Joe Brady has been moving up the ranks within the Buffalo Bills for quite some time. First, the quarterbacks coach (2022 – 23), the interim offensive coordinator (23), and then the offensive coordinator for two seasons (24 – 25). In a way, his promotion to the head coaching role was always coming. Brady once thought the top would be easy once he got it. But his first year as a head coach has already been full of revelations.

Brady appeared on a recent edition of In Good Company with Mitch Morse and was asked if he had experienced anything unexpected. While he didn’t have a specific answer, his words portrayed his transitional journey perfectly.

“It’s a unique position. I took over a head job,” Brady said. “You can go spend summers, you can talk with agents, you can do what you got to do and talk about, ‘hey, if you ever [have] an opportunity to be a head coach, how will you handle something? Hey, if you’re in this place, what would you do?’ And they’re so easy.

“But until you actually step foot into that role and then you develop those relationships or you have some of these conversations, you don’t fully know. And this wasn’t part of the plan. And so I think that the action from my perspective was really – everybody throughout the building, what’s probably happening is, ‘Who’s going to be the new head coach?’ And it’s uncomfortable from a lot of variables. And they hire somebody that was in the building, and I think there’s a tendency to be like, ‘Well, we know Joe.’ And there’s a level of a natural human element of comfort, right? It’s like, ‘Well, at least I know him.’

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“And so, from an action standpoint, it was really more of like letting people know that I’m still a new head coach coming to this role. This is me if I was coming from the Miami Dolphins. And this is year one. There is no like, ‘Oh, we’ve done it like this before. I know what this is like.” No, we don’t. And having to make that little level of uncomfortableness. I know that’s not a specific action, but that was something that [I] spent a lot of time with. And we have such incredible people, so they’re not tough conversations. But it’s conversations that I think it’s important to get everybody on the same page and not just be like, ‘Well, we know Joe, so we’re good.’”

The Bills had already spent four seasons familiarizing themselves with how Joe Brady operates. But he was only responsible for one unit at a time in those seasons. And if the Bills came into this offseason expecting familiarity, their old OC has done the exact opposite. From shutting down CJ Gardner-Johnson’s locker room stream to publicly saying he’s Josh Allen’s biggest hater, Brady has brought a new energy in the building.

Under Brady, Allen is going up against a new defense every day in practice. Brady has made it his personal mission to collaborate with defensive coordinator Jim Leonard to execute plays Allen has never seen before.

“I’m purposely putting him in tough situations,” Brady said, per Tyler Dunne of Go Long. “I get to Jim, and we do some coverages, and I’m like, ‘This is the worst possible look for this play. Run it. Can I get this for this?’ Because I want to see Josh handle it and progress and have to move off the pocket. And sometimes I want Josh to miss some throws because it gives him opportunities to talk through and see it.

“But I want him to come out ready to absolutely dominate our defense every single day. Not saying that’s ever been an issue with him, but it’s just a challenge to him every time when he misses a throw. It’s subtle jabs. We know his greatness. He doesn’t get comfortable, but it’s my job to also make sure he doesn’t ever get comfortable.”

Josh Allen reportedly sat in on every single head coach interview for the Bills, and it was perhaps this style of Joe Brady’s coaching – vastly different from the Sean McDermott days – that won him over. He has already given Brady multiple votes of confidence over this offseason. Brady may not have come into the 2026 offseason thinking he’s going to be the head coach, but that top job is his now, and he’s making sure he brings out the best from his quarterback every chance he gets.

Brady has already been working with Allen to solve some of the issues that plagued them last season, like a lack of downfield dominance. And Allen has, in turn, promised to bring a Super Bowl victory to Buffalo. Brady has spent the offseason making sure everybody knows the familiarity factor won’t come into play in his locker room, and for a team that’s failed to go big in the playoffs for the last seven years under Allen, this might just be the perfect setup for greatness.