Joe Brady: 'I didn’t take this job to shy away from expectations'
The new head coach of the Buffalo Bills had a lot to say.
Greetings from One Bills Drive where Joe Brady was introduced as the Buffalo Bills’ next head coach. Anyone who viewed this in-house promotion as status quo was in for a pleasant surprise. Brady sure sounded like a 36-year-old with a fresh vision for this organization.
Here are a handful of highlights from his press conference.
We’ll have more in the future for Go Long subscribers.
— “One of the things that the guys know about me and look, it might be from Espresso, it might be from Gatorade Fast Twitches, but I'm going to bring the energy every single day. And I believe people are going to feed off of that. I truly believe in being the temperature. I'm the weather, and they're going to feel it every single day. A mentality. I believe in everything about these guys right here. And the mentality as we go forward, it is a nameless, faceless opponent that we're going against and they’ve got to play us. Not the other way around. And I mean that with everything. They’ve got to play the Buffalo Bills. They’ve got to play Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, not the other way around. And it does not matter the day of the week, the time of the day. Is it outside? Is it inside? What's the weather? Just put the damn ball down, let's go play. That’s Buffalo.”
— “I didn’t take this job to shy away from expectations. I sure as hell did not do that. I’m embracing it. I’m understanding it. And I’m meeting it full-on. I know what I signed up for — and we’re going to embrace it because no one rises to low expectations. I want what the city wants. I want what Mr. Pegula deserves.”
— “The culture starts with them. 17 sets the tone of the culture. The men in the locker room set the culture, regardless of who the head coach is. And it's my job to make sure that I'm allowing them to be their personality, allowing them to play to their personality because that’s what the culture is. Like I said, I understand the expectations that come with this job.”
— “Every decision this organization makes is with the thought of Josh Allen and the players in mind. I’d be crazy not to. I was a part of incredible organizations in New Orleans with surrounding around Drew Brees and there wasn’t a decision that was made without Drew Brees being thought about, talked about. Making sure you understood. It doesn’t mean it was always the decision. But it was important that he was involved in it because he is the leader of this organization. The weight he has on his shoulders is something I can’t ever imagine. Everything I think about is trying to find ways to put him in a position to have success. Because that’s all I care about with him. Josh Allen is the best player in the NFL, and I have to grow. Part of me growing is that’s going to allow him to be a better version of himself. I’m so excited to be able to continue this journey with him. I have so much love for that man right there. All I want is for him to get everything he deserves.”
— “Alignment doesn't mean agreeing on everything. Alignment to me means we’re both open in conversation and communication and understanding that we don't have to be ‘yes men.’ But when we make a decision — when that door opens — there's no going backwards and there's no second-guessing and we're going all-out with it. To me, that's alignment. Alignment is a shared vision for what we want and making sure that we don't ever lose sight of that when we make decisions. When I say, ‘Josh Allen and the guys are always at the forefront of exactly when we make every decision,’ that's alignment.”
— “No element of my life has ever been about me. I don’t put trophies behind me. There’s nothing I do that’s because of me. It’s because of the people I surround myself with, the people that do all the sacrifices for that. I love to work. So, I’m going to go home and let my wife know, ‘Hey, now I’ve got to get back. It’s time to work.’ I enjoy that. That competitive stamina that I believe I’m going to instill in our guys is the same mindset that I have to have. I don’t look at it like, ‘Man this is an achievement.’ I look at this as an opportunity to do what I love and an opportunity to work.”
— “The biggest thing to me when you put together a staff is understanding the different type of personalities and making sure that you have a bunch of different backgrounds, both schematically, personality and not just sitting there looking for a cookie cutter. If we have a bunch of Joe Bradys in the room, we’re not going to grow and we're not going to evolve. And that's important to me. So putting together that staff, there’s so many critical elements that I look for. Different type of people. Some guys might be more fundamental-driven. Some guys might be the energy, the juice, the rah-rah guys. Some guys might be the calm communicators. It’s understanding the type of rooms that they're coaching and putting that room together is so important to me.”
— “The privilege that I've had of calling plays, you understand what keeps you up at night. I feel like defensive football for so many years was just putting stress on quarterbacks. You get to the line of scrimmage and they're putting stress on quarterbacks pre-snap, post-snap. Nowadays, the best defenses and the best minds are continuous all the way through the play call — putting stress on coordinators. No longer are you able to just know where guys are going to be when they're going to be there. And I think that's a key element of what I'm looking for in a defense — making sure that we have the versatility to be able to change personnels, get a lot of different people in different spots. It’s similar to what we do offensively. I don't believe offensive football and defensive football should have different mindsets.”
It is often said in corporate America that the best leaders are continually identifying and developing their eventual replacements. Why? To allow those leaders to ascend to more important and more impactful strategic roles. To do that, you must learn to leave behind your prior successes to take on new challenges and grow. As you move up, your ability to delegate the tactical is a crucial skill to afford you time to focus on more strategic matters.
Which caused me to focus on one part of this piece, “the privilege that I've had of calling plays...”
The things that got you the promotion very often won't keep you successful. They got you there but won’t keep you there. Understanding that you are in a new role requiring new skills is crucial to your future success. I say that, as I keep reading that Joe Brady is keeping play calling duties...highly tactical activities that are not core to the leadership palette required for a successful head coach.
This decision and his apparent belief that it suggests a “privilege,” suggests an insecurity in Brady around his value proposition and a profound misunderstanding of his new role and what it will take to succeed.
You can almost see the wheels spinning in his head, "If I don't personally select one of four plays off a plastic sheet based on down and distance and field position, what do I bring to this new job? What are you bringing indeed? Keeping tactical OC responsibilities is an enormous red flag for me. Joe Brady - like so many of these tactician Coordinators - doesn't appear to fully appreciate the new role he is taking on.
Head coaches are hired to be strategic – not do those things that can easily be delegated others and monitored. HCs must dedicate their limited time to the things that cannot be easily delegated and that require their personal involvement.
There are many including assembling and managing the staff, evaluating talent for the Draft and roster cuts, providing input to the front office, finalizing the roster, making game strategy changes when needed, motivating and disciplining players, handling practices and scheduling, management of media relations, establishing an identity on both sides of the ball for Coordinators to implement, game planning oversight, making key in-game play calls when needed, and establishing a defined culture in the building. A ton.
Play-calling is a highly tactical time intensive endeavor that diverts scarce time and attention away from other crucial activities. A HC who spends game time contemplating what play to call next throughout a game, can be distracted from other more pressing duties such as helping to oversee decisions on the other side of the ball, and making key timeout, challenge, and in-game decisions.
Can it work it out? Of course. It can if Brady has innate leadership skills. That's what separates Sean McVay from say Brian Callahan or Matt Nagy. McVay had outstanding leadership and communication competencies that were not developed solely as a Coordinator....he had them despite that narrow role.
Yet McVay's myopic offensive focus continues to hurt him and the Rams. He bungled a crucial challenge during the NFC Championship game because he was overly focused on readying the upcoming play series when the Rams got the ball back...and seemed to rush a critical 4th down decision that he later said he regretted. Again distracted. These mistakes were made in part because he was not paying sufficient attention to the game in front of him as he buried his head in his sheet.
The Rams have been particularly haunted by poor Special Teams play under McVay’s tenure and especially throughout this season. Well, it killed them again in Seattle. McVay's response? Hire a new ST Coordinator in December so he doesn't have to pay attention to it as he pours over the offense...huge mistake.
Rams’ fans have noticed. In looking through their blogs recently, I was struck by how many fans noticed his gaffes in Seattle with many calling explicitly for McVay to give up play calling during games to take on a greater strategic role by not overly focusing on offense. Many noted the steep decline in the Rams defense since Thanksgiving where McVay again appeared utterly disinterested in addressing the emerging issues. As a result, the Rams are home again.
What about Shanahan - another highly touted play caller HC? Well, the 49ers have disappointed under Shanahan relative to their Super Bowl championship expectations and heavy roster spending. However, it has been largely the 49er defense that has been highly variable over the years and the determinant of their annual destiny. Robert Salah v. Nick Sorensen; DeMeco Ryans v. Steve Wilks. Now Raheem Morris. One thing is clear. Shanahan will have little to no involvement on that side of the ball as he ponders his offense 24/7, and Morris is now the most important person in the building if they intend to get back to a Super Bowl.
So, yes it can work out…but life is not about what is possible, but what is likely. The line of OCs that failed as HCs is longer than one with those who have succeeded.
What is Brady's biggest risk as a HC? It's not the offense which will be fine with any of the proliferating supposed "genius" offensive minds overpopulating the NFL calling the plays. His biggest professional risk is the Bills’ defense. If the defense takes a step back, Brady will quickly find himself neck deep in criticism quicksand from the media and fans. It's what people will immediately contrast with McDermott. He’ll realize toot sweet his regret of not spending more time with Leonhard and the defense
Jim Leonhard has no ostensible NFL Defensive Coordinator experience - no apparent play calling experience at this level either. His work with Wisconsin struck me as a mixed bag when he was there. If you are OK delegating the entire mission critical defense to someone you have zero personal experience with with a resume that says "no NFL DC or play calling experience" ..., why are you not giving the offense play calling reins to someone you trust on your prior staff who HAS been involved with you on play calling?
It speaks to Brady’s insecurity and understandable unsteadiness in the new job. Play calling is his coping mechanism…his binky blanket as it were. The past few days, however, have not been encouraging. Today I read that not one week into the job, Brady is already walking back comments he made on McAfee about celebrating Allen’s interceptions in practice because “our defensive guys need to know that I’m not an offensive head coach.”
It’s a rookie mistake and speaks to a guy who knows what he needs to be saying but is lost in how to get there exactly without guidance. He is struggling to find his footing to being the leader the Bills desperately need with the pressure on. He mistakenly thinks that clever motivational quips, slide deck philosophies, and word salad mission statements will do the trick…but they won’t. The greatest leaders know one thing… let your actions speak for themselves.
Opinions will vary and we will of course find out in short order. But if I were advising Brady today, I would urge him to surrender myopic tactical offensive play calling to someone he trusts and focus instead on becoming the strategic leader on both sides of the ball the team needs him to be and that they deserve. The sooner he gets to that realization the more successful he’ll be.
Love the framing on embracing expectations instead of running from them. That mindset shift matters way more than people realize, especially for a young coach stepping into this situation. I remember working with teams that talked about 'managing' expectations and it always felt defensive. The 'no one rises to low expecations' line is goingto age really well or really poorly lol.