ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Here are my five thoughts on the Buffalo Bills’ game against the New York Jets on Sunday at Highmark Stadium:
1. As promotions go, Joe Brady’s elevation from quarterbacks coach to interim offensive coordinator doesn’t feel like the most enviable of assignments. Interim designations rarely are.
For Brady, however, the situation seems even less attractive than what coaching placeholders typically face. That’s because his job isn’t to merely oversee the Bills’ offense or call plays. He’s tasked with something much larger.
In explaining the decision to fire former OC Ken Dorsey the day after the Bills’ embarrassing loss against Denver on Monday night, Sean McDermott spoke about the need for the offense to show greater confidence and energy. Brady has the chore of raising the level of both in a unit that has gone from a strength to a liability.
Not only that, but he also must find a way to get Josh Allen back to being Josh Allen. Somehow, Brady must figure out how to restore the dominant form that has been overshadowed by a steady stream of interceptions. And this isn’t just about Allen’s performance. It’s about his personality, a fire that has been replaced by an emptiness in his facial expression and body language.
Oh, and the first indication of whether Brady is making a difference will come only six days after he received his new duties.
Though Brady has experience as an offensive coordinator with a brief stint in that capacity with the Carolina Panthers, he’s being asked to do a lot. Expecting immediate improvement, even of the modest variety, is likely expecting too much.
The Bills aren’t blowing up their playbook and throwing away all the concepts on which the offense has studied and practiced for months. Could there be some different wrinkles and gadgetry? Sure. Could the order in which plays are scripted and called be enough to provide some sort of spark? Maybe.
However, it’s hard to envision the offense looking dramatically different, especially against the Jets’ stout defense. If it performs better, it will mostly be because of better execution rather than scheming.
2. Josh Allen expressed sorrow for the dismissal of Ken Dorsey, with whom he had built a strong bond since 2019, when he became the Bills’ quarterbacks coach. Dorsey was Allen’s hand-picked choice for OC in 2022 after Brian Daboll left to become head coach of the New York Giants.
Allen should feel bad. His play is the primary reason Dorsey lost his job.
Now, it’s fair to wonder whether the move might drive Allen into an even deeper funk.
“Obviously, it’s not a set of circumstances you want to be in, especially during the middle of the season,” Allen said. “I love Dorsey. As a human being, he’s one of the good ones. He’s been in this (quarterback) room with me for a very long time. I feel that I owe him a lot of the success that I’ve had in my career, and he’s been a huge part of that.
“So, it’s sad to see him go. The fact is, we play better as a team, we probably don’t have to make a move like that.”
3. It’s also fair to wonder whether the move, which seemed to grow more probable with each loss and lifeless offensive showing, needed to be made this week.
Why not wait until after the season? Or, at the very least, the week of the Dec. 3 bye when there would be more time for X-and-O tinkering and adjusting, as well as a wider window for players to digest everything during meetings and practice?
The simple answer is that Sean McDermott felt he needed to do something of substance after the humiliating way the Bills lost to the Broncos. The inexcusable 12-men-on-the-field penalty that gave Denver a second try to win the game with a field goal and hand the Bills their second loss in a row and fourth in the last six weeks turned up the heat on McDermott. So, he served up Dorsey to fans whose ever-growing disenchantment with the team’s direction could hamper the Bills’ efforts to sell seat licenses and generally pull in the necessary private millions to pay off the balance of what likely will be a $2-billion price tag for a new stadium.
If the Bills miss the playoffs, plenty of blame will be directed at McDermott. Suffice it to say that a permanent offensive coordinator might not be the only opening on the coaching staff, McDermott’s five postseason appearances since 2017 and offseason contract extension through 2027 notwithstanding.
4. The Jets’ defense is legitimate, but their offense is beyond terrible. In other words, there simply is no excuse for another loss against a team that handed the Bills a season-opening defeat, thanks to Allen throwing three interceptions and losing a fumble.
The Bills’ injury depleted defense has done a remarkable job of keeping games close and competitive, only for the offense to fall short. This must be another of those games.
That’s still Zach Wilson, not Aaron Rodgers, at quarterback. And the Bills cannot allow Wilson to gain any traction. They also need to slam the door on the Jets’ running game, which will likely be at the center of their offensive game plan.
5. The bottom line is that the Bills have almost no margin for error.
A loss Sunday won’t be a mathematical knockout punch for the playoffs, but it will feel that way. That’s because at 5-6, the Bills would probably need to go 4-2 or 5-1 through the rest of the schedule to have a chance to reach the postseason.
That figures to be a big ask, given that the next three games are, on the road at Philadelphia and Kansas City (sandwiching a bye), and at home against Dallas.