Joe Brady Officially Promoted as Bills OC!

[Nextmanup]

Completely predictable.  McDimwit is interested in HIMSELF and KEEPING HIS JOB.

 

No way in the world he'll ever end up with a coordinator again who could challenge him in terms of experience, authority, seniority in the league, etc.

 

He wants everything under his control...which is why we will end our season next year just as we did this year.

 

The only question facing this franchise, now, as a fan, is WHEN will Pegula hit his patience threshold with McDimwit and actually FIRE HIS ASS.   

 

I'm afraid Pegula may be happy with what he has an intends to keep McD forever.

 

 

[Warcodered]

Definitely feel like he earned getting the nod and do feel some excitement seeing him get a full offseason at the job and hopefully with some more downfield weapons.

 

Would have liked a more through search just so the team could have gotten a better look at offensive minds coming up around the league, but I could see how if Brady was their guy they might have needed to get it done with other teams willing to give him an OC job.

[Buffalo_Stampede]

10 minutes ago, Nextmanup said:

Completely predictable.  McDimwit is interested in HIMSELF and KEEPING HIS JOB.

 

No way in the world he'll ever end up with a coordinator again who could challenge him in terms of experience, authority, seniority in the league, etc.

 

He wants everything under his control...which is why we will end our season next year just as we did this year.

 

The only question facing this franchise, now, as a fan, is WHEN will Pegula hit his patience threshold with McDimwit and actually FIRE HIS ASS.   

 

I'm afraid Pegula may be happy with what he has an intends to keep McD forever.

 

 

I’m so confused. Wouldn’t hiring the wrong coordinator hurt his job security?

[SoonerBillsFan]

One thing I like from that video posted is there are no option routes. Everyone runs what is designed which allows Allen to know where they are going to be and get the ball out quicker.

Edited January 29 by SoonerBillsFan

[nedboy7]

I don’t understand the need to insult the coach or players even if you think they should be fired or cut.  It’s a very disrespectful vibe. 

[WhitewalkerInPhilly]

11 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

I’m so confused. Wouldn’t hiring the wrong coordinator hurt his job security?

Ssshhhh, you're frightening the "McDermott is terrible regardless of any evidence to the contrary" crowd.

43 minutes ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

Would love to see them hire Greg Roman as an assistant head coach and senior offensive assistant. Miss what he brought to the run game! 

I will say that the return of the jumbo formations in the Dallas and KC games were welcome returns in my mind.

[HomeskillitMoorman]

Status Quo

[Bangarang]

24 minutes ago, Nextmanup said:

Completely predictable.  McDimwit is interested in HIMSELF and KEEPING HIS JOB.

 

No way in the world he'll ever end up with a coordinator again who could challenge him in terms of experience, authority, seniority in the league, etc.

 

He wants everything under his control...which is why we will end our season next year just as we did this year.

 

The only question facing this franchise, now, as a fan, is WHEN will Pegula hit his patience threshold with McDimwit and actually FIRE HIS ASS.   

 

I'm afraid Pegula may be happy with what he has an intends to keep McD forever.

 

 

What does “he wants everything under his control” even mean?

[Mat68]

Brady showed that he has the chops for the position.  I think he is a solid hire.  Bring in a young up and comer for qb coach.  

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

21 hours ago, SirAndrew said:

I’m still a little disappointed in the KC loss to have coherent Bills related thoughts, but the passing aspect worries. Brady actually did a good job, but we don’t know if he can scheme a reliable passing game. We scored points, and played good ball, but I don’t know if that’s a sustainable style long term. 

That chiefs game was a gem by Brady imo.  Our players just couldn’t hit on one big play with a multitude of opportunities.  Felt like he had spags number in that game to me and the chiefs dodged a ton of bullets 

23 minutes ago, Bangarang said:

What does “he wants everything under his control” even mean?

People hate McDermott so much that they literally want our head coach to hire someone that will start a power struggle? Haha that’s legitimately insane 

[Bangarang]

19 minutes ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

People hate McDermott so much that they literally want our head coach to hire someone that will start a power struggle? Haha that’s legitimately insane 

I don’t see why there would even be a power struggle since McD has given his OCs free reign to run the offense how they want.

[TheyCallMeAndy]

25 minutes ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

That chiefs game was a gem by Brady imo.  Our players just couldn’t hit on one big play with a multitude of opportunities.  Felt like he had spags number in that game to me and the chiefs dodged a ton of bullets 

People hate McDermott so much that they literally want our head coach to hire someone that will start a power struggle? Haha that’s legitimately insane 

Not to mention, if Bills have a top-5 offense again next season yet fail to bring home either trophy, McD likely just promoted the guy who replaces him. 

Edited January 29 by TheyCallMeAndy

[MR8]

11 minutes ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

That chiefs game was a gem by Brady imo.  Our players just couldn’t hit on one big play with a multitude of opportunities.  Felt like he had spags number in that game to me and the chiefs dodged a ton of bullets 

People hate McDermott so much that they literally want our head coach to hire someone that will start a power struggle? Haha that’s legitimately insane 

I don't think that's the criticism.  IMO, there is considerable reason to distrust McDermott, just as the other side has reason to praise him.  McDermott has proven he's a defensive mastermind... but there are concerns about his handling of other coaches... IE the power struggle/mutual dislike between him and Daboll, the odd handling of Frazier walking away, WR coach Chad Hall leaving Buffalo for a lateral move to Jacksonville the year after his players bought him a truck because he didn't want to be here (he had to request to leave in order to take a move like that), and there are other positional coaches who've left for lateral or even down to college moves at a higher rate than you see from other places that are winning.  

 

Usually when coaches leave it's to take a promotion, especially if you're coming from a winning organization like Buffalo has been. But when you're taking lateral moves or downgrading yourself from the offensive line coach of the bills to the offensive line coach of Virginia Tech, there's something wrong. Either your head coach doesn't know how to hire assistant coaches, or the assistant coaches refuse to want to work with the head coach. Again we are winning, it's not like these guys are massively underperforming in their duties... 

 

It's VERY clear, Buffalo is McDermott's show... His way or the highway... And players and coaches who don't like it can pound salt.  

 

The concerns with this are that he's defensive minded, conservative, and I agree that he wants th Bills to play a safe no-risk offense to mitigate risk and win close games.  That's just not Josh Allen though... Dudes a gunslinger, he'll make mistakes, but tons of WOWZAH plays too... He's modern day Brett Favre, and you need to ride out th bad with the good.  But I think McDermott wants a regulator on the motor, which hampers things. 

 

You could hear it in his interviews, especially when they were six and six, McDermott openly talked about how the defense was doing great in the offense needed to match it. I mean that's not necessarily incorrect when the defense was standing at its head in the offense underperformed under Dorsey, that's why he was fired. But at the same time you're the head coach, everything rolls up under you too. It was a clear divide within the team, it was McDermott versus the offense not hey we need to be better. It was they as in the offense needed to be better. I thought it was very jarring to hear comments like that from a head coach, and frankly previous years he didn't sound like that. That was new to him being the defensive coordinator and head coach. I think it created more divisiveness within the team because his focus and even his handling of situational play calling and clock management has changed for the worse and more conservative.

 

Saying just because we're winning means McDermott is doing a great job is massively flawed. But also saying McDermott has to go without actually citing reasons is equally flawed. I personally think McDermott is a product of having a great general manager, and Josh Allen.... McDermott did hand pick both... But I think his overly conservative nature, his terrible clock management, and his unwillingness to let Josh be Josh unless it's regulated in a way he's comfortable with is a huge problem.  I'd love to say I think he can grow more, and in 2020 and 2021 I thought he was showing some change in the way he managed the team as a whole in the offense, but that reverted in 22 and 23. I think that was just Brian Gable standing up and saying he was going to do whatever he wanted to do with his offense.

 

I think the criticism is equally right, McDermott is never going to have another offensive coordinator like daboll come in who isn't going to tow whatever line McDermott draws in the sand. Rather that be the combination of run to pass, the amount of runs Josh Allen is taking, the willingness to put the ball in the air over the middle of the field in "risky" situations... Look at the route trees over the past 2 years versus the 2 years prior to that. Everything has gotten shorter and shorter, they've moved to tons of screen and dump passes which are high percentage low risk passes. I'm sorry but you don't have Josh Allen to throw 25 screen passes a game. You have that guy because he can whip that ball literally anywhere on the field at any given time. But we've become hyper conservative to try and be very very efficient and mitigate risk. I mean that's not necessarily a bad thing when you add other elements into it, something that we basically did not do effectively this year. Some of that's on Josh missing deep balls, some of that's on scheme being not great, and frankly some of it's on them not wanting to take more risks. 

 

Joe Brady coming in is the safe call for McDermott, he knows exactly what he's getting, and Joe Brady knows it's McDermott's show. It was predictable that this was the way it was going to go, and it's not necessarily a bad call, Brady was able to more effectively call the offense than Dorsey far and away. I'm just very curious if they're going to start changing away from some of these terrible screenpass concepts and open up downfield more the way they have in years past and leverage people like diggs and Kincaid and Shakir because these guys are not bubble screen running threats. They don't have the speed for it, they're short to intermediate depth kind of players that can really break a game by picking up chunk yardage.

 

I guess to me this year they looked like a team that didn't know what they wanted to be. They didn't build game plans to effectively utilize the talent they had on the field. The way Diggs fell off was proof of that, they way Harty never got going after being a reasonable contract considering our cap space, is more proof.  Sheffield never came around, Davis looked lost, it was just a "WTF am I watching" kind of year. Hopefully Brady can have more vision, hopefully there isn't meddling from the head coach on how things are going to be drawn up. 

 

McDermott is here, he's not leaving, And frankly even if they have missed the playoffs this year, he would still be our head coach. He's not even kind of on the hot seat, so like him or not we need to settle in.

7 minutes ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

Not to mention, if Bills have a top-5 offense again next season yet fail to bring home either trophy, McD likely just promoted the guy who replaces him. 

Maybe... Hopefully Pegs will pull the chute if they fall short again, but you never know.  I worry that the tire fire that are the Sabres juxtaposed with the comparative success the bills have been will give mcdermott a lot more rope even if they're not winning titles.

[TheyCallMeAndy]

Josh Allen

Dorsey: 9 Games

350 attempts - 2660 yards - 19 TDs - 11 INT - 7 rushing TD

 

Brady: 9 Games

298 attempts - 2095 yards - 14 TDs - 7 INT - 8 rushing TD

 

James Cook

Dorsey: 9 games 

120 carries - 615 yards - 5.1 YPC

 

Brady: 9 Games

153 carries - 647 yards - 4.2 YPC 

 

Not much you can take away, also doesn’t account for weather, team, and the challenges of it not being an offense designed by Brady. 

[Saint Doug]

10 minutes ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

Josh Allen

Dorsey: 9 Games

350 attempts - 2660 yards - 19 TDs - 11 INT - 7 rushing TD

 

Brady: 9 Games

298 attempts - 2095 yards - 14 TDs - 7 INT - 8 rushing TD

 

James Cook

Dorsey: 9 games 

120 carries - 615 yards - 5.1 YPC

 

Brady: 9 Games

153 carries - 647 yards - 4.2 YPC 

 

Not much you can take away, also doesn’t account for weather, team, and the challenges of it not being an offense designed by Brady. 

We need to take these numbers with a grain of salt. There’s been rumors Allen had been injured for a time coinciding with Brady coming on board. Would account for the higher carries. 

[JROC INTEL]

22 hours ago, BillsFanSD said:

Nothing against Brady, but these internal promotions are not healthy.

Why would an internal promotion not be healthy?

[Logic]

What I like about this:
The Bills -- after not having scored at least 25 points for six straight weeks under Ken Dorsey -- went on to average 27 points over the final nine games and scored 30+points four times once Brady took over. The offensive players seemed to regain confidence, gain a feeling of ownership in the offense, and to visibly be having more fun.

As Joe Buscaglia of The Athletic pointed out, Brady was lauded across the board from staff and players alike as being a great communicator and great at bridging the gap between coaches and players. Multiple players, including Josh Allen, loudly voiced their support for Brady at the end of the season. Things were going well enough that -- as opposed to last year, when players seemed like they couldn't wait to get away -- at the season ending press conference, Josh (and others, I believe) mentioned that they couldn't wait to "get back in the lab" and weren't ready for the season to be over.

Further, Brady -- prior to his tenure in Carolina, during which he had Sam Darnold at QB and no CMC for a long stretch -- was a very hot commodity as an NFL OC after the job he did at LSU. I still believe he's a young, innovative, up-and-coming offensive thinker.

What I don't like about this:
The Bills did not seem to conduct a particularly thorough search for a new OC. Even if they presumed Brady would likely be the guy, I would have preferred that they took their team and interviewed a wide array of candidates. At the very least, they could have solicited ideas for improvement and personnel deployment from other great thinkers outside the building. This seems like a wasted opportunity.

What I'm excited for:
To see what Joe Brady's offense actually looks like. He'll have a full offseason to draw up plays, install his OWN version of the offense, and not have to remain beholden to Ken Dorsey's playbook. The unknown is always at least a little bit exciting, and right now, Joe Brady's offense -- now that this is completely his car to drive -- is unknown. I'm excited to see continued use of the Bills secondary offensive weapons -- Shakir, Kincaid, Knox, and Cook -- which already improved greatly as it is when Brady took over midseason.

To-Do list for Joe Brady:
- Figure out a way to get Diggs involved in the offense to the extent that he was under Dorsey. For all the things I can complain about regarding Ken Dorsey, one thing he WAS very good at was finding ways to keep Diggs involved throughout a game. Brady needs to improve in this area, "bracketed coverage taking Diggs away" or not. Good teams find ways to get their WR1 the ball regardless of how he's being covered.
- Continue to find ways to get Cook involved in the passing game.
- Deploy Kincaid as more of a downfield threat and seam stretcher.
- Find a way to meaningfully incorporate the Bills' incoming rookie or FA WR(s).
- Now that Kincaid is TE1, find ways to get/keep Dawson Knox involved in the offense, whether that means certain personnel package or specialized roles.

Go Bills!
 

[Big Turk]

Will be interesting to see how much he changes with a full year and off-season to do install work.

[Cheektowaga Chad]

Any ideas or names being floated about for QB coach? 

[Logic]

36 minutes ago, MR8 said:

 

The concerns with this are that he's defensive minded, conservative, and I agree that he wants th Bills to play a safe no-risk offense to mitigate risk and win close games.  That's just not Josh Allen though... Dudes a gunslinger, he'll make mistakes, but tons of WOWZAH plays too... He's modern day Brett Favre, and you need to ride out th bad with the good.  But I think McDermott wants a regulator on the motor, which hampers things. 

 

I just don't think the evidence on the field over the last several weeks of the regular season and the two games in the postseason match the notion that McDermott is "conservative" or wants the Bills to play a safe, no-risk offense.

Once upon a time, I may have agreed with that statement. But McDermott's coaching has evolved tremendously, and his aggressiveness along with it. Everything that goes with the idea of being an aggressive (rather than conservative) coach, McDermott has been doing from midseason on. He's constantly near the top of the "goes for it on 4th down when he should" charts. He's been going for it on 4th down on his own side of the field, even early in games, quite often. He has overseen an offense that for four straight years now is near the top of the league in passing frequency. He himself said in his season ending press conference that he believes you pass to win in this league. 

Yes, at times he's mentioned wanting to run the ball more effectively and to stop turning the ball over. I don't think either of those qualify as "conservative" thinking, though. I think 32 out of 32 NFL head coaches want their team to run the ball effectively and to take care of the football. And as I said, there's a time I would have agreed with the "McDermott is a conservative coach" idea, but that time has passed. All the evidence on the field in recent weeks simply does not back it up any longer. He's become pretty damned aggressive in his approach. And mind you, I'm no McDermott apologist. After the Broncos game, I wanted him fired. I'm STILL not convinced he's the right man for the job long term. But fair is fair, and to continue to call McDermott a conservative coach who wants to play it safe no longer feels fair or, for that matter, accurate.