My Two Cents: Are Bills Better With Joe Brady as Head Coach, Or Just Different?

For eight years now, Josh Allen has been one of the best players in football. He's contended for titles, winning five straight AFC East crowns, but never quite getting over the hump. A trip to the Super Bowl has continued to elude him.

It had eluded his coach, Sean McDermott, as well. He arrived in Buffalo the year before Allen, and they made it to two AFC Championship games together — ion 2020 and 2024 — but lost to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs both times.

With Mahomes hurt and the Chiefs struggling this season, there were many who thought this was the Bills' year. But the upstart New England Patriots won the division, and the Bills, as a wild-card, were able to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 27-24 before losing to the Denver Broncos 33-30 in overtime in the AFC divisional round.

Another year of heartache. And hearbreak.

And, worst of all, a breakup.

The Bills fired McDermott, not for failing to have regular-season success, but for failing to win in January. He was replaced by the Bills' current offensive coordinator, Joe Brady, in something of a surprising move. 

Josh Allen, who has come up short in the postseason success department, too, said he feels somewhat responsible for McDermott's firing. They've been coach and quarterback for all eight seasons of Allen's time in Buffalo, and a few more plays here and there might have made a difference..

"Very, very emotional," Allen said of his first conversation with McDermott after the firing. "I’ve got nothing but love and respect for Coach McDermott. The last eight years of my life, he’s been through ups and downs of me as a player, as a person,” Allen said. “He’s seen me grow up, in a sense.

“I’d be lying to you if I’m sitting here saying that I feel like I had part in it. Because if I make one more play, that game in Denver, we’re probably not having this press conference right now. We're probably not making a change. That’s reality. It is what it is now.

Make no mistake, the NFL is a bottom-line business. They keep track of wins and losses for a reason, and coaches get hired and fired all the time based on results. Nearly a third of the 32 NFL franchises are changing coaches this offseason.

The same is true in Buffalo, of course, a western New York community that loves its football, loves it Bills and is still starving for that first Super Bowl title. It's been especially gut-wrenching since they've come so close, losing four straight Super Bowls in the early 1990s with Jim Kelly as the quarterback, and they've been in the conversation for at least a half-dozen years lately with Allen at the helm. He was the league MVP a year ago.

Brady's adulation for McDermott, who hired him in 2022 to call plays, came through at this week's press conference as well. While thrilled to finally be an NFL head coach, he felt bad that it came at McDermott's expense.

"I had an opportunity to come here, coach for the Buffalo Bills, and coach Josh Allen. I took a bunch of pride in that. Over the past four years, I've learned a tremendous amount of things from Coach McDermott,'' Brady said in his introductory press conference, which lasted nearly an hour. "He taught me how to lead, resilience, standards. The past nine years in this organization matter. I'm understanding of that I'm appreciative of the opportunity to be a part of it. They matter deeply and they deserve respect. I'm so grateful for Coach McDermott.

"I love Coach McDermott. I'm going to do everything I can to continue to build upon the things that he laid, and the foundation he laid. At the same time, we've got to move forward. I think it starts with a new energy, a new mentality, and a new vision. A new energy that I've got to drive every single day. One thing is that the guys know about me. ...  I'm going to bring the energy every single day. I believe people are going to feed off of that. I truly believe in being the temperature. I'm the weather and they're going to feel it every single day. A mentality. I believe in everything about these guys right here.''

Here's the full transcript from Bills Roundtable writer Mike Straw.

Now that burden is on Brady to find a way to get the Bills to the Super Bowl. This isn't about the Chiefs, or the emerging Patriots or even the Broncos, the team that eliminated them.

It is ALL about the Bills getting better, and forcing the issue with all of their opponents instead of the other way around.

"The mentality as we go forward that it is a nameless, faceless opponent that we're going against. They've got to play us, and not the other way around,'' Brady said. "I mean that with everything. They've got to play the Buffalo Bills. They've got to play Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, not the other way around.

"And it does not matter the day of the week, the time of the day. Is it outside? Is it inside? What's the weather? Just put the damn ball down. Let's go play. And that's going to be the mentality that we play with.''

We've seen coaching changes make a diffierence in the past in getting teams over the hump. This year alone, we've seen that. Mike Vrabel is in his first year with the Patriots, Mike Macdonald in just his second year in Seattle. One of them will be a Super Bowl champion by next Sunday night.

And that's what raises the question about the Bills' move? Are they better with Joe Brady as the head coach, or just different? Is McDermott something of a scapegoat.

Yes or no? To be honest, both can be true. He's had nine years to get it done, and it didn't happen. Is it all his fault? Certainly not. You can blame the front office for leaving a few too many gaps in the roster.

Brady is well liked in the building, especially with Allen. He's a high-energy guy, and he will be different as a head coach.

This reminds me a bit about what the Tampa Bah Buccaneers did two decades ago with Tony Dungy. He was their coach for six years, and beloved by his players. But they couldn't get to a Super Bowl either, with probably the best defense in the league.

In stepped Jon Gruden, a polar opposite who was loud and demanding and creative on offense. He held the front office just as accountable as Dungy for past shortcomings, and got them to add pieces to his first Buccaneers team. All they did was win the Super Bowl in 2003.

Can that same kind of magic happen with Brady and the Bills?

It's kind of funny to see what's gone in the AFC. A lot of teams haven't been able to get past the Chiefs, even after years of trying. This year, when failure struck again, heads rolled. The Bills fired McDermott, the Baltimore Ravens fired John Harbaugh after xx years at the Pittsburgh Steelers fired Mike Tomlin, too.

There's no question the AFC will be wide open in 2026, and the Bills will be right in the mix. The Patriots and Broncos seem here to stay, with dynamic young quarterbacks of their own in second-year guys Drake May and Bo Nix. The Chiefs, we have to assume, will be back if Mahomes is healthy. The Steelers and Ravens don't feel like they're far off and the Los Angeles Chargers are a scary team if they can just keep their offensive line healthy.

So welcome to the club, Joe Brady. And know this: You won't be getting any kind of honeymoon. It's win now in Buffalo, despite 60 years of frustration. There's a new stadium in 2026, and a new feel with a new coach.

It's time to get it done.