Batavia, N.Y. (WBEN) - Ahead of kickoff for the 2026 NFL season, one of the biggest headlines surrounding the Buffalo Bills will be how the team plays and handles itself under the leadership of new head coach Joe Brady.
After moving on from Sean McDermott this past season following nine seasons at the helm in Orchard Park, the Bills turned to Brady, who is very familiar with the organization after spending four seasons with the team - a year-and-a-half as quarterbacks coach and parts of another three years as offensive coordinator.
It will be Brady's first crack at a head coaching job in the NFL, let alone at any level of football since getting into coaching back in 2013 at the collegiate level with his alma mater William & Mary.
While the Bills have yet to play a snap of regular season football this year, some Bills legends like Wall-of-Famer Steve Tasker likes the direction the team is heading under Brady.
"I think they've had enough talent to win it for six, seven years now, but they kept banging their head against a ceiling. Changing the way they changed was probably a nod towards, 'Listen, they don't need to tear it down to the studs and start from scratch. They're close, but they do need to change something,'" said Tasker in an interview with WBEN.
"There's four franchises that have had a string of years like the Bills have, the other three have three world championships. The Bills have yet to even get to a Super Bowl. Something needed to change, and I think their thought was, 'We need to change some things, but not everything.' And the question is, did they change the right thing? Joe seems to get that, and he understands there's a lot of good things in the building, but it needs to be him."
One thing Tasker knows is the team in Buffalo is going to take the attitude and personality of its head coach, and he seems to like what Brady brings to the table.
"I like their attitude. I like what I see on the field. I like the rhetoric coming out of the locker room. I like the team's consciousness as one thing coming out, I like where it seems to be at. And there's no question it's going to be a little bit of a different squad going out there," Tasker said.
Bills Hall of Fame running back Thurman Thomas has also noticed the high energy Brady brings around his players, and feels it has been rubbing off on the guys in the locker room.
"It seems like he's kind of letting them be who they really are," Thomas said with WBEN. "It's a different team, I think they have a different attitude about what they're supposed to be doing this year."
Thomas is very confident in what the offense is capable of with quarterback Josh Allen under center and the weapons around him. That's why he's interested to see how the defense will respond under first-year defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard.
"I think we're going to put up 30 points a game another year. It's the defense that I'm more concerned with," Thomas said. "You've got guys playing new positions, and so we'll see what happens with that. But as far as I'm concerned, I mean, if we've got to score 30 more points a game every single game and win 30-27, I'm fine with that."
One notable Bills legend that has full confidence in Brady as head coach in Buffalo is Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly, especially knowing what he was able to do as offensive coordinator for parts of the last three seasons.
"A lot of times, coordinators can't be head coaches, but from knowing Joe - I don't know him real well, but from what I've heard, everything is so far so good. Got to give everybody a chance, and that's what I'm doing," said Kelly at his celebrity golf tournament in Batavia earlier this week.
While Kelly liked what McDermott was able to do during his tenure in Buffalo as head coach, he acknowledges the fact that there comes a time when a team has to make the difficult choice to move on.
"From what I understand, Joe Brady was a great pick. But like anything, a quarterback, a wide receiver, time will tell," Kelly said.
As for Bills Wall of Fame linebacker Darryl Talley, he's not much one of prognosticating how the team will do under Brady. But he knows it's on the 53 players on the roster and the others on the practice squad to determine how they respond to their new head coach in Buffalo.
"They've just got to go out and do their best job, and do what they're taught. At the end of the day, that's all we can do," said Talley with WBEN. "We can go out and play and do what we're taught, react to what we see, and that's it. Just react to what you see. Whatever you see, if you see a guy running, you know somebody's got to be on him. So somebody's got to get to him. If you're the closest man, get to him."
What Talley does feel will benefit Brady going into this season is his familiarity with the organization and the players in the locker room.
"I think Joe's been around this organization, and he's been around the guys that he's dealing with right now for a while. So he knows what they're doing, and they understand him, and he understands them. That's basically all you need. You need a line of communication, and that's what they have," Talley said.
While not many head coaches in the NFL have ever won a Super Bowl in their first year with their new team - only four have done it, two of which as a first-year head coach - given the fact the Bills have players like Allen, James Cook, D.J. Moore and other weapons on both sides of the ball, some still believe Buffalo is expected to compete for a Super Bowl, and even win the Vince Lombardi Trophy this season.
But are those expectations a bit lofty for Brady as the first-year guy with the Bills? The answer is a resounding "no" from the Bills legends.
"They're winning playoff games every year, that's a high bar. And for Bills fans, at this point, that ain't enough. Joe knows that, so I would say you've got to get to the [AFC Championship Game]. You've got to have a shot at it," Tasker said. "If you lose, you've got to lose by something other than a spot, a dropped pass, another spot, another drop. You've got to lose outright, you can't have it snatched. But that's a high bar. You've got to win a playoff game to get to the next level."
"I'm talking Super Bowl, man. What better way to open up a new stadium? A new first-year head coach? I'm always positive about every freaking thing, because I've seen it happen before," Thomas acknowledged. "There hasn't been a lot of first-year coaches that have made it to the Super Bowl and won the Super Bowl. I know there have been a couple, so I'm excited about it. Obviously with him being a first-year head coach in this league, there's going to be a mistake that might come along sooner or later."
"Everybody has their opinion, and I know as far as a former player, it's positive. You think positive things, and you take it one game at a time," Kelly added. "It's the old cliche, but the thing is you're gonna have your naysayers. It doesn't matter where you're at or who you are, you're gonna have people who doubt you. But as long as you're playing the game of football or played it before, you keep going, you keep fighting and you never give up."
