Inside the Bills’ meeting that revitalized Josh Allen and Buffalo's offense

It was a Friday in Week 11 last season and the Buffalo Bills had the New York Jets on a short week. The Bills had just lost for the third time in four weeks — and the latest loss had come to the lowly Denver Broncos in prime time on Monday night. 

The playoffs were slipping out of reach during a season in which Buffalo expected to make the Super Bowl.

Joe Brady, who had replaced offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey after the loss to Denver, decided to do things a little differently. He wanted to create a new tradition. This tradition would instantly win over the Bills and contribute, in large part, to the turnaround of the team's season.

"He's the best offensive coordinator I've ever had — how he respects us, how he supports our brand, how he supports our everything," tackle Dion Dawkins said. "He's just a different type of dude."

But back in Week 11 last season, Brady was unproven. In fact, he was a lesson in how quickly a coach can rise and fall. He had been a wunderkind as the offensive coordinator with the LSU Tigers but a flop in the same role with the Carolina Panthers. 

In his first week as Bills interim OC, Brady walked into the Friday meeting and turned it over to quarterback Josh Allen.

Then Brady left the room. 

Under Brady's direction — but, importantly, not his supervision — the players reviewed the playbook and discussed it among themselves. With Allen keeping things organized, the offensive players sussed out which plays they absolutely loved and which ones they absolutely … did not love. Later that day, Allen relayed that information to Brady: Here is Dion Dawkins' favorite play, here is Khalil Shakir's favorite play, here is James Cook's favorite play. 

"It's kind of a little chaos," Brady told FOX Sports. "[A certain play] might not be the best play on our game plan, right? But if the guys believe in it, they'll make it work. I believe that if players like something or believe in a play, they're going to do everything they can to make it work." 

That was at the center of this concept: Belief.

The Bills offense had no shortage of talent last year: Allen, Dawkins, Stefon Diggs, Spencer Brown, Cook, Dalton Kincaid. The list goes on. It made little sense that their season was getting away from them. Brady focused on the common mantra: "It's not about the X's and O's. It's about the Jimmys and the Joes." And Brady wanted to create trust between the players and himself. He wanted players to believe in him — but also in their own talent.

"We just lost on Monday night and so you're kind of grasping a little bit," Brady said. "I wanted the guys to know that I trusted them, and I believe in them and that they're going to be the ones to always make it right. It's always about them."

On Saturday, Brady went over the play sheet and the opening script for the first drive. He walked through the plays he wanted to run and noted every instance where he'd implemented the feedback from the players-only meeting. "Dion, this was what you wanted right here," Brady told the players. And then: "Hey Stef, we're gonna get you a touch early here."

That week, the Bills pummelled the Jets 32-6. So Brady then did it again, letting the players have their alone time to discuss the plays. The Bills won five of their final six regular-season games, including a win over the Miami Dolphins in Week 18 to steal away the AFC East title.

"I'm just trying to make it way more about our guys the second go-round of being a coordinator and trusting them. And I think that some of this I've kind of just picked up from my downfall," Brady said.

The downfall, of course, is a reference to his time in Carolina when he and former head coach Matt Rhule finished their tenure in 2021 with the fourth-fewest points per game (17.9) and the third-fewest yards per game in the NFL (298.9). But last season after Week 11, with Brady as the playcaller, the Bills' points per game jumped from 26.2 to 27.0 and their yards per game jumped from 370.1 to 380.7.

Along the way, one of Dawkins' favorite plays became core to the Bills' identity. In Week 15 last season, the Bills ran the same play seven times against the Cowboys in a 31-10 win. That play was called: "Tackle pull." Brady put it into the lineup for Dawkins. And Brady eventually spammed that play on Dallas because the offense ran it to perfection.

Not only did Dawkins love seeing his play getting intense usage, he liked the general concept of Brady respecting his players' preferences.

"It was pretty cool, because we got to go into every game comfortable instead of nervous," Dawkins told FOX Sports. "Never really had a coach do that. Because, you know, a lot of coaches — I don't want to make anyone mad — but like, you know, it's power moves. Like, ‘Oh, yep, I'm in charge. Now, this is what we're doing. This is what we're not doing.' And [Brady] was more so like: ‘Well, this is only gonna work if everybody is enjoying what's going on. So we're gonna have to work together.'"

We so often hear about players-only meetings in a negative sense, the last possible solution to stop a downward spiral. 

Brady, who had the interim tag removed from his title in January, has treated these players-only meetings as hygienic. It's an opportunity to maintain trust, to keep communication clean and to build confidence. 

"I didn't want to be in there where I can have a natural tendency to feel like I have to defend myself on a play, right? It's natural," Brady said. "It's like, ‘Hey, but what about first this? Would you be OK with it?' 

"The guys can feel way more comfortable being in there together and being like, ‘Alright, let's talk through these plays. Hey, you know, what are the first few runs that you want me to tell Joe, that you guys would like?' And then Josh would then kind of bring them to me."

In part because of the open policy of communication, the Bills offense changed. Diggs' production declined. Cook, Shakir and others began to see their usage spike. The offense was more effective when it wasn't overreliant on Diggs. And that made plenty of sense, given that Brady was asking all 11 starters — and really every single offensive player — how he could set them up for success with specific play choices.

"Joe Brady walked around the building and just spoke on: Everybody eats. So he was literally putting that into real words — into actions," Dawkins said.

It wasn't like Diggs wasn't still a big part of the plan. For example, he once texted Brady late-night about a route that he liked — and it was a play the Bills hadn't run all season. So against the Chargers in Week 16, on a critical third down on the last drive of the game, Brady called that play — and Diggs picked up a first down. Buffalo went on to win 24-22.

With all of that as background, you won't be surprised to hear what happened last Friday in Buffalo.

For the Week 1 game plan against the Arizona Cardinals, Brady left the room for Friday's meeting. Allen took notes and afterward caught Brady up on the discussion. The offensive coordinator then took the players' thoughts and feelings into account as he assembled his opening script and play sheet. It's obviously not as easy as simply calling exactly what the players give him — and avoiding the plays they dislike. 

"I'd get a little more sleep [that way]," Brady said with a laugh.

In the Bills' 34-28 win over Arizona, Allen completed passes to nine different pass-catchers. And even with Diggs catching passes for the Houston Texans now, Brady and Allen found a way to score four touchdowns and overcome a 14-point deficit for the win. The offense might still be a work in progress, but the unit looks interested in exploring its unique, deep group of pass-catchers. They'll all have a voice in these Friday meetings.

That meeting is about compromise and buy-in. 

It's not about Brady. It's about the players.

"Once they feel like that this game plan is not my game plan, it's their game plan," Brady said, "that's when I believe we're good to go."

Prior to joining FOX Sports as the AFC East reporter, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.

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