How Good is Joe Brady?

[harryS]

Re: Brady's LSU stint

 

The season right before Brady arrived, LSU already had Burrow, Jefferson, and Chase, and they were a bad offense.  Seriously, the season before Burrow threw for 60 TDs, he threw for only 16 TDs without Brady.  

 

Brady actually was not the offensive coordinator and didn't call the plays on game day, but he designed that passing offense.  If you followed college football closely that season, there was no doubt that the bulk of the credit went to Joe Brady for LSU's transformation from bad to historically great offense. 

[ganesh]

49 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

Two things I will say for sure:

 

1. He isn't as good as Sean McVay; but

2. If he had called the 4th down run McVay did on TNF we would have people here calling for his immediate firing. 

Didn’t we try that three time in this years AFCC? 

[SoTier]

12 hours ago, Mikie2times said:

Nor would I call looking at the final 10 games of his tenure by itself logical. He had a top 5 offense here for most of his tenure. The best in the NFL in several stats. McD, Brady, Daboll, Dorsey, Beane, will never escape the Allen impact. 

 

Since it was the problems with his offense in his last 10 games that got Dorsey fired, it is entirely logical. 

 

11 hours ago, ganesh said:

Daboll called  plays that put Allen to make better throws to his WR. He also had an alpha WR in Diggs along with an excellent slot WR. 
 

Brady has understood his WR limitations and took out those plays that only Diggs and Beasley could do. 
 

When you looked at Jones passing for 350 yards with no name receiver - have to say Brady is not in the same league as Shannahan or McVay. 

 

Brady also doesn't have the experience that Shanahan or McVay have.   He still has plenty of time to get better, but who knows?

 

 

1 hour ago, GerstAusGosheim said:

 10 points vs Cinci in the playoffs. And still kept his job!

 

Dorsey was the Bills OC in the 2022 playoffs against Cincinnati not Brady.

 

Dude, if you're gonna troll, at least do it competently.  

[billsbackto81]

For the record, I do like Brady as an OC. I just feel he doesn't have a good flow as the game goes along. Scoring on every opening drive this year is quite impressive. That tells me that whenever he can open it up, good things happen. But to me it just seems whenever a lead is slim and there's an opportunity to go for the kill he and McD go conservative and predictable. If Tua doesn't throw that pick and Rattler makes a better throw to Cooks we aren't winning by 2 scores (if at all) to two of the worst teams in the league. 

 

Of course the defense can try doing their part with a timely stop or two.

 

This is JMHO. 4-0 is 4-0

Edited 6 hours ago by billsbackto81

[GunnerBill]

1 hour ago, ganesh said:

Didn’t we try that three time in this years AFCC? 

 

We called sneaks.

[Sierra Foothills]

17 hours ago, billsbackto81 said:

I don't think we'll never know until McD decides to  take the governor restriction off the carburetor. 

 

17 hours ago, GASabresIUFan said:

I think that is by design and with Josh's approval.  It controls the game, limits mistakes, wears down opponents and keeps Josh from getting beat up.  It's averaging 31+ pts a game.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

As others have pointed out here and elsewhere... that is the question... how effectively the Bills will throw when the defense knows they have to throw?

 

17 hours ago, HappyDays said:

It's really difficult to tell exactly how good he is. Allen single handedly erases a lot of stalled drives and the only other time Brady was an NFL OC he failed and got fired.

Brady's play design and play calling is simple, for better or worse. He calls a few select formations and only has like 3-4 concepts he calls out of each of those formations. He basically tells the opposing defense I think I can call these plays even when you know they're coming and I dare you to stop it. We've seen that strategy falter a bit when defenses sell out to stop specific plays, but it's hard to argue with the results. Any given week we can put up 30+ points while barely breaking a sweat. Yes we have Allen as the ultimate force multiplier but that's been true since 2020 and we've only seen the week to week consistency show up since Brady took over.

I don't think he's particularly creative and he can be a bit too conservative for my liking so I would say he both significantly raises our floor and slightly reduces our ceiling.

 

I think the offense is well-constructed and QB-friendly and that's what makes me concerned that Trubisky has such a hard time running it. I know there are a lot of factors when choosing a backup QB but bottom line, I'd like a better one.

 

15 hours ago, 3rdand12 said:

I want to see the 3 headed monster at RB again soon. and an honest deep bomb caught from Brady and Allen design

 

This is another of my concerns... the drop-off from Cook is too large. IMO we need a better RB room... or Johnson and Cook have to start playing a lot better.

 

15 hours ago, 3rdand12 said:

as long as he lifts the floor enough

 Creative should wait till later in the season , or post season.

Keep it simple as long as possible on game day , but practice the cool stuff.

Have you considered how many options Josh has  pre snap ? They have given him the Keys for sure. It might be a factor

 Both are growing together and that is a healthy dynamic.

 

This is the other question... how much depth, complexity, and variation Brady adds to the offense. Is this happening behind the scenes? Are the Bills keeping stuff under wraps?

 

14 hours ago, bills11 said:

True it's a very interesting approach similar to what the Colts did with Peyton..the one downside as you said is sometimes going to the well a bit too often like when we ran the sneak with Josh and the chiefs knew it was coming .

 

Except Manning had Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne in Indy and Demaryus Thomas, Eric Decker, Emmanuel Sanders, and Wes Welker in Denver... plus excellent tight ends. Manning has had better weapons than Josh.

 

9 hours ago, Richard Noggin said:

IThat was a damning sequence in my opinion. It was obvious to the entire NFL that the Chiefs were prepared to stop that specific play. Failing to recognize that reality and then adjust in-game was just too obviously stubborn and conservative. Brady is often reluctant or even refuses to leverage his own play calling success and predictability on the snap BEFORE the defense adjusts to shut it down. He seemingly waits until the snap is wasted, rather than staying a step ahead. I've become very annoying and repetitive about this, apparently.

 

Kudos to the Eagles on being the first team (fittingly) to build wrinkles off of the Push Tush. How great would it have been against Kansas City for the Bills to have used it as the basis for fooling KC in the championship game? Based on the Chiefs overselling out to stop it, there seems almost no doubt that a trick play counter would have worked for the Bills.

 

3 hours ago, shane nelson said:

According to AI the Bills are 26-7 since Brady became OC.  As Parcells always said "You are what your record says you are" 

 

And without the benefit of a great defense.

 

1 hour ago, billsbackto81 said:

For the record, I do like Brady as an OC. I just feel he doesn't have a good flow as the game goes along. Scoring on every opening drive this year is quite impressive. That tells me that whenever he can open it up, good things happen. But to me it just seems whenever a lead is slim and there's an opportunity to go for the kill he and McD go conservative and predictable. If Tua doesn't throw that pick and Rattler makes a better throw to Cooks we aren't winning by 2 scores (if at all) to two of the worst teams in the league. 

 

The bolded is the great unanswered question... how much influence does McDermott exert on the play calling?

 

[frostbitmic]

Sometimes I think he's very good, other times I think he could be better, maybe I'm just getting spoiled by how good they've been.

 

The Offense has been great, scoring 30 x 3 and 40 in the other game. 

 

 

[Low Positive]

2 minutes ago, frostbitmic said:

Sometimes I think he's very good, other times I think he could be better, maybe I'm just getting spoiled by how good they've been.

 

The Offense has been great, scoring 30 x 3 and 40 in the other game. 

 

 

All offenses stall sometimes. The 2013 Denver Broncos were the highest scoring offense in NFL history. They still punted 65 times. 

[BillsShredder83]

18 hours ago, Mikie2times said:

I think what's important to focus on here is his system is very good for Josh and if he leaves, what happens as far as his replacement will be one of the bigger hires McD has made. A Dorsey like mistake would be devastating at this point. I feel like as far as a system goes, this is our final version. We need to just keep iterating on this base system like the Patriots. No broad changes at this point. 

McDaniel is my first call if Brady gets HC job! Hes an OC not a head coach, and he wont have the cast of headcases hes dealing with now. Plus the rest of the coaching staff provides him good structure to focus on being a playbook guy. Would love to see what he can do with Cook!

[3rdand12]

13 minutes ago, BillsShredder83 said:

McDaniel is my first call if Brady gets HC job! Hes an OC not a head coach, and he wont have the cast of headcases hes dealing with now. Plus the rest of the coaching staff provides him good structure to focus on being a playbook guy. Would love to see what he can do with Cook!

I am down for continuity at this point.

If McDaniel is available , and Brady gets an offer he cannot refuse? That might be  worth a much closer look.

If we win the SB with Brady I would hope the Pegula trust fund would offer wheelbarrows of gold to keep him.

 he and Josh are in sync seemingly

[BillsShredder83]

15 hours ago, ChronicAndKnuckles said:

I think he’s great. He brought an elite running game to pair with Josh Allen. Now only if his defensive counterpart could do the same then the Bills would be golden. My only gripe is the lack of deep ball, but I think this type of small ball, dink & dunk will really serve us well against elite Quarterback play in the postseason by keeping them off the field. 

Hawes blocking is much more crucial. It allows the Bills to have a pseudo 6th lineman without actually having to sacrifice a passing threat. His role is absolutely crucial in Brady’s offense and gives the Bills so many new wrinkles. What a find. 

Yes Hawes blocking is what makes him so money. At the same time, if we can continue to show hes a threat to sneak out the back door, get open and catch the ball, it will elevate his effectiveness blocking.

 

The difference between him and Alec is that one is only a blocker and the other can also slip out and hurt you. Lee Smith was a beast in run game, but he almost never got the rock.... and he almost turns into a magnet for the defense. Don't get me wrong, he was incredibly effective, but ACTUALLY hurting the defense time to time makes defenders have to think, and hesitate a bit in attacking the ball. That's a plus.

 

This is not a gripe or criticism, they're executing perfectly. I just think we're doing Hawes a huge favor if we can get him a real breakout game on film. Get him a couple grabs in a game. 50-60yds..... put him on tape doing some damage on play action. Make sure you don't slip into a habit of letting him become fully 1-D.

 

So stoked on this dude!

[jaybills]

Future head coach. I want him to be our head coach who calls the plays and McDermott as out DC. 

[BigAl2526]

20 hours ago, Low Positive said:

The best point in this video is that one of the reasons the running game is working so well is that heavy formations with 12 and 13 personnel are not pulling defenses out of cover 2. Because Josh Allen. 

Josh Allen is a weapon who is always going to impact defensive strategy.  Brady understands that and takes advantage.  I won't fault him for that.  I do complain a bit when he runs the identical running play 3 and 4 times consecutively.  Teams are starting to anticipate that and are stopping the plays cold.  What I'd like to see is the Bills running the same play a couple times, then fake the same play and do something different.   That should keep defenses more off balance.

[Low Positive]

Just now, BigAl2526 said:

Josh Allen is a weapon who is always going to impact defensive strategy.  Brady understands that and takes advantage.  I won't fault him for that.  I do complain a bit when he runs the identical running play 3 and 4 times consecutively.  Teams are starting to anticipate that and are stopping the plays cold.  What I'd like to see is the Bills running the same play a couple times, then fake the same play and do something different.   That should keep defenses more off balance.

They might be getting tendencies on film in order to break them later in the season.