The Athletic: Joe Brady’s biggest challenges as he takes over as Bills head coach
There could be big changes coming even as the Bills went with an in-house hire.
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The Bills chose to go with what they knew when they promoted offensive coordinator Joe Brady to head coach.
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The Buffalo Bills have a new head coach, and they’re going with what they know rather than bringing someone new to an established organization.
The Bills
promoted Joe Brady to head coach Tuesday, giving him a five-year deal. It’s a massive rise for Brady, who came to the Bills in 2022 as the team’s quarterbacks coach, was promoted to interim offensive coordinator late in the 2023 season, got the full-time job in 2024 and then held that until his promotion to head coach for the 2026 season.
Brady replaces Sean McDermott,
who held the job for nine years, and is charged with the task of delivering the Josh Allen-led Bills to the Super Bowl.
Brady already has the Allen stamp of approval, but several questions will follow the 36-year-old Brady into his first head-coaching job, and a high-profile one at that.
As Brady gets settled into his new position, here are the biggest questions and challenges he’ll face this offseason.
Can Brady return the Bills to being one of the most dynamic offenses in the NFL?
This should be the biggest piece of the puzzle. An Allen-led unit should be the primary reason the Bills can push past their playoff ceiling. Removing the names, the Bills just paired a generational quarterback with an offensive-minded head coach. It was the lingering “what if” during the McDermott tenure, because the former head coach was a defensive mind, and any offensive coordinator who led them to great success would run the risk of being hired elsewhere. Now, with an offensive-minded head coach, that risk no longer exists. But it’s a bit complicated with Brady, considering he had Allen for just the last two-plus seasons.
While Brady helped put together a great 2024 season on offense, with an average of 30.9 points per game and an Allen MVP campaign, the offense regressed in 2025. The running game was excellent for much of the season, but the passing game was inconsistent, and the downfield passing attack was unavailable for most of the season.
A big talking point throughout the season was that they craved being a two-dimensional offense but couldn’t access it frequently enough. Many times during the second half of the regular season, the offense needed to play catch-up while the defense kept the Bills in games. Another factor is the massive loss to the coaching staff with offensive line coach and run game coordinator Aaron Kromer retiring last week. He had a heavy impact on game planning in 2025.
The wide receiver room will likely be overhauled. The Bills can’t afford to run back the same group next season. That could help them become a two-dimensional offense. Allen, plus an enhanced wide receiver room, combined with James Cook, a good tight end group and three returning offensive linemen, should be enough to generate more consistency in 2026.
However, for the offense to get to that level, it will need to change how it operates. Brady must prove that he can push aside the inconsistencies and some of the more uninspiring play calls that plagued the Bills’ offense. On the positive side, Brady’s game plan against the Denver Broncos was a very good one that moved the ball well against a very good defense. Errors by Allen and Cook ultimately did the Bills in.
What to make of Brady calling the plays on offense? What staff changes are coming?
The Bills want their offense to return to being a consistent juggernaut, and Brady’s first big decision was made the day he was hired. A team source confirmed that Brady will continue to be the offensive play caller as the team’s head coach. The offense will assuredly be in his vision, and this lessens the overall impact of the new offensive coordinator. It also likely limits the pool of candidates if there isn’t a play-calling component attached to the role. The last time the Bills’ full-time head coach was also the offensive play caller was in 2010 with Chan Gailey.
The Bills wanted their new head coach to be someone who could be a CEO and handle the day-to-day, along with game planning, and that was a part of Brady’s interview that stood out to the Bills. Trying to balance being a CEO-type leader, along with calling a game, runs the risk of spreading a first-time head coach too thin. With Brady committed to calling the plays for 2026 at least, the offensive coordinator’s most vital role will be meshing with Allen, which could open the door for that person to call the plays in the future. At the moment, Brady and the Bills prefer familiarity with the game-to-game vision of the offense because of the stakes and how quickly they want to win.
It wouldn’t be a shock to see only small changes on the offensive staff. Losing Kromer is a massive hit to their operation, but his protege, Austin Gund, could be under consideration for offensive line coach. Gund was the Bills’ assistant offensive line coach last season. The wide receivers coach position also could be due for a change in 2026, given the Bills’ struggles.
Bills assistant offensive line coach Austin Gund is a possibility to replace Aaron Kromer as offensive line coach.T
ina MacIntyre-Yee / Imagn Images
The bigger questions, however, are on defense. There is already a report from ESPN that pins Broncos pass game coordinator Jim Leonhard as a leading candidate to be the Bills’ new defensive coordinator. If that happens, the entire defensive staff could see an overhaul from last season. Bobby Babich, who was McDermott’s defensive protege since the former head coach arrived in 2017, might be gone if the Bills get Leonhard. And if Babich is gone, there could be a lot of positional coaching changes, too. Brady may want to hang on to some, with impressive coaching from cornerbacks coach Jahmile Addae and safeties coach Mike Danna. There could be others, but the defensive coordinator will likely have full autonomy and will want his own people.
What changes will the Bills make on defense?
Much of this will be shaped by whom the Bills pick as defensive coordinator. McDermott had a direct say and vision for the defense during his nine seasons. This is a chance to start fresh with a new defensive identity. Whether that means a structural change with a new base defense, a schematic change in their zone coverage-to-man coverage ratio or a philosophical change on blitzing, the Bills will effectively get a blank slate on defense in 2026.
Under McDermott, the Bills generally ranked near the bottom of the league in blitz rate and believed firmly in getting to the quarterback with their front four to leave enough resources for their back seven in coverage. With the Bills generally drifting toward zone-heavy game plans, maximizing how many players were in that zone took away places for the opposition to throw to. When the Bills weren’t getting to the quarterback enough with their front four, they would blitz more, which would generally bring more man coverage.
The defense has plenty of free agents and some older players, so if the Bills were to make a dramatic schematic change, it could take some time for general manager Brandon Beane to fit the right pieces into the new defensive coordinator’s vision. Having some overlap with McDermott’s principles would make the transition smoother.
How loyal will the Bills be to their many long-term veteran players?
Any time there is a new head coach, players wonder how and if they will fit. But because the Bills promoted Brady, players such as Dion Dawkins (31 years old) and Dawson Knox (29) have a pretty good idea of how they’ll fit in. Outside of Allen, those two are the most veteran pieces on offense, but even they have some questions moving forward.
How much longer can Dawkins be effective as Allen’s blind-side edge protector? And are the Bills going to head into 2026 with the same trio of tight ends if they can save nearly $9 million in cap space to move on from Knox?
Without a baseline for what the Bills will be on defense, the question becomes even more stark for those players. Long-term McDermott starters such as cornerback Tre’Davious White, linebacker Matt Milano, defensive tackle DaQuan Jones and safety Jordan Poyer — who are all free agents — may have played their last game for the Bills. Core contributors Shaq Thompson and A.J. Epenesa are also free agents. On top of them, how do some of the long-term commitment defenders such as defensive tackle Ed Oliver, defensive end Greg Rousseau, nickel corner Taron Johnson and linebacker Terrel Bernard fit into the Bills’ new defensive parameters? There is the potential to see a lot of new faces in 2026, especially on defense.
What will Brady do to shake off the negative reaction from the fan base?
This challenge is admittedly more abstract because there is always a feeling-out process between the new person in charge and the fan base. Fans generally give the new head coach the benefit of the doubt in the early stages of his tenure, but the coach’s authenticity has to hold up over time. It’s one of the ways McDermott thrived in Buffalo, with his last public comments as Bills head coach aimed at defending Buffalo against what he believed was a bad call. Winning certainly helps the situation, but a genuine connection will become lasting even if the results are uneven. Brady immersing himself more meaningfully in the community is a good place to start, especially given what is important to this particular fan base.
After McDermott’s highly successful nine-year run raised the ceiling and overall profile of the organization, a good bit of goodwill was lost among the fan base once the Bills lost in the divisional round to Denver, most notably because of the perception of how the team’s decisions were made rather than the decisions themselves. Brady’s appointment as head coach was met with a lot of dissatisfaction on social media. The trust will need to be rebuilt over time.
What will ultimately soothe the anxiety over what has transpired over the last week and a half is getting Allen to that elusive Super Bowl as he enters his age-30 season in 2026. Until then, there may be increased skepticism about whether Brady was the right man for the job when the Bills had the opportunity to start fresh rather than going with what they know. There are certainly reasons to like the Brady hire, but answering these questions became part of the territory when the Bills chose to make a major change.
