Bills promote Joe Brady to be their new head coach

Joe Brady now will be tasked with helping to get Josh Allen to the Super Bowl for the first time in the star quarterback’s NFL career.Brady, the Bills’ offensive coordinator, is being promoted to head coach as the replacement for fired Sean McDermott, per multiple reports.The 36-year-old, who interviewed for other head coaching openings, was Buffalo’s offensive coordinator for the last two-plus seasons, taking over for Ken Dorsey in the middle of the 2023 season.He was the Bills’ quarterbacks coach in 2021 and ’22.Before he joined Buffalo, Brady was the Panthers’ offensive coordinator for two seasons.McDermott, the second-longest coach in Bills history behind Hall of Famer Marv Levy, was fired two days after Buffalo was eliminated in the divisional round of the AFC playoffs by top-seeded Denver.

Team owner Terry Pegula said a few days later that Allen “had no input” on the firing of McDermott.“My decision to bring in a new coach was based on the results of our game in Denver,” Pegula said.“I did not fire Coach based on a bad officiating decision.

If I can take you into that locker room, I felt like we hit the proverbial playoff wall year after year — 13 seconds, missed field goal, the catch.“So, I just sensed in that locker room, like, where do we go from here with what we have? And that was the basis for my decision.”GM Brandon Beane was promoted to team president when McDermott was fired and headed up the search for the next coach.The Bills registered the second-most wins (98-50) of any NFL team in regular-season play since 2017 during McDermott’s nine seasons as head coach.They qualified for the playoffs eight times and reached the AFC Championship Game twice in that span, but they have not appeared in the Super Bowl since making four straight trips (all losses) under Levy from 1990-93.Philip Rivers, who attempted a playing comeback late this season with the Colts, former Giants head coach and former Bills offensive coordinator Br...