The Buffalo Bills are trying to save their season after suffering a 24-22 defeat to the Denver Broncos in Week 10. On Tuesday, head coach Sean McDermott announced that offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey was fired and replaced by Joe Brady.
This was a move that seemed inevitable and might have been a week too late to save the season. However, what it does though is give Joe Brady a chance to show why he should be the permanent offensive coordinator past this season.
At one time, Brady was considered one of the rising coaches in the NFL after one season with LSU. He joined Matt Rhule in Carolina as offensive coordinator with the Panthers in 2020. He was able to do some good things in his year and a half in the role but would be fired midseason.
Rhule wasn't far behind and it raises the question if Joe Brady had the talent or was in the position to be successful. That isn't the case with the Buffalo Bills and the players they have in this offense.
These are five players on the Buffalo Bills that Joe Brady should showcase for the remainder of the 2023 season.
Josh Allen
The first player is obvious and Joe Brady is going to only be as successful as Josh Allen is over the remainder of the year. This will be Allen's third offensive coordinator in his career in the NFL after having Brian Daboll for four seasons.
Ken Dorsey was essentially Allen's pick to replace Daboll when he left to be the head coach of the New York Giants in 2022. Unfortunately, Allen has regressed with Dorsey calling plays and the frustration was very apparent after the game against the Bengals when Allen said "Just the game plan that we had going into it." as he referred to why the team didn't go uptempo.
So what can Joe Brady do to help Josh Allen moving forward? An uptempo offense will certainly help but Allen needs to get back to playing like he did a few years ago. This means, utilizing his legs but it doesn't necessarily mean running for yards.
Joe Brady needs to move the pocket, get Josh Allen on the run and give defenses the idea that Allen could run which will freeze defenders in coverage and should open more passing lanes. It is unfortunately a short week but the focus has to be on Josh Allen and building a game plan that gives him high percentage throws and limits the turnovers.
Stefon Diggs
Another focus for Joe Brady is to get Stefon Diggs back involved in this offense and make plays like he was earlier in the season. In the first four games of the year, Diggs averaged 7.8 receptions and 99.8 receiving yards per game with four touchdowns. However, in Weeks 5-8 he averaged only 87.3 receiving yards per game but had 8.3 receptions and two touchdowns.
These past two games, two games that were losses, Diggs has only caught 4.5 passes and 60 receiving yards per game with one touchdown.
The All-Pro wide receiver has been trending in the wrong direction since the beginning of the season and there is no reason that Diggs shouldn't be seeing 10+ targets every game. He was getting a large target share over the first part of the season with double digit targets in six of the first eight games but only has had 12 total in the past two games.
Expect Joe Brady to lean on his stars and get Stefon Diggs involved early and often, even in a tough matchup against Sauce Gardner.
Dalton Kincaid
Stefon Diggs can't do it alone and Dalton Kincaid should be that second option in this passing game behind Diggs. The rookie tight end has started to play much better as of late and be a bigger part of the offense with 50 or more receiving yards in each of the past four games.
However, it feels like Ken Dorsey didn't use Kincaid enough and he could be even more productive. In the game against the Broncos, Kincaid had three receptions, 35 receiving yards and a touchdown in the first half but had only two receptions for 16 yards in the second half.
The Buffalo Bills potentially could be getting Dawson Knox back here in the next week or two which should open up the two-tight end sets in the playbook for Joe Brady. However, the depth chart should be Kincaid as the starter and Knox as the second tight end moving forward.
James Cook
During Joe Brady's time with the Carolina Panthers, he had one of the best running backs in the NFL in Christian McCaffrey. Unfortunately, McCaffrey was dealing with injuries and played only 10 games in the time Brady was offensive coordinator.
However, when he did play he was heavily involved and averaged close to 20 rushing attempts per game and around five receptions per game.
While James Cook may not be as elite as Christian McCaffrey he has a very similar skill set and was underutilized with Ken Dorsey calling plays, particularly as a receiver. Cook began the year with back to back games with four receptions in each game. However, in the past six games, he has had four receptions only once.
The Bills are going to need to establish a run game but they can also keep defenses honest by using James Cook as a receiver out of the backfield. If they can get him into space, he can pick up chunks of yards very quickly.
Leonard Fournette
While James Cook is very talented, he does not have the size to be a bruising running back that can carry the ball 15-20 times a game. The Bills have utilized Latavius Murray in this role as of late but it might finally be time for Leonard Fournette to establish a place in this backfield.
The Bills signed Fournette recently to the practice squad but he has not been elevated yet to the active roster on game day. After a few weeks of practice, Fournette might be in position to finally be active and play on game day.
In 2020, the Panthers lost Christian McCaffrey for the season after only three games but were able to keep the run game productive with Mike Davis. At the time, he was primarily just a backup but would run for 642 yards and six rushing touchdowns in 15 games while also catching 59 passes on the season with two receiving touchdowns.
Leonard Fournette is similar to Davis in that he is a big running back who can also catch the ball out of the backfield. The last two seasons with the Bucs he had 69 and 73 receptions. The Buffalo Bills don't need to split the pass and run plays evenly to have balance but if they can establish the run, it will open up the rest of the offense.