INDIANAPOLIS — Sean McDermott was loose and in a joking moodin his first public comments since the end of the season, but still unwilling to be offer too much information.
The Bills hired two new coordinators in the aftermath of another early playoff exit, but it doesn’t sound like the Buffalo Bills will look much different on the surface next season. McDermott spoke to reporters ahead of the NFL Combine Monday, addressing his decisions to tag the interim tag off offensive coordinator Joe Brady and promoting Bobby Babich from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator.
McDermott did not divulge whether he will continue to call the defensive signals or hand it off to Babich, while also indicating that Brady would put his own spin on the offense but not at the expense of the scheme that has finished no lower than sixth in total yards or scoring over the last four seasons.
“These these new ideas, these fresh ideas and kind of a new set of eyes a little bit, at least from a different angle, I think that’s important,” McDermott said. “But also trying to develop them, sharing some things, some mistakes that I’ve made over the years as a coordinator and some areas that I think are important to developing as a coordinator. So it’s all part of developing staff, developing, in this case, our play-callers.”
Brady took over after Ken Dorsey was fired 10 games into the season, and while he highlighted some areas that worked and eliminated some that didn’t, he was still operating within the offense installed by Dorsey that still had principles and similarities to the offense Brian Daboll crafted dating back to 2018.
In one fewer game last season, the Bills offensive metrics didn’t differ much from Dorsey’s 10-game start, except in the running game and in turnovers. Buffalo ran the ball 11 more times for 45 more yards per game under Brady, while cutting the turnovers in half from 18 to nine.
In giving Brady full control of the offense, the assumption was that he was going to emphasize more of his preferred concepts borne from the Sean Payton tree Brady was developed and that was furthered when the Bills hired ex-Saints assistant Ronald Curry as quarterbacks coach. Curry had been with the Saints since 2016 and overlapped with Brady in 2017 and 2018.
The NFL — and the sport in general — is a copycat league and most offenses share similarities, so there wouldn’t be drastic changes to begin with. But completely overhauling an offense that quarterback Josh Allen has largely commanded since entering the NFL in 2018 and has produced four consecutive top-five season in total yards seemed a bridge too far for McDermott.
“I think you probably saw some of what Joe wants to do, but not all of it, naturally,” McDermott said. “So we were able to add an offensive staff member with with Ronald Curry there that Joe has a history with as well so that comfort level was important for Joe and for us moving forward here. I’m excited about that and excited to see also some of the evolution of our offense this offseason and not getting too far away from what’s what’s been good for us and what’s been good for Josh.”
It’s a similar circumstance for Babich, although the main question is whether he’ll call plays. Babich interview for play-calling positions with the Dolphins, Giants and Packers before being named defensive coordinator for the Bills. Defensive line coach Eric Washington subsequently left to be the Bears defensive coordinator, where he will not call plays and long-time defensive backs coach John Butler mutually agreed to leave the team.
Babich would likely want to put some of his own personality into the defense — and call the plays if he was a candidate for jobs that required it — but having been with the Bills in various positions since 2017, he sees defense through the same eyes McDermott does.
What may be the deciding factor is how quickly Babich is able to process information during a game and use it to base his calls.
“There’s a lot of position coaches that have not gone on to become great coordinators because of the inability to process all that information at a moment’s notice,” McDermott said. “… You either have it or you can acquire a little bit of it, but I think Bobby’s got it, but it remains to be seen to some extent as well. It’s a projection on my part.”