The Buffalo Bills have their new head coach in Joe Brady, who takes over for Sean McDermott. The Bills fired McDermott two days after their divisional round loss to the Denver Broncos, which sparked a ton of reactions from fans and players. However, it’s time to move and into the Brady era we go.
It was a matter of when, not if Brady became a head coach in the league. He was with the New Orleans Saints under Sean Payton in 2017-2018. Then he was the offensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers after he was LSU’s pass game coordinator in 2019, where LSU established themselves as one of the best college football teams of all time.
In 2022, Brady joined the Bills as their quarterbacks coach and was named the interim offensive coordinator in the middle of the 2023 season after the firing of Ken Dorsey. Brady was eventually the full-time OC, and now he is the new head coach.
He has done amazing things with the Bills offense, and has been able to establish a rushing attack that Buffalo didn’t have for a long time. He also helped Josh Allen win his first MVP award in 2024.
Brady has been getting head coaching interviews last season and now this offseason. In this year’s cycle, he interviewed with teams like the Ravens, Raiders, Cardinals, Falcons, and Dolphins. Once McDermott was fired by Buffalo, he would then interview with the Bills.
Ian Rapoport provided context on why the Bills made the decision to hire Brady, and it's an interesting one. According to Rapoport, Brady "was a wanted man." Rapoport said that Brady was "very high on the Ravens list for OC" and that "Sean Payton wanted Brady as OC, perhaps even with play-calling."
Context for the #Bills hiring Joe Brady as HC: He was a wanted man.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 28, 2026
— Brady was very high on the #Ravens list for OC.
— Sean Payton wanted Brady as OC, perhaps even with play-calling.
Instead, the #Bills make sure he stays. https://t.co/CmbMsZ9MxC
Bills were very smart to hire Joe Brady (and the timing was perfect)
The Ravens and Broncos are rivals to the Bills within the AFC. Baltimore and Buffalo have clashed over the years, and now the Broncos and Bills have faced off against each other in the playoffs in back-to-back years, with the Broncos getting the last laugh this postseason.
If Brady were to leave for one of these two teams and succeed there, the Bills would have been heavily criticized for not keeping him. In addition, who knows if Brady would have stayed as the OC, or even been kept under a new coach.
The fact that both the Ravens and the Broncos were strongly considering bringing in Brady, it shows that Buffalo made a great decision to not just hire Brady but also hire him when they did.