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The Bills’ Joe Brady Hire Shows Josh Allen Has NBA Superstar-Level Influence
Josh Allen talks to new Buffalo Bills head coach Joe Brady before a game in November. (Timothy T Ludwig / Getty Images)
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Why Buffalo promoted Brady and what it reveals about Allen’s organizational power, continuity, and the team’s Super Bowl strategy.
Patrick Mahomes? Injured. Lamar Jackson? Missed the playoffs. Joe Burrow? Didn’t qualify for the postseason. This season may have been Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills‘ clearest path to the Super Bowl in more than 30 years.
After the Bills faltered in overtime of a winnable divisional round game in Denver against the Broncos, ownership clearly felt that the team had gone as far as head coach Sean McDermott would take it. He was fired after nine seasons with the Bills, but not before he set a new standard for the franchise. Before McDermott took over in 2017, Buffalo hadn’t made the playoffs since the 1999-00 season. Since 2017, the Bills only missed the playoffs once, coinciding with Josh Allen’s rookie season of 2018.
The promotion of offensive coordinator Joe Brady, hired Tuesday on a five-year contract, shows that ownership still thinks this team is close to its first-ever Super Bowl championship and that its franchise superstar had a say in the hire.
It was no coincidence that seven of the nine candidates the Bills interviewed for the job had offensive backgrounds. Indianapolis defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo and Miami DC Anthony Weaver were never really viewed as serious options, but the offensive-minded folks who would’ve been tasked with unlocking Allen’s offense were clearly prioritized more. LA Rams assistant Nate Scheelhaase is a hot name who will probably get a job at some point; Jacksonville Offensive Coordinator Grant Udinski elected to stay with the team, and Phillip Rivers isn’t quite ready for NFL coaching quite yet, but the other candidates had direct ties to Allen and the Bills.
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Former LA Chargers head coach and current Washington assistant Anthony Lynn was an interim head coach before McDermott took over. Denver assistant Davis Webb is seen as an offensive guru and was Allen’s former Buffalo backup. Brian Daboll was the former Bills OC before he took the New York Giants’ job, and would’ve represented that same kind of continuity Brady provides in the role.
As Allen turns 30 on May 21, did he really want to change his whole offensive scheme, especially after the Bills finished fourth in the league in points scored and total yards during the regular season? There are probably few players in NFL history who have the level of input in an organization’s decision-making than Allen has with the Bills, if that’s something he wants. Mahomes probably has it in Kansas City, but that’s about it. Tom Brady never had that sway in New England; Jackson should have it in Baltimore, but doesn’t seem to. Burrow seems to have it to an extent in Cincinnati, which likely helped the Bengals re-sign wide receiver Tee Higgins last offseason.
“The starting quarterback will be part of the team to help select a new coach,” Bills owner Terry Pegula said last week at the press conference following McDermott’s ouster.
A note on Josh Allen's role in the Bills HC search:
He was in the room for many of the candidates' in-person interviews and got to see behind the curtains on process, and offer his opinions on each.
He wasn't a part of the narrowing of the final list or the final HC decision. pic.twitter.com/OR9tDzoPcp
It seems like Allen is the NBA superstar type of player who has influence with Bills General Manager Brandon Beane and is consulted before any major move, like, say, the team’s first new head coach in a decade. They both clearly chose to run it back, which in many ways lined up with Allen’s line of thinking when we spoke before this past season up in Buffalo for an episode of Boardroom Talks.
After winning the NFL MVP in 2024, Allen told me Buffalo came to him to offer him a contract extension last March, a six-year, $330 million pact with an NFL record $250 million guaranteed.
“It does feel good that an organization is willing to go out there and do that when they didn’t have to and reward me for not just what I’ve done, but what I plan to do going forward,” he said in August. “With who we have in place, and it starts from up top with the Pegulas and Brandon Beane, and Coach McDermott, the way that this roster has been really built over the last four or five years and what it is right now, we have really good people in our organization. And like I said, it starts from the top.”
At the top, Allen’s extension kicking in means his salary is increasing from $36.3 million in 2025 to just under $56.4 million in 2026. It means Buffalo is projected to come into the offseason $9 million over the projected salary cap, per Spotrac, with several important free agents in the trenches on both sides of the ball. Starting offensive linemen David Edwards and Connor McGovern, along with defensive starters Joey Bosa and Matt Milano, all have contracts that have expired. And Buffalo may no longer be able to afford key defensive contributors A.J. Epenesa and Larry Ogunjobi.
But the Pegulas, Beane, and Allen are clearly treating the Bills like an NBA contender would with a superstar on a max salary. They’re preaching continuity, keeping as much of the team in place and intact, and will reload in the offseason by restructuring some contracts and largely bringing the band back together.
The Buffalo Bills are in the midst of their most successful period since those four straight Super Bowl appearances in the 1990s. With the hiring of Brady, it’s clear that they believe the formula that propelled them to this sustained success still works. Whether that’s true or false will define the rest of Allen’s prime as the Bills do whatever it takes to ensure he’s content and ready to make yet another run at the AFC title this coming fall.
