Bills President of Football Operations & General Manager Brandon Beane knows that the coaching change in Buffalo has not met with public approval. And he doesn’t care.
Beane told Tyler Dunne that he’s aware of fan polls showing overwhelming opposition to firing Sean McDermott as head coach and replacing him with Joe Brady, but Beane doesn’t listen to outside noise.
“Fuck the outside. It’s about the right selection for this team,” Beane told Dunne. “And if we win, they’ll love it. It’s the same thing I said when I took Josh Allen. If I’m wrong, the moving company will be at my house. So, I understand. And I’m not going to have regret of choosing someone to appease the outside if I thought it should have been something different. If I’m wrong, I’ll fucking take my job and fucking go home.”
The press conference Beane and Bills owner Terry Pegula held to announce McDermott’s departure was widely panned, but Beane stand by the decision.
“I would love for everyone to cheer every move, but it’s not about winning the press conference. It’s about winning games,” Beane said.
McDermott won plenty of games in Buffalo, but not enough in the playoffs. If Brady doesn’t win in the playoffs, Beane may not be in his job for much longer.
Bills Clips
The Bills are continuing to fill out their coaching staff under new head coach Joe Brady.
With defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard now in place, the club has added some more defensive assistants.
Via multiple reports, Buffalo is hiring John Egorugwu as linebackers coach and Jay Valai as cornerbacks coach.
Egorgwu is returning to the Bills, as he previously served as a defensive quality control coach in 2017 and assistant linebackers coach from 2018-2020. He was Vanderbilt’s linebackers coach in 2021 and the Giants’ inside linebackers coach from 2022-2025.
Valai had been Oklahoma’s cornerbacks coach and co-defensive coordinator since 2022. While most of his coaching experience has been at the college level, he did serve as a defensive quality control coach for the Chiefs in 2018.
The Bills are hiring Bobby April III as their new outside linebackers coach, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports.
April was Stanford’s defensive coordinator the past three seasons but recently accepted a job with the University of Minnesota to coach the rush ends. April had not even settled in when Jim Leonhard, the Bills’ new defensive coordinator, came calling.
Leonhard and April worked together at the University of Wisconsin.
April also has familiarity with the Bills, having coached the team’s linebackers from 2015-16 under Rex Ryan. He then went to the Badgers, where he and Leonhard met.
April was the outside linebackers coach at Wisconsin from 2018-22.
He spent two seasons with the Eagles and two with the Jets earlier in his career.
New Bills coach Joe Brady has made arguably his most important hire.
With Brady being an offensive specialist, he needs someone to whom the defense can be entrusted. Per multiple reports, the someone is Broncos assistant head coach and defensive pass game coordinator Jim Leonhard.
Leonhard began his playing career in Buffalo 21 years ago, as an undrafted free agent. After three years with the Bills, he joined the Ravens. Leonhard then followed Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan to the Jets.
After three years with the Jets, Leonhard played for the Broncos in 2012, the Bills in 2013, and the Browns in 2014.
He finished his career with 142 regular-season appearances and 73 starts. He played in seven postseason games.
Leonhard began his coaching career at his alma mater, Wisconsin. He rose to defensive backs coach in 2016 to defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach from 2017 through 2022 to interim head coach in 2022.
After serving as a senior defensive analyst at Illinois in 2023, he joined Sean Payton’s Broncos in 2024.
The Bills have found a key assistant for new head coach Joe Brady.
Per Dianna Russini of TheAthletic.com, Buffalo is hiring Jeff Rodgers as special teams coordinator.
Rodgers, 48, is a longtime special teams coordinator and had been with the Cardinals since 2018. He served in the role under former head coaches Steve Wilks, Kliff Kingsbury, and Jonathan Gannon.
Rodgers has also been the special teams coordinator for the Panthers, Broncos, and Bears since 2010.
Rodgers replaces Chris Tabor, who signed on to become the Dolphins’ special teams coordinator after the Bills fired Sean McDermott earlier this month.
The Bills and Packers both need a quarterbacks coach.
Each team is going to take a look at a candidate from the NFC West.
Per Tom Pelissero of NFL Media, Buffalo and Green Bay have put in a request to interview Arizona pass game specialist Connor Senger for the role.
Senger, 30, has been with the Cardinals since 2022, serving in a few different roles. He was promoted to passing game specialist for the 2025 season after being assistant quarterbacks coach in 2024.
While the Bills are filling out Joe Brady’s first staff as head coach, the Packers need a QBs coach after Sean Mannion departed the franchise to become the Eagles offensive coordinator this week.
Joe Brady mentioned multiple times in his introductory press conference as Bills head coach that he’s from the Sean Payton tree.
Now he’s brought in one of Payton’s longtime offensive lieutenants.
Pete Carmichael Jr. is joining Buffalo as the club’s offensive coordinator, according to a report from NFL Media.
Carmichael, 54, was with the Saints from 2006-2023, spending the vast majority of that time as the club’s offensive coordinator under Payton. Carmichael did not call plays full-time until Payton departed the franchise after the 2021 season. But he was fired after two seasons under head coach Dennis Allen.
Carmichael reunited with Payton with the Broncos, becoming the team’s senior offensive assistant in 2024 and serving in that role over the last two seasons.
Brady noted he will still call the Bills’ offensive plays as head coach. But Carmichael joining the team will be a key factor in implementing Buffalo’s offensive game plans throughout the week.
Last week, Bills owner Terry Pegula declined to elaborate on his conversation with quarterback Josh Allen regarding the firing of coach Sean McDermott.
On Thursday, Allen gave reporters some insight into the exchange, and his reaction to it.
Allen said Pegula called to say McDermott had been fired. Allen said he became “very, very emotional” upon hearing the news.
“I’m sitting in my house, I wake up to a call from Mr. Pegula, telling me what had transpired,” Allen said. “And I called Coach McDermott immediately, and I’ve got nothing but love and respect for Coach McDermott. The last eight seasons, eight years of my life, he’s been through ups and downs of me as a player, as a person. He’s seen me grow up in a sense. And to know that, again, we’ve had a lot of success here, and I’d be lying to you if — I’m sitting here saying that, you know, I feel like I had part in it, because if we made — if I make one more play [during] that game in Denver, we’re probably not having this press conference right now. We’re probably not making a change, and honestly, we’re probably getting ready to play another game. And that’s the hard part to take in from my perspective. But that’s reality; it is what it is now. And I am very, again, very fortunate and thankful for Coach McDermott and everything that he’s done and the trajectory that he set here for our players.”
Allen’s comments speak to the likelihood that Pegula didn’t want Allen to blame himself for the outcome.
“I don’t want this in Josh’s head,” Pegula said in his January 21 press conference. “This was my decision.”
Involving Allen directly in the hiring process may have helped Allen get through the situation and embrace his new reality. Indeed, Allen seems to be fully on board with the new hire.
“I’m very looking forward to Joe and everything that entails with him becoming the head coach, and guys getting behind him and rallying behind him and understanding his vision, because I do believe in it,” Allen said. “I do believe in what he had talked about in his meetings, what he’s talked about really the last few years that he’s been in the quarterback room with just the mindset that he has, the togetherness being ‘you with us.’ I can go on and on about how good of a coach I think Joe is, but he’s also a great human being. He’s a family man, he’s a leader. And I think that our guys will respond positively to this.”
Allen ultimately has responded positively, even though he said he’s still “sick” about how the 2025 season ended. And the obvious goal will continue to be to cap a season as the only team that isn’t unhappy with the outcome.
The Broncos conducted their first offensive coordinator interview.
Ronald Curry completed an interview with the team, Gabriel Parker of The Denver Post reports.
Curry, 46, spent four seasons with Broncos head coach Sean Payton in New Orleans. He was the wide receivers coach with the Saints from 2018-20 and the quarterbacks coach during Payton’s last season with the team in 2021.
Curry stayed two more seasons in New Orleans before leaving for Buffalo to become the quarterbacks coach for the Bills. Josh Allen won the MVP award in 2024.
Curry interviewed for the Broncos’ offensive coordinator job when Payton was hired in Denver in 2023. Joe Lombardi held the job for the past three seasons before his firing this week.
Broncos quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator Davis Webb is the favorite to replace Lombardi if Webb doesn’t get the head coaching job in Las Vegas.
Bills head coach Joe Brady was one of the coaches pushing for the Bills to draft wide receiver Keon Coleman in the second round of the 2024 draft.
The details of Coleman’s selection became fodder for conversation last week when team owner Terry Pegula said that General Manager Brandon Beane was being a team player by picking a player at the request of the coaching staff. Pegula’s answer came after Beane was pressed on whether he did enough to bolster the team’s receiving corps and gave the impression the team has been disappointed by Coleman’s play, but Brady said he remains firmly in the wideout’s corner.
“I told Keon when I got hired, the best thing that happened to Keon Coleman was me being his head coach,” Brady said, via Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN.com. “I was one of the ones that stood on the table for Keon Coleman, and I believe in Keon Coleman.”
Brady said that he has “no doubt” that Coleman will be successful in the NFL “as long as he’s handling what he needs to do off the field.” Coleman was benched for portions of games and inactive for others due to disciplinary decisions, but it appears he’ll get another chance to show the Bills he’s capable of being a big part of their offense.
