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01/27 16:17 CST Bills promote offensive coordinator Joe Brady to take over as
head coach
Bills promote offensive coordinator Joe Brady to take over as head coach
By JOHN WAWROW
AP Sports Writer
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) --- The Buffalo Bills stayed in-house by promoting
offensive coordinator Joe Brady as their new head coach on Tuesday, in a move
that provides continuity to a Josh Allen-led perennial winner that has
accomplished everything short of reaching a Super Bowl.
The team announced Brady agreed to a five-year deal. He will be introduced as
the head coach during a news conference on Thursday.
The 36-year-old Brady just completed his fourth season in Buffalo and his
second full season as coordinator. He previously served as quarterbacks coach
before taking over the offense after Ken Dorsey was fired midway through the
2023 season.
Brady's promotion came a little more than a week after Sean McDermott was fired
following a nine-year tenure.
He has no previous head coaching experience over eight NFL seasons. Brady broke
into the league with the New Orleans Saints by spending two seasons as an
offensive assistant under Sean Payton. He left the Saints to serve as passing
game coordinator on LSU's 2019 national championship team, with Joe Burrow at
quarterback.
Considered an up-and-coming head coaching candidate, Brady returned to the NFL
by taking over as the Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator before being
fired late into the 2021 season.
Brady shared a bond with McDermott, as both played college at William & Mary.
Brady played receiver and upon graduating in 2012, he took on a role with the
Tribe as linebackers coach.
Brady was the first to interview for the Bills job in a search that began on
Jan. 21. Aside from Buffalo, Brady also interviewed for five other NFL
openings, including still-existing vacancies in Arizona and Las Vegas.
Buffalo eventually met with nine candidates in an interview process led by
general manager Brandon Beane and included Allen sitting in on meetings.
Buffalo was the 10th and final team to have a coaching vacancy, and missed out
on interviewing John Harbaugh, who was hired by the New York Giants.
Among the candidates were former Giants coach Brian Daboll, who was Buffalo's
offensive coordinator before landing the job in New York. The Bills also
interviewed Jacksonville offensive coordinator Grant Udinski and 44-year-old
quarterback Philip Rivers, who removed his name from consideration three days
after meeting with Buffalo.
Under Brady, the Bills offense took a far more balanced approach in part to
take the burden off Allen. Brady also introduced what became known as an
"Everybody Eats," share-the-wealth approach to the passing game, which followed
Buffalo trading leading receiver Stefon Diggs to Houston in April 2024.
The approach worked the following season, with Allen earning AP NFL MVP honors
for his 28 touchdowns passing (plus 12 rushing) and a career-low six
interceptions and a receiving group led by Khalil Shakir's 76 catches for 821
yards.
This season, the Bills offense ranked fourth in the NFL in total yards and tied
for fourth in scoring. Though Buffalo was knocked for a middling group of
receivers, fourth-year running back James Cook finished with 1,621 yards
rushing to become the first Bills player to lead the NFL in rushing since O.J.
Simpson in 1976.
Brady said he's learned from his short stint in Carolina. Rather than blame it
on limited access to players because of the COVID-19 pandemic, running back
Christian McCaffrey being sidelined by injuries or a revolving door at
quarterback, Brady put it on himself.
"I don't think you're ever going to out-genius. I got let go from my last job
trying to think like that," Brady said in December 2023. "I wasn't going to
make excuses for why it didn't work out. I was going to figure out where were
my blind spots, and what I can do better if I get the next opportunity."
It's now on Brady to get the Bills over the hump in the postseason.
In nine seasons, McDermott transformed a longtime loser --- ending Buffalo's
17-year playoff drought in his first season --- into a franchise that became
the NFL's only team to qualify for the postseason in each of the past seven
years.
Buffalo had 10 or more wins in each of those seven years and enjoyed a
five-year stretch as AFC East champions before going 12-5 and finishing second
to Super Bowl-bound New England this season.
On the downside, the Bills became the NFL's first team to win a playoff round
in six straight years but not make the Super Bowl. The closest Buffalo came
were AFC championship game appearances in the 2020 and '24 seasons, both ending
in losses at Kansas City.
The shortcomings led to owner Terry Pegula saying he believed the Bills "hit
the proverbial playoff wall" in firing McDermott following a 33-30 overtime
loss at Denver in the divisional round on Jan. 17.
Buffalo's past three playoff losses were each decided by three points. That
doesn't include a 42-36 overtime loss to Kansas City in the 2021 divisional
round. The game was dubbed "13 Seconds," reflecting how much time was left in
regulation for the Chiefs to gain 44 yards to set up Harrison Butker's
game-tying 49-yard field goal.
The coaching change comes with Allen entering his ninth NFL season and set to
turn 30 in May. The franchise is beginning a new era with the Bills moving
across the street into a newly constructed $2.1 billion stadium.
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