The Buffalo Bills have been a consistent regular-season team in the NFL since Josh Allen came into the league, but it is the postseason where they have repeatedly fallen short. Sean McDermott’s nine-year tenure only saw the Bills miss the playoffs once in 2018, but every campaign the story was the same: a loss in the Wildcard round, Divisional, or AFC Championship.
That is exactly why the Bills wanted the change; they know they have the goods; it’s just about who is at the helm, getting the team past that dreaded hurdle. While Joe Brady seems to be the man for the job according to the higher-ups at the Bills, legendary Buffalo Bill radio voice John Murphy has his reservations.
“With two preseason games down, one to go, they’re scoring plenty of points. Their re-fitted defense has looked solid against a couple of last year’s also-rans. They’re pretty healthy and they’ve got a brand-new playpen in which to frolic.” Murphy wrote. “Only one thing is missing. One thing will hold them back this year. Their head coach.”
“Joe Brady has been flawless since becoming the new coach of the Bills. He’s passed every test, answered every question, handled every potential controversy. He just hasn’t done it enough.”
While all the signs are right, Murphy believes Brady’s inexperience is where the issues will arise nearer to the end of the season. It’s not just because Brady is entering his first season; Murphy himself pointed to two other coaches who have pulled off a Super Bowl win in their first season as a head coach.
“Two coaches in their first year as a head coach have won Super Bowls: Don McCafferty with the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl V and George Seifert of the Super Bowl XXIV champion 49ers.” Murphy wrote, “In Seifert’s case, he inherited a Super Bowl champion from Bill Walsh the year before. In both cases, both McCafferty and Seifert had at least a decade on the staffs of their teams before becoming head coach.”
The inexperience Murphy is referring to is how thin Brady’s resume actually is. A one-year stint at the New Orleans Saints under Sean Payton, a year at the Carolina Panthers, and four years in Buffalo, with more than two of those years spent as offensive coordinator and a year as the quarterbacks coach.
All in all, Brady enters his first year as a head coach with just six years of legwork behind him. Through the league, that is the least amount of experience for a head coach.
But it’s not necessarily a bad thing. He has been with the Bills since 2022. He entered as the quarterbacks coach and has been working with Josh Allen ever since.
The Allen-Brady relation could prove the odds wrong
Josh Allen has only ever played for the Bills, who drafted him as the seventh overall pick in 2018. A look at Allen’s stats tells us very clearly that passing is his strong suit and rushing isn’t something he favours as much.
Before Brady came on as quarterback coach in 2022, Allen had 31 rushing touchdowns. In 2022 itself, he had 7, but it was when Brady became the offensive coordinator that the real difference came about.
In 2023, Allen had 15 rushing touchdowns, the most he’s recorded in a season. In 2024, it was 12, and last year that same number was 14. Allen has been able to adapt his game in a way that the opportunities for scoring open up rather than sticking to one routine that eventually becomes predictable.
But Allen is now 30, and carrying the weight of the Bills on his shoulders season after season has definitely taken its toll. It may not show yet, but any injury to Allen may hamper the Bills’ gameplay beyond repair.
That kind of responsibility on one player is a lot, but he is the trump card for the Bills, and they will have to rely on him to stay fit through the season.
“The best thing that Joe has done is being himself. He hasn’t changed his mindset, his personality,” said Allen on the Pat McAfee show. “Team meetings feel like exactly how they have felt in the offensive room the last three years. He’s authentic. He’s got the respect of everybody in this building.”
The quarterback is on board, and things are looking like it could just be the season where the Bills pull off what they have never done. But the season is long, and the real grind begins when the Bills travel to Houston to take on the Texans to get Super Bowl-or-bust campaign underway.