Bills Stay In-House to Find Next Head Coach, Promote OC Joe Brady

Updated Jan. 27, 2026 12:33 p.m. ET

The Buffalo Bills didn't have to look far to find their next head coach, and Josh Allen will get to continue to work with a familiar face.

Offensive coordinator Joe Brady will be promoted and will replace Sean McDermott as the next head coach of the Bills, the team announced Tuesday. Brady and the Bills agreed to a five-year deal to make him their next head coach.

The Bills' decision to promote Brady came just over a week after they fired McDermott, who was Buffalo's head coach for nine seasons. Buffalo opted to move on from McDermott following its divisional round loss to the Denver Broncos. 

Brady, 36, quickly rose through the coaching ranks after helping Joe Burrow win the Heisman Trophy while at LSU as the passing game coordinator in 2019. Following an underwhelming two-year stint as the Carolina Panthers' offensive coordinator, Brady became the Bills' quarterbacks coach in 2022. He became their interim offensive coordinator in 2023 and had that tag removed prior to the 2024 season, helping Allen win MVP that year.

The job Brady did as the Bills' offensive coordinator helped him become one of the top head coach candidates this offseason. While FOX Sports' Henry McKenna didn't rank Brady among his nine best head coach candidates this offseason, Brady interviewed with the Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Las Vegas Raiders and Miami Dolphins for their head coach vacancies.

But Brady seemed to emerge as a top candidate not long after McDermott's firing last Monday. He interviewed with the team twice, and it was reported that Allen would get to weigh in on who he thought the Bills' next head coach would be. Former New York Giants head coach and Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers, Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator Grant Udinski and Denver Broncos quarterbacks coach Davis Webb were among those speculated to be the favorites for the job.

Ultimately, Brady won out and will now take over a Bills team that has clear hopes of reaching and winning the Super Bowl. As FOX Sports' Ben Arthur ranked the Bills' job as the second-best head coach vacancy in the league this offseason, Buffalo made the postseason in eight of the nine seasons McDermott was head coach. Even though the Bills didn't make the Super Bowl once in those eight playoff trips, they won the AFC East in five straight seasons before 2025 and reached the AFC Championship Game twice in that span. 

Following Brady's hire, only three teams in the league remain without a head coach: the Cleveland Browns, Cardinals and Raiders.