The Buffalo Bills' promotion of Joe Brady to head coach after firing Sean McDermott drew mixed reactions from the fan base. The initial response, paired with the expectations already in place in Buffalo, will have Brady under extreme pressure right away, according to ESPN's Marcus Spears.
By firing McDermott after a 12-5 season, the Bills set a clear precedent for their next head coach. Spears proclaimed that Brady's tenure will begin immediately with Super Bowl-or-bust expectations, giving him the most pressure of any first-year head coach in 2026.
“This is about a Super Bowl,” Spears said on ESPN's ‘NFL Live.' “I'm not sure if anybody walks into a head coaching job with more pressure than Joe Brady does. With Josh Allen, with what this city has gone through. Might I add, they're building a new stadium, and implications come with that as well. It'll be interesting to see how they go forward with his hires and the things that he does in order to kind of change what Buffalo had become under Sean McDermott.”
"This is about a Super Bowl, so I'm not sure if anybody walks into a head coaching job with more pressure."
—@mspears96 on the Bills hiring Joe Brady ✍️ pic.twitter.com/EV7hPqHWov
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) January 27, 2026
The Bills fired McDermott after he achieved eight winning seasons in his nine years with the team. McDermott led Buffalo to seven consecutive 10-win seasons before his release, which included five AFC East titles. His lone failure as a coach was his inability to win big games in the playoffs and give the franchise its first Super Bowl.
While some fans liked the hiring of Brady to keep him in Buffalo, many others opposed the move. Firing a coach of McDermott's caliber typically leads to a big-name hire and not an in-house promotion of a first-year head coach.
Brady has been with the Bills since 2022 and has spent the last two years as McDermott's offensive coordinator. He has never been a head coach at any level in his 13-year coaching career.
Despite his inexperience, the 36-year-old has been mentioned in head coaching hiring rumors all season. He interviewed with multiple teams for vacant offensive coordinator positions following McDermott's firing before his sudden promotion to head coach.
