If you weren't thrilled about the Brady hire as HC do you feel any better about it now?

[MasterStrategist]

I've been excited about the Brady hire since day 1, because:

1. Most importantly -  his energy and team mgt is miles different than Sean's.  I always thought Sean was wound too tight/more rigid relationships, until maybe the past 2 or so years.  Brady's style is just something I look for in a head coach to motivate a team

 

2. Next, Brady is a legit offensive mind who literally got the "most" out of his top skilled guys.  Exhibit A - Josh Allen MVP in 2024, Exhibit B - James Cook NFL's leading rusher in 2025.  He has built an offense, even though we have lacked at WR, into a more consistent group.

 

3. Defensive hires: Joe was clear from day 1 what he was looking for in a Def Coordinator.  Honestly it's been that side of the ball holding us back from championships, which is ironic given Sean's background.  It was clear we needed to be more creative and change our scheme -- Joe has done this on offense, now he's brought in Jimmy & a staff looking to be more creative and schematically difficult to account for with pressure packages.  Our defensive backfield is already way more versatile than the past 3+ years, and it's a reflection of what Joe/Jimmy have seen work in today's NFL

 

Add the points above, to the fact that Beane/leaders internally "knew" what Joe Brady was already bringing behind the scenes and his connections to players on the offensive-side.  Kubiak was the only other name of interest, seeing I thought we had to go with an offensive coach that prioritized Josh and what he needs to be successful.  But Kubiak is no sure-thing, and his personality is the complete opposite of what I wanted as well.

[NoSaint]

4 hours ago, Einstein said:

I do not see a leader when I look at Joe Brady. I do not see someone who players will run through a wall for. I do not see someone who is going to outsmart another coach. I see someone who will get cute at inopportune times. 

I hope I am wrong.

the hope is he gets cute in opportune times 

 

like ambush or the Philly special 

 

that doesn’t marry to our blue collar power run fanbase but I think is reality of the nfl. 
 

I don’t know if he’s the guy but I do think we were fishing in the right type of pond 

[Julio Hopkins]

Not particularly, I guess it depends on what happens early on in the year.  How much sway did McDermott have on the decision making for the offensive side of the ball?  

 

Frankly, I don't think Brady has an offensive mind like Shanahan or McVay.  I also think he had a lot of say on personal decisions, leading to a terrible draft pick in Coleman and a failure to put a quality receiving group together.  Which IMO is reason 1-B why they couldn't make it to the SB the past couple of years.  Don't get me wrong, I agree with everyone that defense is the primary reason.  Which meant more capital being used on that side of the ball to make it work or moving on from McDermott and a complete restructuring of the team.  On the other hand, if they added Waddle at the trade deadline.  I think they're giving Seattle a run for their money in the SB.  The same can be said about the previous two years too.  

 

So, that brings me to Brady "acing the CEO portion of the interview."  Hiring Carmichael is probably the worst possible hire for OC.  The OC should have been a young stud offensive mind that wanted to be a head coach in a couple of years.  Someone to argue against Brady and give a fresh view of the game.  Carmichael is quite simply a comfort hire that won't rock the boat or question Brady's decisions.  Don't even get me started on the announcement that Brady was still calling plays twenty minutes after the "acing the CEO" line was fed to the media.  

 

I do think the Leonhard hire is solid.  I'm not as high on him as most mainly due to his lack of experience.  I wouldn't be shocked if there were some major growing pains next year on that side of the ball.  Raheem Morris was the S+ tier hire, but Leonhard is still a good one.  

 

 

 

Edited June 29 by Julio Hopkins

[BillMafia716ix]

I’m still not sold on Joe. I just think it’s tough going from a OC where everybody loves you to now being the HC and you have to be sort of disciplinarian. Player friendly head coaches have a tendency to be push overs. One thing McDermott brought was discipline and with that discipline, it provided consistency and expectations. Joe is going to be under a lot of pressure this season…

[billsfan89]

I’ve accepted the Brady hire as basically the most the Bills could shake things up without going into a mini rebuild that might cost Josh 2 years resetting a roster for a new regime. 
 

The McD defense was not working and I think after so many playoff failures the locker room despite being fully behind him was somewhat mentally depleted. 
 

The retaining of Beane and elevation of Brady allows for the Bills to maintain offensive continuity and some level of organizational continuity while shaking up the defense and sending a fresh new coach into run things at highest level.

 

 

[Nihilarian]

What I think that so many Bills fans don't see is that this changing of head coaches wasn't an impulsive move by the owner. It wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision as it might have looked. This was a well-thought-out situation that the owner went over with his GM before the playoffs started. That if, for whatever reason, the team failed to make the Super Bowl with no Burrow or Mahomes to contend with, that change will be made for one particular reason.

 

It's my opinion that the choice was made on Joe Brady long before other interviews started. This was their only choice, as this OC had just helped Buffalo win the NFL rushing title with the NFL's leading rusher, along with helping QB Josh Allen win an MVP in 2024. This owner/GM was 100 percent certain that they didn't want to lose Joe Brady to another team, especially Miami or the NY Jets. 

 

Most Bills fans think that the change was made because McDermott wasn't a good head coach, or it was time for a change. To me, it was all about losing Joe Brady to a different NFL team. Bills fans can preach about how bad that Buffalo defense was in the playoffs, and yet it was mostly because of injuries. McDermott was the guy who figured out how to slow down Drake Maye with cover 6, and the rest of the NFL caught on. He was the guy who helped win so many games this year by taking control in the second half. 

 

Also, many fans think that Brandon Beane should have been fired along with McDermott. Well, that wasn't going to happen, as this is the man who found and moved up in the draft to bring in QB Josh Allen. This QB isn't just loved in Buffalo, as his NFL Jersey is the best-selling jersey in the NFL. Quite a feat for such a small market franchise. Beane isn't going anywhere, as this owner stated in his PC that every other voice in the draft room wanted someone else, and Beane stuck to his goal in drafting the best QB in the NFL. Even if Joe Brady fails, I don't see Beane going anywhere. 

 

All that said, it remains to be seen if this was the right choice to replace McDermott at this point. In my view, the past few years have just been about as unlucky in the playoffs as any NFL team I've ever seen. That oblong spheroid simply hasn't bounced the Buffalo Bills way as it did for the Patriots this past season. Lady Luck needs to change for the Buffalo Bills. Will the changing of the HC remove the curse?

 

Lastly, to accomplish anything this season, this franchise must find a way to keep everyone healthy. Injuries have killed this team at the end of nearly every season. Not sure how or why or what they need to do to change that...a new, different trainer, longer warm-ups, new technique, something. 

[colin]

i was down on brady a bit last season.  i saw that we were great passing out of our jumbo sets, and our running kinda fell off a cliff when we ran out of them, at times at least.  i thought he kinda lost the plot in the first new england game, and the jet sweep disasters made me cringe.  i figured he was another dabo/dorsey who just rode the coattails of allen but ran the ball more, which was a good thing but not a smart or creative thing.

 

i looked more closely at our splits and saw that our de was decent to start games (10 and 12 in the 1st and 2nd quarters in scoring) and great in the second half (3 in the 3rd, 1 with a gun in the 4th).  i also saw three close and crushing losses (houston, denver, and i think philly) where we had 3 different narratives to lose a game we should have been much better in (keeping two totally not able to play tackles in vs houston, also their back up qb is better than their starter, offensive turnovers and anti clutch mcd vs denver, horrible horrible special teams vs philly) and sealed up early.  in those games we executed INSANE hook and ladder plays for massive massive gains.  this tells me brady is not (i certainly hope!) the reason why we had the most predictable o in the nfl over the season based on our formation necessarily, and he kept some things in the back pocket for when d's just take away the deep pass and rally and tackle us (which was killing us, keep in mind these 3 teams have great defenses with insane talent).  they were such improbable gutsy creative and most importantly well executed plays.

 

i remember there was a reported convo on the side lines between new wr palmer and shakir.  during the baltimore home opener palmer asked when things tend to go well for the team, and shakir said in the second half and at the end of the game.  sure enough, the whole team became electric after some awful awful sequences and won the most improbable come back possible.  i don't think shakir tells a wr that because he believes in magic, i think he said it because that's when mcd pulls his thumb out of his ass and lets things open up (in the regular season, in the playoffs the O balls and the d crumbles late).  we saw something similar vs cinci and new england late in the year.  

 

i think brady is a solid coach and a disciple of a great coach.  i think he may or may not be a great leader/ceo type.  i think him bringing in that vet coach to consult, carmichael to be his non play calling oc, and jim leonhard as his dc shows he's willing to work with new or old guys and has a plan.  

 

objectively he has had this exact team (a worse version, i don't rate edwards so so much, and i think we are better on O with a healthier kinky dalton, dj moore, and bellm also coleman might find religion, and palmer might have some kind of value greater than zero) brady has run the best O over the past 2 seasons.  he was under payton, so he has a handle on what it looks like to HC and to call plays at the same time.  the d and somewhat more critically the special teams will be better via addition through subtraction.  what remains to be seen is if he had his hands tied at times (early in games, really) by mcd, or if he himself is just a bit of a slow starter in games.  we also have to see if he's too consistent with his calls from formations or if that was also a culture/mcd thing.  

 

my expectations are that we have our best season ever since the 90s, and tbh i expect a chip.  

 

a good poster put up odds of the superbowl for each team.  the rams are a crazy favorite (i think they get a bit chewed up in the division, and their qb has back problems) and we were tied with other teams including baltimore.  baltimore lost a chunk of talent (way more than us, no doubt) and reset the entire coaching staff.  those odds are in part based on market demand (betters move the lines, and vegas loves to trap people, see how ND and dallas are always a value to bet against) but beyond that it is the handicappers assessment of the team, which for baltimore and the bills has to be on the talent because there isn't data on the coaches yet.  we have a top 2 or 3 roster in their eyes, i think we are about 7 or 8 without allen and 1 or 2 with allen (health matters too of course).  

 

allen with a bye and 2 home playoff games in the new stadium will not be defeated by any team in the afc.

[Artful Dodger]

I can't forget that play last year when it was third and two and Coach Brady called a tight end sweep to Dawson Knox who unsurprisingly was stopped short of the first down.  So, no, I wasn't thrilled, though I didn't hate it like I did the Rex Ryan hiring from ten years back.  

[Freddie's Dead]

No.

[AlCowlingsTaxiService]

18 hours ago, Kirby Jackson said:

Maybe not but as of this moment there is only one team with lower odds. You don’t have to squint very hard to see a team that should be competing for the title. 

I don’t base my opinions on Vegas oddsmakers 

[AlCowlingsTaxiService]

17 hours ago, HappyDays said:

Allen signed off on him which is more important than anything else in this discussion.

Look, I love Josh but I’m not sure sure about him being the most important arbiter of coaching and personnel hires … didn’t he LOVE Keon? 

[Jalan81]

On 6/29/2026 at 1:30 AM, Ethan in Cleveland said:

Don't feel any different. I would have waited for Kubiak. I also would have fired Beane and cleaned house.  

 

I don't trust anything that comes from OTAs or training camp.  

 

Ask this question on October 19th.  We will all have a better idea then.  The first six games are brutal with a combination of tough opponents and west coast travel.  If he goes 4-2 to start that would be a great way to begin the year.  

 

There is no guarantee we would have got Kubiak if we waited. 

[Kirby Jackson]

2 minutes ago, AlCowlingsTaxiService said:

I don’t base my opinions on Vegas oddsmakers 

Well obviously but the point is, the consensus says, they are one of the teams that should be closest. They have 6 straight years of 11 wins and a playoff win. Their biggest offseason loss is a pretty good guard. They added a WR and pass rusher that are both better than the top guy was a year ago. It’s a pretty tough argument to say a team that has always been close is not close now. That’s your opinion but based on what? What are you seeing, or metrics are you looking at, that says they are far from a title? 

[Freak-O]

I will not be sure until we play some actual games. 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

1 hour ago, Jalan81 said:

There is no guarantee we would have got Kubiak if we waited. 

You really think Kubiak would want to coach Mendoza over Allen?

[Captain Hindsight]

16 minutes ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

You really think Kubiak would want to coach Mendoza over Allen?

I think Kubiak was going to Vegas before McDermott was fired 

[Kirby Jackson]

13 minutes ago, Captain Hindsight said:

I think Kubiak was going to Vegas before McDermott was fired 

That might have changed though if the chance to work with Josh Allen was available. There’s nothing better for a coach’s career than hitching your wagon to a superstar QB.

 

With all that being said, the Bills couldn’t wait on him once they went to the Super Bowl. It would have been so, so difficult to build out a staff. If they lost a round or 2 earlier it would have been interesting but he wasn’t a realistic option IMO as they advanced.

[GunnerBill]

10 hours ago, colin said:

what remains to be seen is if he had his hands tied at times (early in games, really) by mcd, or if he himself is just a bit of a slow starter in games.  we also have to see if he's too consistent with his calls from formations or if that was also a culture/mcd thing.  

 

 

I mean we were I think the 5th best opening drive offense in the league last year and we were 2nd in 2024. So the bit that is heavily skewed to coaching - the opening script - we have been pretty good under Brady. 

 

Honestly our issues in first halves - second quarters in particular - last year were very largely player execution ones. The playcalling or formation usage wasn't radically different to 2024 when we didn't have the same number of 2nd quarter dips. It was player error by and large. You can point at coaching and ask how locked in etc they were but there was just a lot of basic execution failure.

[stlbills13]

All of these things are somehow true for me

 

- I supported moving on from McDermott. 

- I wanted to go outside the org for a replacement

- I didn't love hiring Joe Brady

- I love the coaching staff he put together

- I think the guys love playing for him and that does make a difference over the grind of a season

- I think he's put together a clear vision for the roster and Beane is aligned. Not sure that was always the case with Beane/McD

- I am still not fully sold on the move

[Einstein's Dog]

2 hours ago, Kirby Jackson said:

That might have changed though if the chance to work with Josh Allen was available. There’s nothing better for a coach’s career than hitching your wagon to a superstar QB.

 

With all that being said, the Bills couldn’t wait on him once they went to the Super Bowl. It would have been so, so difficult to build out a staff. If they lost a round or 2 earlier it would have been interesting but he wasn’t a realistic option IMO as they advanced.

Hitching your wagon to a Superstar QB has some potential drawbacks for your career (ask McDermott).  The problem with the Bills job for a coach is that if you don't take them to the Superbowl, you're considered to have done an averaage job.  If god forbid, you don't make the playoffs you're on a really hot seat. 

 

Many (like you for instance) claim the floor for an average coach, with Josh Allen, is the playoffs.  That's rough. (ask the coaches that had Mahomes, L Jackson, J Burrow, Dak, Goff - it is a possibility).

 

With the Raiders you get 2-3 years before being evaluated..  a winning record two years from now has you looking good.  The playoffs - in year 3, makes you the toast of the town.  If you fail with the Raiders, it shouldn't be a career killer, you could probably claim Fernando was a bust - not much you could do -and that you learned from the experience.

 

With that being said, I believe the Bills were staying on their previously stated belief of getting many bites of the apple.  You don't do a total tear down when you're this close.  The key personnel knew it was Superbowl or bust - that's why there was the uncharacteristic McD chiding of not getting the WR.  Also helps explain the emotional aftermath by Josh at the end of the Denver game - he knew the consequences of the loss.