KANSAS CITY -- At this chaotic early crossroads of his head-coaching career, it made some sense for Sean McDermott's team to run into Andy Reid's.

"Probably half of what I know about the NFL is from Andy Reid," McDermott told ESPN before his Buffalo Bills eked out a 16-10 victory over Reid's reeling Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday afternoon. "He's probably the biggest professional mentor I have, on and off the field. And I remember Andy's early days, too. What we're going through is very similar to what they were doing in Philly when Andy got there."

McDermott's in the wayback machine now, recalling the long-distant year of 1999. He was a 25-year-old entry-level coaching assistant on the staff of the 41-year-old Reid, who was in his first year as coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles had cratered at 3-13 the year before in the final season under Ray Rhodes. Reid was brought in to build something. After a 5-11 debut season, Reid won at least 11 games in each of the next five seasons, made the playoffs in nine of the next 11 and built the Eagles into one of the league's most consistently excellent teams. McDermott, who was on the staff through 2010, saw it all.

Now, McDermott is 43 and in his first year as Buffalo's head coach. As you might have heard, it has been a little rocky, especially the past couple weeks.

The Bills started 5-2 but lost their next three in ugly fashion. None was uglier than last week, when McDermott shocked everyone by benching quarterback Tyrod Taylor for fifth-round rookie Nathan Peterman, who threw five interceptions in the first half of a loss to the Chargers. The move, which was reversed at halftime, has been widely panned as the sign of a coach who is in over his head, who is reactionary and who doesn't know what he's doing.

Then, somehow, the Bills rolled in and beat the Chiefs with Taylor starting and playing the whole game. Now they're 6-5, which means they're in playoff contention in this year's AFC. While the world yells and screams and overreacts, McDermott works at staying stone-faced.

"This league's going to try to move you in a lot of different directions," he said after the game. "Who can stay focused, who can stay together the longest through adversity, that's who wins. We just try and stay focused on that process."

That there's a word fans hate, right? "Process." McDermott uses it all the time. He arrived in Buffalo determined to overhaul. This team is working on 17 straight seasons of not making the playoffs -- a feat almost impossible in the modern, parity-driven NFL. Something has been significantly, systemically wrong in Buffalo for a long time, and McDermott believes that his mandate is to do whatever it takes to change it. Part of that is making decisions people might not like. Last week's quarterback switch didn't play great in the locker room, and McDermott knows that. But that's only one part of the bigger picture he has to keep in mind.

"The morale of the football team is certainly an important part of this process," McDermott said prior to the game. "But there's going to be some moments, if you're doing this the right way, where that gets tested. But hey, you look at what's gone on here, and it's 17 years of maybe one way of doing things. We have to try a new way of doing things."

This is a tough balancing act: trying to build a sustainably successful model for the long term while being careful not to squander an opportunity to reach the playoffs this season. Even if a 9-7 wild-card spot isn't the goal McDermott ultimately dreams of, he has to keep in mind where he is -- and what it would mean to his fan base to see its team in a postseason game for the first time since the "Music City Miracle" loss 18 seasons ago.

"Just stick with the process," McDermott told ESPN when asked about that balancing act. "I think, when we first came here, people used words like 'tanking.' But I look at it as 'earning the right.' You earn the right every Sunday. You earn the right to build the thing the right way. Everything's about building."

The old line about making an omelette and breaking some eggs works here. It's hard to imagine, even if Taylor starts the rest of the way and the Bills go to the playoffs, that McDermott and the Bills will bring back the quarterback in 2018. After what went on last week, it's hard to imagine Taylor wanting to come back.

"He's handled it well, like I would expect him to. Like a pro," McDermott said of Taylor. "I'm sure he wasn't feeling like we're exactly best friends, but he's respectful and he was very supportive of Nate."

McDermott remains supportive of Peterman as well. He said last week that he could imagine going back to Peterman if circumstances dictated it. McDermott said not all of the five interceptions were Peterman's fault and that he continues to "see the resiliency and the grit and the mental toughness, and you know he can lead a team."

But that's the big picture. The picture right in front of McDermott is one in which Taylor gets the start next week in a potentially huge game against the first-place Patriots.

"Tyrod is our quarterback for next week," McDermott said after Taylor went 19-for-29 for 183 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions in Sunday's victory.

"One week at a time," Taylor said with a weary smile when told McDermott hadn't committed to him beyond next week. "I always remain confident in myself, and I'm just happy to be a part of what those guys are doing in that locker room."

So what's next? Could Buffalo get its elusive playoff berth? Can the Bills shock New England next week and make the AFC East a real race? Beyond that, can McDermott do what his mentor Reid did in Philadelphia and build a perennial contender? McDermott is 11 games into his head-coaching career, and that's way too soon to know. But he has a template he thinks he can follow, and the guy he beat Sunday is his inspiration for staying committed to it through the tough times.

"It's the vision that's important, but what separated Andy was more the plan and the detail of the plan," McDermott said. "The day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month, year-to-year detail of the plan. Whatever the circumstances, he had a plan he was putting into place to help bring about the vision. And that's what I took from those days."

These days, it's what's helping McDermott through. On Sunday, that determined, big-picture focus helped the short term look just a little bit brighter too.