ORCHARD PARK, NY – If the best pathway to winning a Super Bowl is heavy reliance on a Brady, then the Buffalo Bills may have finally cracked the code.
Off to a 1-0 start under rookie head coach Joe Brady – let’s be clear, no relation to Tom – the Bills now head into Thursday night’s home opener against the Detroit Lions ready to open their intimate, tricked out and loud new Highmark Stadium as the next chapter of what Western New York hopes is a story that concludes with the 66-year-old franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy.
If not? It won’t be because of a lack of effort from Brady, now the NFL’s youngest coach.
After non-descript playing career as a wide receiver for the College of William & Mary, where he caught three passes in four seasons, Brady
took an entry-level job as the linebackers coach for the FCS school. That didn’t stop him from being at the football facility for 20 hours a day, according to people in W&M’s athletic department.
“I enjoy working,” Brady, who will turn 37 next week, told USA TODAY Sports recently in an exclusive interview, confirming his gym rat mentality.
“I love to work, I enjoy it. I mean, I coach football, I get to watch football. It’s not like I’m sitting behind a desk. I get to interact with these guys. So, to me, working 20 hours is not like something where I’m like, ‘This is miserable.’ I actually enjoy it. I like the game-planning, I like the late nights where you come up with a play and then you see it (work) on Sundays.
“Is it taking years off my life? Yes. But I am enjoying it.”
He adhered to his nose-to-the-grindstone approach throughout his first offseason as Buffalo’s coach. And while putting in long hours may not be unique to football lifers, it’s important to note that Brady, who doubles as the Bills’ offensive play caller, isn’t holed up watching film and obsessing over the X’s and O’s.
“He’s a relentless, tireless worker. He put in a lot of hours this offseason, more than most head coaches I’ve seen,” Bills president of football operations and general manager Brandon Beane, who’s worked in the NFL for 28 years, told USA TODAY Sports.
“To the point I’d have to say, ‘Dude, go home.’”
Yet Beane is quick to explain what distinguishes Brady.
“He’s good with his time, he’s good with people. Sometimes these offensive play callers – what can be pitfalls for them – is they close themselves in their office, and they’re just up there scheming up great stuff. But it’s the people, it’s the relationships, the touchpoints, and Joe is doing that. Yes, he’s up there scheming, but he is leaving time to come down and talk to the equipment guys, the trainers, work out with the strength staff, go in the defensive meetings.
“Now listen, he’s got to do that for a whole season.”
So far, so good. Pretty much.
The Bills opened with a 36-31 victory over the Texans, their first win at Houston in 20 years. Quarterback Josh Allen, the league MVP in 2024, already seems to be on track to contend for the hardware a second time, passing for 334 yards and accounting for four touchdowns (2 passing, 2 rushing) while undressing a Texans defense that was ranked No. 1 in the league last year. Allen became the fastest player in league history to surpass 300 combined touchdowns, doing it in 129 games (5 faster than four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers).
In the victorious post-game locker room, Allen tossed the game ball to Brady, marking his first win as a HC. Brady, who took his shirt off at the request of a player in the midst of the celebration, immediately dispersed credit elsewhere.
"It's never about me, man," Brady said. "I'm doing it with you guys, man.”
Joe Brady: Man of the people. pic.twitter.com/uPvXSgW0NX
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) September 13, 2026
He summarily gifted the game ball to veteran defensive lineman Ed Oliver, whose young son died in a swimming pool accident in June.
It was a scene that illustrated a lot about the ’26 Bills. It showed Allen’s connection to Brady, who’d been his offensive coordinator since 2023 before being promoted after January’s stunning dismissal of former head coach Sean McDermott. It also underscored a theme that’s been building for months: That this team, good as it’s been for most of the past decade, needed a fresh start and seems like a re-energized, looser lot than it had been under the more tightly wound McDermott.
‘Something’s gotta change’
To be clear, no one in Buffalo is taking shots at McDermott, whom owner Terry Pegula dismissed after seven consecutive playoff appearances and five AFC East titles in the past six seasons. The Bills reached two AFC championship games during that period, both losses to the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, but still haven’t been back to the Super Bowl since succumbing on Super Sunday four consecutive seasons from 1990 to ’93.
“Sean has definitely left the Buffalo Bills in a better place than when he arrived in 2017. He gave his heart and soul trying to win a championship,” Pegula said of his shocking pivot in January.
“It’s not an easy decision trust me with that success. But what is success? Is it being in the playoffs seven years in a row with no Super Bowl?”
Apparently not. But it also doesn’t seem Pegula was alone in his thinking.
“They’re banging their head on the ceiling. You don’t need to tear it down to the studs, but something’s gotta change. So they did,” Bills special teams legend Steve Tasker, who played on the 1990s teams that played in an unprecedented four consecutive Super Bowls, told USA TODAY Sports.
Tasker, who now works as a sideline reporter on Bills radio broadcasts and hosts a daily weekday show called One Bills Live, has done his homework, too – pointing out that the Bills are one of four teams ever to win a playoff game in at least six consecutive seasons, joining TB12’s New England Patriots, the “Triplets” Dallas Cowboys of the 1990s, and the Chiefs, who are currently the league’s dynasty in residence.
“The Chiefs, the Cowboys and the Patriots each had three Super Bowl championships, the Bills haven’t even been to the Super Bowl. So it was time for a change,” Tasker said.
“I think it’s probably right that they hired from within ultimately – I don’t think they went into it thinking they were going to do that. … But Joe was a good interview, and certainly the continuity with their quarterback is gonna help them. Their offense is gonna be as good as it has been – which is pretty good.”
Beane also said the team tried to avoid any preconceived notions about Brady during the hiring process, which included former offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, who helped launch Allen’s career into the stratosphere before taking the head job with the New York Giants.
“Any time you make change, there’s gonna people for and people opposed to it, right? Change is never easy. But I think we went through a thorough process, and we landed with Joe,” said Beane. “We treated every single candidate, including Joe, like we’d never met him – there’s still things you learn from people.
“But in the end, Joe was very, very impressive with his plan, his detail, what he’s learned from Sean Payton, Ed Orgeron, Sean McDermott – but he doesn’t want to copy anyone.”
Joe Brady, Bills excited about new direction
Brady wasted little time putting his stamp on the Bills.
“He was intentional about executing the plan that he had laid out,” Beane said.
That included changing to a 3-4 defensive front and hiring Jim Leonhard as the new coordinator on that side of the ball. It’s meant trying to be a more physical team, one that practices earlier if maybe not as long as it did under McDermott. It’s meant infusing a different vibe into the Bills’ training facility. And Brady is also in the midst of crafting the next iteration in the career of Allen, who turned 30 in May.
“I’ve been very impressed for a guy who’s – I didn’t even realize it – is the youngest head coach in the league,” said Beane.
“One thing I think Joe has done a nice job of – we’re not throwing everything out, there’s a lot of great things that we’ve done here, but we’re also not running it back.
“The energy is very good. … The cake’s still being baked.”
Players agree.
“Camp was different,” veteran receiver Khalil Shakir told USA TODAY Sports. “The way we’re working, the way we’re training – it’s all love.
“We’re trying to be more well-rounded. … I think we’re just trying to do a lot more things at a higher standard, at a higher level.”
Brady himself was satisfied with the trajectory of the team’s new arc heading into the season, though he’ll continue tinkering with it.
“So far, so good,” he said. “It’s been a lot of fun. I have a clear direction of what I like. … Sometimes, you make a decision on things in April (but have to ask), ‘Is that what’s best today?’”
If that means adjusting a practice schedule or a scheme, so be it. He was also self-aware and confident enough to surround himself with fresh perspectives on his staff like Leonhard’s, whose defense forced the crucial fumble from Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud to secure victory in Week 1.
“I didn’t want a bunch of coaches that thought like me, and he doesn’t,” Brady said of Leonhard, who spent the past two seasons working on Payton’s staff in Denver. “His brain’s always thinking about different ways to do things – he’s always thinking, that’s what I love about him. When I was interviewing him, it wasn’t, ‘Hey, I’m just (taking) Denver’s playbook, and we’re just gonna take the logo off and put Buffalo on. He was much more (creative).
“I don’t need yes men.”
Young as he is, it had appeared Brady was destined for a top NFL job years ago. After apprenticing under Payton for two years with the New Orleans Saints, who gave him his first NFL gig, Brady famously served as LSU’s passing game coordinator in 2019. With Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow at the controls, all that team did was win a national championship while creating a valid argument those Tigers might be the best single-season college football team of all time.
Brady was quickly scooped up by the Carolina Panthers to be their offensive coordinator in 2020 but didn’t make it to the end of his second season before being fired.
“Carolina didn’t go as I wanted it to. I took advantage of that time once I got let go,” said Brady, who asked himself, “What do I have to do better when my next opportunity came?”
A lifeline in Buffalo
McDermott, who also graduated from William & Mary, though many years before Brady, quickly provided a lifeline in Buffalo.
“I’m appreciative of Sean McDermott’s endorsement, giving me an opportunity to come here. This organization, they had won prior to me being here. And honestly, getting around Josh – the impact that he had for me as a coach. … It brought a lot of joy back to coaching.”
It’s also created a bond between coach and quarterback that could be key to getting the Bills over the Super Bowl hump and ultimately removing Allen from a list of best QBs never to win the big one.
“He is himself. And I know that’s kind of a corny answer, but it allowed me to be myself and not feel like I had to be a certain type of way,” Brady said of the impact Allen has had on him, which basically included a tutorial on Buffalo’s offense upon his arrival in 2022.
“From Drew (Brees) to Joe to Josh, (I learned) there’s no one way to play quarterback. Joe and Drew are so similar, and Josh is different than them in such a positive way.”
Still, Brees and Burrow have won championships – Burrow and his Cincinnati Bengals remaining a clear and present to the Bills as he pursues his first professional ring. But Brady is excited that he, his team and quarterback are nowhere close to their ceiling in his estimation.
“There’s so much more room for growth, and that’s what’s scary and exciting at the same time,” he said, while equating the pressure on Allen to win now to his own given he was effectively hired by Pegula to do what McDermott could not.
“There’s only 32 of us in the league, and there’s no grace period, and that’s part of it,” Brady said.
“But if you think about it, you’re spending time thinking about the wrong stuff.”
It’s early yet. But so far, Brady and his Bills seem like they could be made up of all the right stuff.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Inside Joe Brady's mission to elevate Bills from winners to champs | Exclusive
