Joe Brady Interview

[Got 2 Billieve]

 

[NewEra]

Good interview.  I think he’s the anti-McDermott in the way that he’s always an open book and will be genuine with his answers (minus strategy).  There won’t be such a methodical approach behind everything said.  

I didn’t have a problem with McDermott in interviews and PCe.  I thought he was a pros pro when it comes to saying the right thing.  Brady is still getting used to the mic and will only improve with time, but I think he’ll probably say a few things he regrets on the way.  

[Shaw66]

Really good. Thanks for posting. 

 

I wish he wouldn't run and hide from questions like, "who's really standing out to you right now," but I get it. He's still feeling his way, and he knows what a big distraction it can be to step in it.  

 

Still, when he gets going, rambling on, you get to see some things about him.  He was particularly interesting when he talked about whether he watches to see what McVay and Shanahan are doing.  You could hear what he football junkie he is, talking about how you watch everything, and you see things and begin to see whether you could make that work in you team. Particularly telling when he said they re-introduced the league to the jumbo package in 24 and had all that success, so in 25 everyone was doing it, but because the Bills got Hawes, they moved on from the jumbo. What he meant was that Hawes could play the jumbo third tackle, but he also was an honest-to-goodness tight end, so they could put Hawes on the field and run all the jumbo plays and all the two and three tight end packages too. 

 

You can just hear how plugged in he is to how to get an edge on the opponent. 

 

And that mentality is where things will be different this year. He's going to play offense to get an edge every play he can. Maybe McDermott forced him to dial it back a bit last year, maybe he didn't, but that attitude - how do I get an edge? - is what was missing on defense and is what Leonhard brought with him. Teams are going to be struggling to keep up with the Bills on both sides of the ball, and that should make a difference. 

[CNYfan]

7 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

 

 

Still, when he gets going, rambling on, you get to see some things about him.  He was particularly interesting when he talked about whether he watches to see what McVay and Shanahan are doing.  You could hear what he football junkie he is, talking about how you watch everything, and you see things and begin to see whether you could make that work in you team. Particularly telling when he said they re-introduced the league to the jumbo package in 24 and had all that success, so in 25 everyone was doing it, but because the Bills got Hawes, they moved on from the jumbo. What he meant was that Hawes could play the jumbo third tackle, but he also was an honest-to-goodness tight end, so they could put Hawes on the field and run all the jumbo plays and all the two and three tight end packages too. 

 

You can just hear how plugged in he is to how to get an edge on the opponent. 

 

 

To carry that forward, a bunch of teams used draft capital on blocking tight ends in April.   So the League may be going back that way, following Buffalo.  

[DJB]

I definitely believe that Brady was able to mostly run his offense with McDermott but that McDermott put a lid on some things Brady wanted to do to keep it more conservative. 
 

Hoping to see a more wide open play book this year with more explosive offense. 

[ngbills]

12 minutes ago, CNYfan said:

To carry that forward, a bunch of teams used draft capital on blocking tight ends in April.   So the League may be going back that way, following Buffalo.  

Defenses have now built themselves to stop 11 personnel. So now the O is making those nickel defenses survive against 12 and 13 personnel without giving up explosive play-action passes. Plus todays TE's are beast. Guys that can block like an OL and still have decent enough athleticism. 

[Sierra Foothills]

20 minutes ago, DJB said:

I definitely believe that Brady was able to mostly run his offense with McDermott but that McDermott put a lid on some things Brady wanted to do to keep it more conservative. 

 

So... more like a thumb print?

 

[UConn James]

A big surprised the reporter spent quite so much time asking about Sean McDermott, but.... 

 

Kinda like how he picked out the "I'm the weather" quote and how JB amended it a bit here but realizes how much his attitude and his focus now determines everything for the playing side of the organization.

[sven233]

1 hour ago, Shaw66 said:

Really good. Thanks for posting. 

 

I wish he wouldn't run and hide from questions like, "who's really standing out to you right now," but I get it. He's still feeling his way, and he knows what a big distraction it can be to step in it.  

 

Still, when he gets going, rambling on, you get to see some things about him.  He was particularly interesting when he talked about whether he watches to see what McVay and Shanahan are doing.  You could hear what he football junkie he is, talking about how you watch everything, and you see things and begin to see whether you could make that work in you team. Particularly telling when he said they re-introduced the league to the jumbo package in 24 and had all that success, so in 25 everyone was doing it, but because the Bills got Hawes, they moved on from the jumbo. What he meant was that Hawes could play the jumbo third tackle, but he also was an honest-to-goodness tight end, so they could put Hawes on the field and run all the jumbo plays and all the two and three tight end packages too. 

 

You can just hear how plugged in he is to how to get an edge on the opponent. 

 

And that mentality is where things will be different this year. He's going to play offense to get an edge every play he can. Maybe McDermott forced him to dial it back a bit last year, maybe he didn't, but that attitude - how do I get an edge? - is what was missing on defense and is what Leonhard brought with him. Teams are going to be struggling to keep up with the Bills on both sides of the ball, and that should make a difference. 

 

How does he get an edge?  By remembering that he has the best player in the world at QB.  Let Josh be Josh.  Be super aggressive on both sides of the ball.  Yes, it won't work out every possession, but I would much rather force teams to try and keep up with Josh Allen and our offense over the course of 60 minutes + than look at what the other team has and try to play keep away or ball control because of what the other team has on offense. 

 

Too many times McDermott would play to the level of the competition on purpose.  He would see an average QB or whatever on one side and think that as long as we are patient and don't make mistakes, we'll win the game instead of just putting the pedal to the floor and blowing inferior teams out.  And that worked a lot of the time until they met good teams with great QBs, especially in the Playoffs.  You could tell in those games he just wanted to play keep away to keep the other teams off the field and limiting possessions in the game.  Instead, he should have said sure.....they have an elite QB, but I have the BEST QB and to just push the envelope.  

 

All Brady needs to do is look at his QB, his RB, his TE room, and now even to a certain extent his WRs and realize he can create mismatches and just try to be aggressive most of the time.  He should just tell Leonhard to give him 4 stops a game and be as aggressive as possible to turn the ball over and give Allen as many chances on the field as possible.  The more chances Allen has to score, the better......  That's where he can find his edge.

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

1 hour ago, CNYfan said:

To carry that forward, a bunch of teams used draft capital on blocking tight ends in April.   So the League may be going back that way, following Buffalo.  

 

Yeah, but can the guys also actually catch the ball.  Lee Smith was a blocking TE,  but was no Gronk when it came to catching the ball.  Not that Hawes is a Gronk either, but you never know, he could be and at the least he's orders of magnitude better than Smith was coming off the line into patterns.

[Shaw66]

16 minutes ago, sven233 said:

 

How does he get an edge?  By remembering that he has the best player in the world at QB.  Let Josh be Josh.  Be super aggressive on both sides of the ball.  Yes, it won't work out every possession, but I would much rather force teams to try and keep up with Josh Allen and our offense over the course of 60 minutes + than look at what the other team has and try to play keep away or ball control because of what the other team has on offense. 

 

Too many times McDermott would play to the level of the competition on purpose.  He would see an average QB or whatever on one side and think that as long as we are patient and don't make mistakes, we'll win the game instead of just putting the pedal to the floor and blowing inferior teams out.  And that worked a lot of the time until they met good teams with great QBs, especially in the Playoffs.  You could tell in those games he just wanted to play keep away to keep the other teams off the field and limiting possessions in the game.  Instead, he should have said sure.....they have an elite QB, but I have the BEST QB and to just push the envelope.  

 

All Brady needs to do is look at his QB, his RB, his TE room, and now even to a certain extent his WRs and realize he can create mismatches and just try to be aggressive most of the time.  He should just tell Leonhard to give him 4 stops a game and be as aggressive as possible to turn the ball over and give Allen as many chances on the field as possible.  The more chances Allen has to score, the better......  That's where he can find his edge.

Except for the bolded part, I think you have this backward.  The Bills have been milking the edge Josh gives them all along. It's not wise to have him run for 800 yards, because he'll get too banged up.  The edge Josh gives them is by running a high powered effective offense where the other skill players are allowed to take advantage of mismatches.  That's the edge that wasn't pursued under McDermott. When the offense becomes more effective, puts more pressure on the defense, the defense can't key on Allen, and THAT's when Allen really makes a difference.  

[Logic]

My only two concerns with Brady are: will he be able to be a hard-ass when needed? And is he a good, clear, understandable communicator to the players?

Regarding question one: Brady seems like a player's coach to me. And that's fine until it's not. 
 

Will he get in Josh's ear when needed and tell him to calm down and play smart? Will he rein in CJGJ when he's being a knucklehead and help keep him from getting a game-changing penalty?

Regarding question two: I don't necessarily get the sense that Brady is the most clear and eloquent speaker. He uses verbal crutches and sometimes just seems a little unclear in his thinking, or at least his ability to communicate what he's thinking. I don't get that same impression from, say, Jim Leonhard, who is a clear and sharp speaker. And McDermott, for all of his milquetoast answers and coaching jargon, was a clear and concise communicator, too.

If Brady can be a hard-ass when needed and can communicate his vision and his coaching points clearly to the players, then I am optimistic. But I have my reservations.

[Shaw66]

12 minutes ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

 

Yeah, but can the guys also actually catch the ball.  Lee Smith was a blocking TE,  but was no Gronk when it came to catching the ball.  Not that Hawes is a Gronk either, but you never know, he could be and at the least he's orders of magnitude better than Smith was coming off the line into patterns.

Oh, Hawes is a good deal better receiving than Smith. Give him another year and he'll be closer to Gronk than to Smith. 

 

The wideout room and TE room, combined can create mismatches all across the secondary. The Bills are going to smother them with different combinations of receivers and looks, and they have a lot of receivers who can be effective wide or in the slot: Shakir, Kincaid, Moore, Coleman.  The Bills can put  lot of problems on the field for the defense. May also be problems for the Bills sometimes, too!

2 minutes ago, Logic said:

My only two concerns with Brady are: will he be able to be a hard-ass when needed? And is he a good, clear, understandable communicator to the players?

Regarding question one: Brady seems like a player's coach to me. And that's fine until it's not. 
 

Will he get in Josh's ear when needed and tell him to calm down and play smart? Will he rein in CJGJ when he's being a knucklehead and help keep him from getting a game-changing penalty?

Regarding question two: I don't necessarily get the sense that Brady is the most clear and eloquent speaker. He uses verbal crutches and sometimes just seems a little unclear in his thinking, or at least his ability to communicate what he's thinking. I don't get that same impression from, say, Jim Leonhard, who is a clear and sharp speaker. And McDermott, for all of his milquetoast answers and coaching jargon, was a clear and concise communicator, too.

If Brady can be a hard-ass when needed and can communicate his vision and his coaching points clearly to the players, then I am optimistic. But I have my reservations.

Good points about Brady. I worry about number 1, not so much number 2.  

 

The reason I don't worry about number 2 is at this level, all of the players speak and understand the language of football. They understand how plays work, and when Brady says we're going to tweak it by doing this rather than that, it comes out all garbled for listeners like us, but I think the players get it almost intuitively.  That is, when Brady says do this rather than that, they all understand why that will work.  

 

There were one or two stories about Brady when he was hired as HC, stories about how football people always want to listen to him when he's talking Xs and Os. He has creative insights into how plays work that other people, but when he says what he's thinking, football people get it. 

[Mr. WEO]

1 hour ago, Logic said:

My only two concerns with Brady are: will he be able to be a hard-ass when needed? And is he a good, clear, understandable communicator to the players?

Regarding question one: Brady seems like a player's coach to me. And that's fine until it's not. 
 

Will he get in Josh's ear when needed and tell him to calm down and play smart? Will he rein in CJGJ when he's being a knucklehead and help keep him from getting a game-changing penalty?

Regarding question two: I don't necessarily get the sense that Brady is the most clear and eloquent speaker. He uses verbal crutches and sometimes just seems a little unclear in his thinking, or at least his ability to communicate what he's thinking. I don't get that same impression from, say, Jim Leonhard, who is a clear and sharp speaker. And McDermott, for all of his milquetoast answers and coaching jargon, was a clear and concise communicator, too.

If Brady can be a hard-ass when needed and can communicate his vision and his coaching points clearly to the players, then I am optimistic. But I have my reservations.

 

 As long as he can let us know, in so many words, that everyone will give/is giving 110%, that they play to the whistle...for all 60 minutes, that they are each  are playing as a full 1 of 11, that a win is a win, that they are all a family/love each other, that, at the end of the day, the goal is to win games and their other goal is to get better every week, and that they are playing for the best fans in the NFL, and that they can only beat themselves ....well that's all I really need to hear from the HC.  

[Rochesterfan]

1 hour ago, sven233 said:

 

How does he get an edge?  By remembering that he has the best player in the world at QB.  Let Josh be Josh.  Be super aggressive on both sides of the ball.  Yes, it won't work out every possession, but I would much rather force teams to try and keep up with Josh Allen and our offense over the course of 60 minutes + than look at what the other team has and try to play keep away or ball control because of what the other team has on offense. 

 

Too many times McDermott would play to the level of the competition on purpose.  He would see an average QB or whatever on one side and think that as long as we are patient and don't make mistakes, we'll win the game instead of just putting the pedal to the floor and blowing inferior teams out.  And that worked a lot of the time until they met good teams with great QBs, especially in the Playoffs.  You could tell in those games he just wanted to play keep away to keep the other teams off the field and limiting possessions in the game.  Instead, he should have said sure.....they have an elite QB, but I have the BEST QB and to just push the envelope.  

 

All Brady needs to do is look at his QB, his RB, his TE room, and now even to a certain extent his WRs and realize he can create mismatches and just try to be aggressive most of the time.  He should just tell Leonhard to give him 4 stops a game and be as aggressive as possible to turn the ball over and give Allen as many chances on the field as possible.  The more chances Allen has to score, the better......  That's where he can find his edge.

 

If he played to the level of the competition why did we have by far the best point differential over the last 5 years.

 

i mean we were nearly double what #2 and #3 put up.  Whatever he did it was highly successful as they had the best winning percentage and the best point differential and tended to handle all levels of competition from top tier teams to the bottom dwellers and routinely outperformed the preseason win/loss total expectations.

 

Maybe just maybe after seeing all of the mistakes and Turnovers early in Josh’s career - the team decided the best way to win was to keep him more in control and lo and behold it lead to an MVP.

 

[Steve Billieve]

I'm not gonna lie, this is a bit of a train wreck, I'm at ten minutes.

 

Why is he talking about getting fired ?? At length !!

[BillsFan130]

1 hour ago, Rochesterfan said:

 

If he played to the level of the competition why did we have by far the best point differential over the last 5 years.

 

i mean we were nearly double what #2 and #3 put up.  Whatever he did it was highly successful as they had the best winning percentage and the best point differential and tended to handle all levels of competition from top tier teams to the bottom dwellers and routinely outperformed the preseason win/loss total expectations.

 

Maybe just maybe after seeing all of the mistakes and Turnovers early in Josh’s career - the team decided the best way to win was to keep him more in control and lo and behold it lead to an MVP.

 

The whole thing about "controlling Josh" was the reason that Josh won MVP is just insane to me.

 

Did limiting the turnovers help Josh win mvp? Yes it's a part of it. But look back at the 2024 season..

 

Josh threw for 5 TDs against Jax caused they aired it out.

 

Josh got 6 TDs against the rams because they aired it out.

 

Josh got 5 TDs the next week against the Lions because they aired it out.

 

Josh had some of the most insane individual plays- The 4th and 2 run to beat the undefeated Chiefs, and the TD reception against SF.

 

If they played conservative in those games and just focused on controlling him like you mentioned. And let's say Josh throws for 2 TDS those games... And Josh himself didn't make insane individual plays in those games I mentioned?

 

Then he doesn't come close to an MVP that year 

[SoonerBillsFan]

3 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

Except for the bolded part, I think you have this backward.  The Bills have been milking the edge Josh gives them all along. It's not wise to have him run for 800 yards, because he'll get too banged up.  The edge Josh gives them is by running a high powered effective offense where the other skill players are allowed to take advantage of mismatches.  That's the edge that wasn't pursued under McDermott. When the offense becomes more effective, puts more pressure on the defense, the defense can't key on Allen, and THAT's when Allen really makes a difference.  

Its past time to see passing numbers closer to what Brees had under Carmichael. For awhile now Passing yards and TD's have been dropping for Josh. Those need to go back up.

[Rochesterfan]

6 minutes ago, BillsFan130 said:

The whole thing about "controlling Josh" was the reason that Josh won MVP is just insane to me.

 

Did limiting the turnovers help Josh win mvp? Yes it's a part of it. But look back at the 2024 season..

 

Josh threw for 5 TDs against Jax caused they aired it out.

 

Josh got 6 TDs against the rams because they aired it out.

 

Josh got 5 TDs the next week against the Lions because they aired it out.

 

Josh had some of the most insane individual plays- The 4th and 2 run to beat the undefeated Chiefs, and the TD reception against SF.

 

If they played conservative in those games and just focused on controlling him like you mentioned. And let's say Josh throws for 2 TDS those games... And Josh himself didn't make insane individual plays in those games I mentioned?

 

Then he doesn't come close to an MVP that year 

 

So did McD limit him if as you state they “aired it out” in several games?  No and that is my point. The HC and OC paired him with a running attack and gave him options to move the chain and drive and score a lot.  They don’t do that if MCD has full control and only wants to completely slow the game down and only protect his defense.

Yes Josh played great, but he was also under control and took a lot of shorter passes increasing his completion percentage and limiting turnovers.  This mixed with having an option to run the ball and lean on that when needed made the team successful.

 

The issue is people act like all of the positive are solely because of Josh and all of the negatives were McD - when the reality is McD worked with Brady to develop a plan to make Josh very efficient, but still allowed Josh to be Josh.  Josh could have stayed like Favre and been just a gunslinger and continue to throw 40 TDs and 15+ picks and an additional 5+ fumbles or he could grown and understand what teams were doing to him and counter that and that led to an MVP because he dropped the turnovers into low single digits.

 

Josh didn’t make more insane plays in his MVP year than other years - arguably he made significantly less than the previous couple of years, but his play mixed with him not turning the ball over because everything was not put onto his shoulders all the time made a huge difference.
 

 

 

 

 

[BillsFan130]

10 minutes ago, Rochesterfan said:

 

So did McD limit him if as you state they “aired it out” in several games?  No and that is my point. The HC and OC paired him with a running attack and gave him options to move the chain and drive and score a lot.  They don’t do that if MCD has full control and only wants to completely slow the game down and only protect his defense.

Yes Josh played great, but he was also under control and took a lot of shorter passes increasing his completion percentage and limiting turnovers.  This mixed with having an option to run the ball and lean on that when needed made the team successful.

 

The issue is people act like all of the positive are solely because of Josh and all of the negatives were McD - when the reality is McD worked with Brady to develop a plan to make Josh very efficient, but still allowed Josh to be Josh.  Josh could have stayed like Favre and been just a gunslinger and continue to throw 40 TDs and 15+ picks and an additional 5+ fumbles or he could grown and understand what teams were doing to him and counter that and that led to an MVP because he dropped the turnovers into low single digits.

 

Josh didn’t make more insane plays in his MVP year than other years - arguably he made significantly less than the previous couple of years, but his play mixed with him not turning the ball over because everything was not put onto his shoulders all the time made a huge difference.
 

 

 

 

 

Your point was that Josh won MVP cause he was more controlled, correct? That's what you said at least. My point is he won the MVP on the games that he wasn't controlled and carried the team on his back.

 

The 4th and 2 play was the play of the year in the NFL given the circumstances against undefeated KC and to ice the game.

 

Also.... Turnovers are a lot of luck and I will give you a stat that blows your mind..

 

In 2023 his turnover worthy plays were at 3 percent and he had 22 turnovers.

 

In 2024 he had 4 percent turnover worthy plays and he ended up with only 8 turnovers.

 

So let's not act that this "controlling" thing was the reason he won MVP. He straight up got unlucky in 2023 and lucky in 2024.