The Buffalo Bills have a new head coach for the first time since 2017, and there is a mixture of excitement and nervousness as well. When the Bills decided to fire Sean McDermott two days after their playoff exit loss against the Denver Broncos, all Bills fans were wondering what direction the team was going in.
After interviews with multiple head coaching candidates, the Bills ultimately decided to promote Joe Brady from offensive coordinator to head coach which keeps the continuity with Josh Allen. Not to mention, Brady has been a great play caller despite the limited talent he has had to work with the last two seasons.
Brady will now enter the 2026 season as a rookie head coach with the team that he has been with since 2022, giving him an advantage to have success. Then again, he will have a lot more responsibility as well and fans are interested to see how he will handle it.
It’s very rare for first time head coaches to have immediate success with a team, but it’s not impossible. One of the major awards for each season that is presented is the Coach of the Year award, and depending on how Brady does in his first season as Buffalo’s head coach, he could very well be a candidate for the award but it will come down to a stretch of games on the schedule.
Five-game stretch could make or break Joe Brady's Coach of the Year award case
From Thanksgiving night all the way up until Christmas, the Bills have a brutal stretch of games. They will host the Kansas City Chiefs in primetime in Buffalo on Thanksgiving, giving fans another chapter of the Josh Allen vs. Patrick Mahomes rivalry. Like the past ones, this game is bound to come down to the wire.
Buffalo will then be on the road against the New England Patriots (4:25PM game), and then head up to Green Bay to take on the Packers for a Sunday night battle. Finally, the Bills will be back home the week before Christmas to host the Chicago Bears on Saturday night, December 19th and then head to Denver to take on the Broncos on Christmas.
Four out of five these teams made the playoffs last season, and the one who didn’t has knocked Buffalo out of the playoffs many times this decade. In addition, this stretch features three primetime games with two of them being at home.
With Buffalo having this tough stretch late in the season, this is a perfect opportunity for Brady to make his case for the Coach of the Year award. It won’t be easy at all, but it’s definitely manageable.
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