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Bills OC Joe Brady given top odds to land head coaching job that isn’t even open yet

One sportsbook has Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady as the favorite to land the Chicago Bears' head coaching gig.

Kyle Silagyi

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It’s only natural for the owner of a rival NFL organization to watch a Buffalo Bills game and deduce something along the lines of, “Man, we could use a Josh Allen.”

As the Buffalo faithful are well aware, however, there is only one Josh Allen, as the 6-foot-5 human rhinoceros is a wholly singular single-caller who is as liable to hurl a ball 80 yards over a defender’s head as he is to hurdle over them himself. Other teams can’t have Josh Allen, and efforts to deploy discounted versions of him have demonstrably bred varying results in different markets; that said, organizations can attempt to get a slice of the magical pie that is the otherworldly quarterback’s success by hiring Buffalo’s offensive coordinator as their head coach, crossing their fingers that transposing the system in which Allen found success onto their own team will yield similar results.

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This has happened in the past with Brian Daboll and the New York Giants, and it could happen again next spring with Joe Brady, Buffalo’s current offensive czar who is already receiving head coaching buzz. Brady, who rose to coaching prominence as the passing game coordinator of the historic 2019 LSU Tigers team, has long heard his name floated as a head coaching candidate, but he seems a shoo-in for a job next offseason given his recent success with Allen. He was given strong odds to ultimately land the New Orleans Saints’ vacancy when it was created in early November, and he’s recently emerged as the betting favorite to land a head coaching job that isn’t even open yet; the young coordinator has +325 odds at Bovada to land the Chicago Bears’ gig should the team fire Matt Eberflus, the strongest of the candidates given odds.

The Bears are 4-7 through the first 12 weeks of the 2024 campaign, and while firing Eberflus isn’t a certainty, it certainly looks as though that’s the direction in which things are trending. Replacing the defense-oriented sideline boss with a bright offensive mind seems to be the direction Chicago should go in given its current roster, and Brady, thus is a natural candidate. Watching the coach who has so effectively worked with players like Allen and Joe Brady in the past have the opportunity to develop a quarterback as demonstrably talented as Caleb Williams is appetizing as a football fan, and with D.J. Moore and Rome Odunze headlining the receiving corps, the Bears have the makings of a potentially dynamic offense.

Joe Brad
Shawn Dowd/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK

Chicago’s potential interest in Brady would make a ton of sense, but it would leave Buffalo in a precarious situation, as there’s not a natural successor to Brady currently on its coaching staff. Knowing the realities that come with fielding a productive NFL offense, the Bills have long positioned themselves well for their coordinators being poached; Brady was the obvious succession plan after former coordinator Ken Dorsey, just as Dorsey was the obvious succession plan Daboll. There’s not an obvious choice to succeed Brady, if need be, currently on the Bills’ coaching staff; long-tenured tight ends coach Rob Boras and recently hired quarterbacks coach Ronald Curry are potential options, but neither are slam dunk picks. This would mean Buffalo would likely be forced to look outside the organization for a new offensive architect, meaning that Allen and co. would have to learn yet another new system.

This, however, is a problem to be handled next January or February after the conclusion of the 2024 campaign. Amid a 9-2 season that could realistically be the one that finally concludes with the Bills hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, it’s difficult for Buffalo fans to think too critically about the team’s future offensive coaching staff.

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Kyle Silagyi
KYLE SILAGYI

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