Buffalo has everything you want in a Super Bowl contender. An elite quarterback in Josh Allen. A front office that consistently drafts well. A fan base that travels and packs the stadium. But here’s the thing about the Bills. They haven’t sniffed a Super Bowl since the early 90s. Something always cracks. And this year, the most likely crack might be the guy running the whole operation.
Let’s just get it out there. Joe Brady is the weak link. Not the receivers. Not the secondary. Not the pass rush. The new head coach. After nine years of Sean McDermott, the Bills decided to move on. That part might have been overdue. But then they turned around and promoted the offensive coordinator. And that part feels like a half-measure dressed up as a fresh start.
What history tells us about this kind of hire
Promoting from within after a head coach gets fired at the end of a season almost never works. You can point to Brian Schottenheimer in Dallas, Freddie Kitchens in Cleveland, Ray Rhodes in Green Bay, Dave Campo in Dallas (again), and Rich Kotite in Philadelphia. None of those guys made a Super Bowl. Kotite is the only one who posted a winning record and made the playoffs after taking over. That’s a brutal track record.
Think of it this way. If a company has flat revenue for nearly a decade and fires the CEO, do you promote the VP of Sales? The guy who was in charge of the thing that wasn’t working? That’s essentially what Buffalo did. Brady was calling the plays. He was part of the offensive decision making. So what exactly changes now?
Maybe McDermott was the real problem, maybe not
There’s a case to be made that McDermott held the team back. The infamous 13 seconds loss to the Chiefs sits squarely on his shoulders. He chose not to squib kick. He dialed up prevent defense. That’s on the head coach. But Brady was in the room for all of that. He was the offensive coordinator during the 2024 playoff loss to the Texans where the offense went three straight passes in the fourth quarter and stalled out. That play calling didn’t come from nowhere.
The Bills needed a new voice. That much is obvious. But is Joe Brady as head coach actually a different voice from Joe Brady as offensive coordinator? That’s the question nobody in the organization seems to have answered. And if the answer is no, then this whole thing is just rearranging deck chairs while Allen’s prime ticks away.
Depth issues that could surface
Let’s not pretend the roster is perfect. D.J. Moore and fourth round pick Skyler Bell need to produce at receiver. The right guard spot is wide open after David Edwards left. The cornerback room is thin. The inside linebackers don’t fit what Jim Leonhard wants to do defensively. And the pass rush still relies on Bradley Chubb staying healthy and productive, which is about as safe a bet as folding with pocket twos.
Any one of those issues could sink a season. But a rookie head coach who might not actually be new is the kind of problem that infects everything. If the Bills fall short again in 2026, the decision to promote Brady won’t just be a footnote. It’ll be the reason.
Leave a Comment