The Falcoholic
Atlanta’s been on a run with defensive-minded head coaching candidates of late, completing interviews late this week with ex-Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce, Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, and Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley. They’ll mix things up with an offensive-minded candidate on Sunday.
Per NFL insider Albert Breer, Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady is up this weekend.
Brady’s an interesting candidate. He was a hot name in NFL circles after coaching Joe Burrow at LSU, and was eventually hired as the offensive coordinator for the Panthers. His 2020 and 2021 seasons featured underwhelming production—not that it stopped the Falcons and others from interviewing him for head coaching vacancies in 2021—before Carolina fired him in early December 2021. He was hired as Buffalo’s quarterbacks coach in 2022 and took over for fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey in 2023, where he has piloted the Bills to a top 10 offense in 2.5ish seasons. While Brady has been credited with putting a more structured offense together for Josh Allen and working around the team’s maddening lack of receiver talent, he’s also been widely criticized by Bills fans for an overreliance on mesh, predictable screens, and go-nowhere run plays. There are stretches in his career that convince you he’s a bit of an offensive guru, and others that convince you he’s someone who loves what he loves regardless of the personnel he has on the field.
This would be an offensive-minded hire with a head coach who would be expected to call plays and has hopped around to a couple different NFL stops; he may be more willing to keep Atlanta’s seasoned and established defensive coaching staff as a result.
All that is to say that while I think Brady isn’t the strongest option in this candidate pool, but he’s more battle-tested than he was when he was a hot candidate in years past and might be more ready to be a head coach. We’ll see if the Falcons think so.
