The Buffalo Bills began the Joe Brady era with a thrilling 36-31 road win over the Houston Texans.
After another playoff exit, Buffalo fired Sean McDermott and hired Brady, who was the team’s offensive coordinator, as the new head coach.
The Bills offense looked much different in Week 1, and one veteran of the team felt the same.
Dion Dawkins Shares Differences Between Bills HCs
After the Bills’ Week 1 win over the Texans, veteran left tackle Dion Dawkins was asked about Brady as head coach.
Dawkins said that although he still loves Sean McDermott, he does feel the offense is in a much better place under Brady.
“McDermott is our guy, but McDermott was a defense-driven coach. Joe Brady is an offense-driven coach. And you can drastically feel it,” Dawkins said on WGR550.
It’s a bold comment from Dawkins, but he did make it clear that McDermott is still his guy. Yet, Dawkins likes what the Bills have with Brady as he believes there is a drastic change in terms of offense and the ideology for how the offense should be run.
Although Brady was the OC last year under McDermott, he still had to call an offense that McDermott wanted. As the playcaller and head coach, Brady gets to make all the decisions and can be as aggressive as he wants.
That showed against Houston, as the Bills offense was aggressive and had plenty of chunk plays to score quickly.
Joe Brady Pleased With Buffalo’s Week 1 Win
The Bills picked up a big road win over the Texans in Week 1 to start the 2026 NFL season off on the right note.
Buffalo looked good on offense, but its new-look defense under Jim Leonhard did have its struggles. Yet, Bills head coach Joe Brady was happy with the win.
“It’s just one game, and whether we won this game or whether we lost this game, we’re going to have to wake up tomorrow and get back to work,” Brady said. “But to see the guys that have been putting in a lot of the work to see it to kind of show up, I was really proud of that.”
The Bills, however, don’t have much time to reflect on the win as Buffalo will host the Detroit Lions on Thursday Night Football in their home opener.
“It’s 1-0,” Allen said. “We’ve got a game on Thursday night, and we’ve got to be ready for that one.”
The Bills are 4.5-point favorites at home against Detroit.
Bills Veteran Drops Honest Quote on Difference Between Brady and McDermott