Since Sean McDermott took over as the head coach for the Buffalo Bills, he has had four offensive coordinators to take control of the offense. First it was Rick Dennison and it was a quick one-and-done deal before moving on to Brian Daboll. Joining the staff in 2018, Daboll had the chance to coach up Josh Allen right from the start in 2018.
The duo became one of the best in 2020 when Allen played at his MVP level and was able to limit his turnovers that he was having early on in his career. This pairing of Allen and Daboll ended in the wild card round in 2021-22 against the Kansas City Chiefs when the infamous 13 seconds took place that resulted in the Chiefs pulling an upset over the Bills. Daboll would then earn himself the head coach position for the New York Giants. The Bills promoted Ken Dorsey from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator heading into the 2022 season and while Dorsey did a solid job in his first season, there were signs that he was not ready for the duties.
Last season, Dorsey was the offensive coordinator heading into the season and once Week 5 approached, the Bills’ offense looked like a mess. They were having major difficulties being the same explosive offense that they were in Weeks 2-4, where they were winning by 28+ points. Buffalo went 2-4 from Week 5 to Week 10 and after losing to the Denver Broncos on a Monday night, Dorsey was fired the next day. A change was needed and the Bills opted to go in a different direction with their offense and promoted Joe Brady as the interim offensive coordinator.
Once Brady took over the play calling duties, the Bills would only lose one regular season game which was a high scoring overtime loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Aside from that, Buffalo’s offense looked a lot different for the better under Brady. It was no longer Allen trying to force the ball to one or two playmakers. Instead, the running game came alive with James Cook and guys like Khalil Shakir and Dalton Kincaid became more involved. With the success the Bills’ offense had under Brady in the second half of the season, the Bills would officially remove the interim tag and Brady would officially become the offensive coordinator.
This is Brady’s second chance at an offensive coordinator job, having been with the Carolina Panthers from 2020-2021. While Brady has shown that the offense will be better than what it was under Dorsey, he still has the most amount of pressure out of any coach on staff.
Brady cannot afford to waste a year of Josh Allen’s prime
Allen has been one of the league’s top quarterbacks since 2020 and he provides a skillset that not many other quarterbacks have. Brady needs to capitalize on an opportunity that some offensive coordinators in the league wished they had, a star quarterback in his prime.
When looking at Sean McDermott and Bobby Babich as the two other main coaches on the roster, McDermott might be on a little bit of a warm seat but he is not leaving anytime soon. As for Babich, he is the team’s brand new defensive coordinator but has helped develop the linebacker room for multiple seasons and has elevated both Matt Milano and Terrel Bernard’s games. With the league being offensive-driven, all of the attention will be on Brady and what he can do with Allen, despite there being a room of new weapons on the outside to throw to.