Joe

Brady

Brady took over the reins of the Bills offense in Week 11 after the team dismissed Ken Dorsey. Under Brady, the Bills averaged 27.0 points per game and ranked sixth in EPA per play. Brady’s promotion to full-time offensive coordinator for 2024 doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone, as the 34-year-old coach was long considered the favorite for the gig. Brady helped lead the LSU Tigers to a national championship in 2019 and was once thought to be on the fast track to being an NFL head coach. A disappointing stint in Carolina briefly derailed those hopes, but he could be primed to receive head coaching interviews next offseason.

Lewis, a former Buffalo quarterback, has gotten attention in coaching circles after helping to resurrect Baker Mayfield’s career in Tampa this season. Lewis had served as Tampa’s receivers coach from 2020 to 2022, working with productive wideouts Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. Josh Allen recently said he would like to have interim OC Joe Brady back in 2024. Brady took the job after the team fired Ken Dorsey in November.

“I would fully embrace it,” Allen said when asked about Brady returning as OC after serving in that role for the season’s final month and a half. “I love Joe. I love what he brings to this team, to our offense, the juice that he has, the passion that he has for football. How much preparation he’s put into a tough situation these last seven to eight weeks. Yeah, I would fully embrace it.” Under Brady, the Bills turned into one of the NFL’s run heaviest offenses. Buffalo was 8 percent below its expected drop back rate with Brady calling plays after the team fired Ken Dorsey. A run-first Bills offense in 2024 would change the fantasy dynamics of every Buffalo skill position player.

This is an interesting one. Brady was once considered an up-and-coming head coach candidate after he helped lead the LSU Tigers to a national championship in 2019. He was hired by Matt Rhule as the Panthers’ offensive coordinator in 2020 but was dismissed during the 2021 campaign and signed as the Bills quarterbacks coach in early 2022. Brady was promoted to interim offensive coordinator after the Bills fired Ken Dorsey and helped lead the Bills to six wins in their final seven games. The Falcons have been aggressively pursuing Bill Belichick this week, but it doesn’t appear they’re ready to close the door on their search just yet.

Brady was fired as Carolina’s offensive coordinator in 2022 midway through the season and caught on with the Bills last offseason. He’ll take over the Josh Allen-led Buffalo offense after the team fired OC Ken Dorsey after a humiliating Monday night loss to the Broncos. Brady takes over a Bills offense that ranks third in EPA per play, second in rush EPA, sixth in yards per game, and eighth in points per game. Under Brady in 2022, the Panthers had the league’s fourth lowest EPA per play. The Bills likely won’t change much about their offensive philosophy as they desperately chase a postseason berth over the next month and a half.

Someone had to take the blame for the team’s disastrous 2023 season, and it appears Buffalo brass has chosen Dorsey, once a hot name in NFL coaching circles. It’s not that the Bills offense has been bad this season. Only the 49ers and Dolphins are better in EPA per play and only six teams average more offensive yards per contest than the Bills. The team’s offense has appeared stagnant and fairly predictable over the past month, with little use of motion and only flashes of the creativity we saw early in the Josh Allen era. Dorsey’s chances of becoming a head coach are effectively over, though he should land with another team’s offensive staff in 2024. Former Panthers OC Joe Brady will take over as Buffalo’s offensive coordinator.

The Chargers become the second team to request an interview with Brady, who is also being courted by the Jets. A former offensive coordinator for the Panthers (2020-2021) and LSU Tigers (2019), Brady spent this past season with the Bills after being dismissed by the Panthers midway through a tumultuous 2021 season. Once viewed as an up-and-coming head coach in the NFL, Brady’s dismissal by the Panthers undoubtedly caused a setback in any head coaching endeavors, but a chance to breathe life into a Chargers offense led by one of the best young quarterbacks in the game could put him back on the map heading into 2024.

Per Rapoport, “It’s unclear if Brady would take it, given how much he loves Buffalo.” Brady joined Buffalo after a failed stint as the Panthers’ offensive coordinator. The former LSU offensive coordinator was one of the hottest names on the coaching circuit coming into the league and even after one middling year with the Panthers. Midway through his second season in Carolina, the team fired him as their offense struggled to prop up Sam Darnold. After rehabbing his image for a year in Buffalo, Brady could reclaim an offensive coordinator position with the Jets this offseason.

Brady was fired by the Panthers after failing to resuscitate Sam Darnold’s career in their half-season together. After his first season in Carolina, Brady drew head coaching interest from multiple teams. After 2021, he was unable to draw interest even as an offensive coordinator. If Brady was looking to bolster his resume, it’s hard to imagine a better spot than the Bills. Josh Allen will provide Brady with a level of quarterback talent that is orders of magnitude higher than what he was working with in Carolina. For the Bills, Brady’s hiring signals a continued emphasis on the passing game, despite Brain Daboll’s departure. Brady was reportedly too pass-heavy for Matt Rhule’s liking while with the Panthers. That won’t be a problem with the Bills, who led the league in situation-neutral pass rate in 2021. Brady also has a history of involving his running backs heavily in the passing game, and it’s possible he brings more creative route concepts to the Bills’ backfield in 2022.

The ties are clear as Brady has the same agent as coach Matt Eberflus and GM Ryan Poles. Brady and OC Luke Getsy also coached under Joe Moorhead in college. Likely envisioned as the team’s passing-game coordinator and/or QB coach to help groom Justin Fields, Brady’s connections in Chicago are too strong for the 32-year-old to land anywhere else after his differences in offensive philosophy with Matt Rhule ousted him from Carolina.