams that entered this cycle needing a head coach, six have already filled their vacancies. Those teams are now actively building out their coaching staffs. If Buffalo waits for Kubiak and Seattle ultimately decides to retain him after the Super Bowl, the Bills could find themselves behind the curve, potentially missing out on key assistants, including top offensive and defensive coordinator candidates.

The bad news only keeps stacking up for Buffalo. Any hope of patiently waiting out the Klint Kubiak timeline took another hit once the Bills confirmed Joe Brady as their new head coach. The move effectively ends the Kubiak watch before it ever truly began. As the Bills pivoted to lock in Brady, another potential candidate, Philip Rivers, officially took his name out of the running for entirely different reasons

Why is it not the right time for Philip Rivers to be a head coach?

Philip Rivers briefly stepped back into the NFL during the 2025 regular season, coming out of retirement to start for the Indianapolis Colts. When that run ended without a playoff appearance, Rivers returned home and seemed to close the book on his comeback. A few weeks later, though, his name resurfaced in league circles. But this time, not as a quarterback, but as a potential head coach.

Following Sean McDermott’s firing, Rivers was linked to the Bills’ head coaching vacancy and even interviewed with the team last week. However, just days later, Rivers withdrew from the search, according to The Athletic’s Dianna Russini. While no official explanation was given, the reasoning doesn’t take much effort to piece together.

Rivers is currently the head coach at St. Michael Catholic High School in Alabama, where his son Gunner is entering his senior season. That role clearly carries weight for Rivers, especially at this stage of his life. ‘Considering he has no prior NFL coaching experience, as a head coach or otherwise, the timing simply doesn’t seem right for him to take on an NFL job.

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For now, Rivers will remain at St. Michael Catholic, continuing his work on the high school sidelines. His name will likely continue to surface in NFL conversations down the line. But a head coaching jump at the professional level doesn’t appear imminent. Meanwhile, the Bills remain one of four teams still searching for their next head coach as this hiring cycle continues to unfold.