ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Joe Brady is staying in Buffalo. The "interim" tag has been dropped.
The Buffalo Bills announced Sunday that Brady has been promoted to offensive coordinator on a full-time basis, ending speculation that he might wind up elsewhere this offseason.
Brady received a lot of credit for Buffalo's late-season surge, and just last weekend, he interviewed with the Atlanta Falcons for their head coaching job.
The Bills were 5-5 and coming off a Monday Night Football loss to the Denver Broncos when the franchise fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and applied the "interim" label to Brady back on Nov. 14.
After that the Bills won six of their seven games before falling 27-24 to the Kansas City Chiefs in an AFC divisional round game at Highmark Stadium.
“I would fully embrace it. I love Joe. I love what he brings to the team,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen told the media on Monday. “I think we got back to some simpler concepts, did simple better with him.”
The Bills still have one coordinator job to fill.
Eric Washington, who joined the Bills in 2020 as a defensive line coach, will be the new defensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears, who announced the hire on Saturday afternoon.
Washington served as the team's senior defensive assistant/defensive line coach in 2022, then was promoted to assistant head coach last summer, after Leslie Frazier left the team.
Prior to joining the Bills coaching staff, Washington worked as the Panthers' defensive coordinator for two years (2018-19) and spent seven years as their defensive line coach (2011-17).
Another member of the Bills staff, linebackers coach Bobby Babich, has reportedly been sought by NFL teams that are attempting to fill defensive coordinator vacancies.
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