A new report explains why the Buffalo Bills made the surprising decision to replace Sean McDermott with offensive coordinator Joe Brady, instead of hiring a candidate from outside the organization.
McDermott was in the hot seat for the last three years. It was a negative result of an impressive amount of success during his time as head coach, including a pair of trips to the conference title game and five AFC East titles. After reaching the AFC Championship last year, it created a Super Bowl-or-bust situation for the Bills this season.
Unfortunately for McDermott, his team came up well short of that goal when they could not beat the Denver Broncos in their Divisional Playoff last week. The following day, the hammer hanging over the coach's head finally dropped, and he was ousted after nine seasons and 98 wins .
Since the organization had no clear replacement in mind, they left their candidate options wide open. The interview process included conversations with former offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, who was fired by the New York Giants in November, recent Indianapolis Colts QB Philip Rivers , and fired Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel.
Another candidate for the job was the team's current OC, Joe Brady. To the surprise of many, the BUF Bills announced on Tuesday that Brady was their choice to succeed his former boss, McDermott.
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The news has been met with a lot of confusion by fans. If McDermott wasn't good enough to get the BUF Bills over the hump and reach the Super Bowl, why would a member of his staff be better? Well, we have some new intel on why Brady ended up being the replacement choice.
According to the NFL insider Albert Breer , "there was a [head coach] as CEO piece of every candidate's interview with Buffalo, Brady hit a home run on that." He also added that Brady was seen as a strong choice because it meant "scheme continuity, and easy alignment with GM Brandon Beane," who had the final say on the next head coach.
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