Is Joe Brady the main issue on offense?

[Pete]

 

[Captain_Quint]

1 hour ago, DaVinci said:

Who the Hell knows anymore. 

Real prophetic, DaVinci.. .. 

[hondo in seattle]

13 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

No. Not even close. 

 

The main issue is talent at the skill positions. 100%. 

 

The only real criticism I'd make of Brady is that I think the last two weeks he has taken the ball out of James Cook's hands way too much. The offense works when James cooks. It works much less well when it becomes reliant on receivers to get open. 

 

This actually looks a LOT like the Tom Brady offense his final year in New England. That was not on Josh McDaniels and this is not on Joe Brady. Can you nitpick at a play call here and there? Yep, you can. I didn't like the sweep vs New England because it was early and we were moving. I wasn't delighted they called it vs the Falcons either, but in that game it was desperation because we could not move the football. 

 

Allen didn't play very well in Atlanta (Jeff Ullbrich always seems to cause him issues) but it isn't on Josh either. 

 

The main problem with the offense is Brandon Beane.

 

 

I agree with your conclusion, GB.  

 

But I don't think Brady is blameless.  Not when defenders are saying they're reading our plays.  Not when we continually see Josh scan the field and find no one to throw to. 

 

It's not like all the completions in the NFL are going to elite wideouts.  Many other teams are scheming their JAG receivers open better than we are.  And some of Brady's 3rd and 4th down calls remind me of Seattle throwing the ball in the SB when they should have given it to Marshawn.  Sometimes play-callers overthink things.  And sometimes they underthink things.  Weirdly, Brady seems to do both.   

[MasterStrategist]

This is all on Beane, offense is horrible right now bc of lack of WR talent- simple.

 

We score on our 1st drives of each half-- thats when you script plays/most impactful of coaching adjustments.  Brady 2 for 2.

 

But Beane was counting on a 2nd year jump for Keon, Palmer to create more downfield playmaking, Shakir to continue improving (hence the new deal), and Kincaid to stay healthy & jump his game.

 

Beane made each of these decisions --- next year, maybe we have a new GM that actually realizes our talent deficient group at WR cant be solved by Josh Allen alone.

 

Trade deadline will tell alot -- especially if "extreme" --- ie: trading a future 1st or standing pat and making no move.  Either of those options points to either a desperate GM or one who is being told to stand down.

 

 

[Chicken Boo]

What OC worth their salt WOULDN'T use Cook in the pass game?

 

That alone should be enough to get him canned.  

[dayman]

Main issue? 
 

Poll results are nuts. The main issue is obviously that we don’t have receivers that can win one on one.

[Success]

Gotta zag here - NO.

 

I don't think his schemes are bad. We don't have a #1 OR #2 receiver right now.  We have a roster of 3's and 4's.

 

 

[NewEra]

15 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

No. Not even close. 

 

The main issue is talent at the skill positions. 100%. 

 

The only real criticism I'd make of Brady is that I think the last two weeks he has taken the ball out of James Cook's hands way too much. The offense works when James cooks. It works much less well when it becomes reliant on receivers to get open. 

 

This actually looks a LOT like the Tom Brady offense his final year in New England. That was not on Josh McDaniels and this is not on Joe Brady. Can you nitpick at a play call here and there? Yep, you can. I didn't like the sweep vs New England because it was early and we were moving. I wasn't delighted they called it vs the Falcons either, but in that game it was desperation because we could not move the football. 

 

Allen didn't play very well in Atlanta (Jeff Ullbrich always seems to cause him issues) but it isn't on Josh either. 

 

The main problem with the offense is Brandon Beane.

 

We could move the football on the ground just fine.  5 yards a carry on the game.  Our problem was passing.

 

The WR unit is Beanes fault for sure.  But Monday night, the unit that he decided to invest more heavily on, the offensive line gave up a 44% pass rush win percentage;  our best pass catcher and most heavily invested in playmaker was out with an oblique injury;  our biggest investment at WR this offseason had 2 catches for 60 yards on 6 snaps before getting injured.  Our 2 best route runners out of the game, our offensive line getting beat and our QB not processing fast enough to move the chains.  
 

I agree that Beane is to blame for the current state of our WRs, but I don’t think that he was the reason our offense was so bad.  It wasn’t just the WRs not getting open.  
 

side note-  I really hope Palmers injury isn’t too bad.  He was about to have himself a day before his injury.  Imo, he’s clearly our best outside WR and we should be making getting him the ball a priority.  If he fails when given the opportunity, at least we gave it a try and on to the next plan.  
 

have you watched him run routes in the all 22?  I think he’s real smooth and his transitions into cuts seem effortless for a guy his size.  Thoughts on him being our go to WR?  Or do you think the top 20 type corners will swallow him up?

[Billsfanatic8989]

Dorsey was an issue. Now it's Brady. Brady isn't perfect. He's not an offensive guru. But it's the talent imo.

[PauleeeWalnuts]

Lack of talent around JA is holding back the offense, Brady just adds to the cluster by being very inconsistent, calling bone headed plays and leaving Cook on the sideline 50% of the snaps 

[Livinginthepast]

The lack of talent on the Offense is Beane's fault. But the lack of ability to use the actual talent we have (Allen and Cook) to their max and the lack of ability to maximize the middling other talent we have on Offense is on Brady and his vanilla schemes. I think a better OC gets more out of this offensive group than Brady does.

[Orlando Buffalo]

Through 4 weeks we had the best offense in the league with 30 pts every game and the most efficient offense in the league, after a year of close to the same. Y'all are insane to act like week 5 and 6, with poor officials and lots of injuries means more 

[Figster]

4 hours ago, Success said:

Gotta zag here - NO.

 

I don't think his schemes are bad. We don't have a #1 OR #2 receiver right now.  We have a roster of 3's and 4's.

 

 

 All the more reason to lean on the Bills star RB, James Cook.  The Falcons OC clearly knew how to use their best weapon.

 

You don't think this is a problem?

 

 

[steven50]

Personal is a problem but what is also a problem is we played the team with the highest blitz percentage in the NFL and for the entire game we had two passes thrown to a running back and both those throws were not to the number 1 running back.

 

The Atlanta Falcons blitzed Josh Allen on 55.9% of his drop backs and we never adjusted.

 

That is a coaching problem.

[Dafan]

On 10/14/2025 at 6:22 AM, Kirby Jackson said:

He certainly is “AN” issue. His play calling has been abysmal (especially in short yardage).

 

With that being said, no, he isn’t “the biggest issue.” That is the lack of wide receivers. You can’t run an offense if guys can’t get open. Teams are currently sending rushers and leaving the CBs to blanket the trash he has to work with. The Bills are WAY too easy to defend and it’s not because of scheme. His hands are tied behind his back with the pass catchers he has to work with. 

I agree to an extent...we need a true WR1.  But to pull Cook on third/forth and short and try to pull gimmick plays is stupid.  In the second half, Cook was averaging 7 yards per carry....wtf is he not on the field.  Even if you decide to give the ball to someone else.

[Richard Noggin]

5 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

I agree with your conclusion, GB.  

 

But I don't think Brady is blameless.  Not when defenders are saying they're reading our plays.  Not when we continually see Josh scan the field and find no one to throw to. 

 

It's not like all the completions in the NFL are going to elite wideouts.  Many other teams are scheming their JAG receivers open better than we are.  And some of Brady's 3rd and 4th down calls remind me of Seattle throwing the ball in the SB when they should have given it to Marshawn.  Sometimes play-callers overthink things.  And sometimes they underthink things.  Weirdly, Brady seems to do both.   

 

Where did you see "defenders...saying they're reading our plays"? That's been a growing complaint of mine on BOTH sides of the ball, tbh. The players are at a disadvantage far too often because the play callers rely on poorly disguised tendencies/concepts. The Bills seem easy to scout, overall. Also, the (offensive) players seem to do a shite job of executing wrinkles and creative calls, which potentially speaks to how little practice time is spent on diverse concepts each week. Their comfort zone is incredibly narrow, apparently. 

 

It's truly unfortunate that Allen will spend the absolute prime of his career with substandard NFL offensive play design and play-calling. Really robs us of so much joy when watching the Bills. There is a GULF between offenses like the Bills and those of McVay, Shanahan, whoever the eff is calling Tampa's plays this season, etc.

 

All this ignores or sidesteps how easily opposing offenses can motion our defense into predictable and vanilla concepts most of the time. Again, putting the players at least at a disadvantage.