Bills promote offensive coordinator Joe Brady to take over as head coach

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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 the five-year deal.

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.

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 that included Allen. 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.

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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