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The Buffalo Bills have promoted offensive coordinator Joe Brady to head coach the team confirmed following NFL Network's Ian Rapoport report on Tuesday (January 27).
"The #Bills are promoting their own OC Joe Brady to head coach, per The Insiders," Rapoport wrote on his X account. "It’s a 5-year deal for Joe Brady — who has been a top HC candidate for years. Now, he lands at home."
Brady, 36, has been with the Bills since 2022, initially working as a quarterbacks coach for two seasons before taking on the interim offensive coordinator role midway through the 2023 season and being promoted full-time in 2024. The former William & Mary wide receiver had also previously worked for the Carolina Panthers as an offensive coordinator during the 2020 and 2021 seasons and an offensive assistant for the New Orleans Saints during the 2017 and 2018 as well as a passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach during LSU's undefeated 2019 College Football Playoff national championship season, a graduate assistant at Penn State in 2015 and 2016 and a linebackers coach at his alma mater in 2013 and 2014.
The Bills the last of 10 NFL head coaching vacancies, having fired former head coach Sean McDermott on January 19, two days after their AFC Divisional Round loss to the Denver Broncos. Team owner Terry Pegula confirmed that his decision to fire McDermott "was based on" the AFC Divisional Round loss to the Denver Broncos last Saturday (January 17) and felt the team hit "the preverbal playoff wall" via ESPN's Alaina Getzenberg.
General manager and new team president Brandon Beane, whose promotion was announced amid McDermott's firing, accepted responsibility for the team's lack of playoff success, specifically during the prime years of reigning NFL MVP Josh Allen's career.
“We have a MVP QB who just finished his 8th season here & we’ve got to help him get to the Super Bowl," Beane said via NFL Network's Cameron Wolfe. “We have to get it over the top & that starts with finding the right head coach.”
The Bills finished the 2025 season second in the AFC East Division standings and sixth in the AFC, defeating the Jacksonville Jaguars, 27-24, before a 33-30 overtime loss to the Denver Broncos this past weekend. Many believed Buffalo faced its most open run to the Super Bowl with the absence of the Kansas City Chiefs, who eliminated the Bills four times during McDermott's tenure, prior to Saturday's loss.