Former LSU Pass Game Coordinator Joe Brady Named New Buffalo Bills Head Coach

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

One of the masterminds behind one of the greatest offenses in college football history and the best in LSU history in 2019 – pass game coordinator Joe Brady – has been named the new head coach of the Buffalo Bills.

Brady, 36, had been the Bills’ very successful offensive coordinator in 2024 and ’25 and the quarterbacks coach in 2022 and ’23. He was the Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator in 2020 and ’21 after leaving LSU following that one championship season in 2019 in which Brady rode the arm of quarterback Joe Burrow to the national championship at 15-0. Brady replaces fired coach Sean McDermott.

Burrow, who also became LSU’s first Heisman Trophy winner since Billy Cannon in 1959 that season, became the first and last college player in history to gain 6,000 or more total yards in a season as he finished with 6,039 – 5,671 passing and 368 rushing in 2019-20. He led the nation in passing yards (5,671) and set the the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) record for touchdowns with 60 that remains and the passing efficiency record (202.0) at the time. He still holds the record for touchdowns responsible for with 65 as he rushed for five TDs that season.

Brady got a lot of the credit for Burrow and LSU’s offense in 2019, but offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger called most of the plays and had installed the five-wide-receiver offense used in 2019 late in the 2018 season with Burrow, a graduate transfer from Ohio State after the 2017 season.

The Tigers led the nation in total offense (568.4 yards a game) and scoring offense (48.4 points a game) in 2019 and was second in passing offense (401.6 yards a game).

Read what LSU passing coordinator Joe Brady had to say about Joe Burrow, the receiving corps and the Tigers’ revamped offense

LSU coach Ed Orgeron hired Brady from a minor offensive assistant role with the New Orleans Saints in 2017 and ’18 under Saints’ offensive mastermind head coach Sean Payton. As Brady began to get known for the offense in ’19, Payton struggled in interviews to remember exactly what Brady did with the Saints.

A native of the Miami area, Brady was a wide receiver at Air Force in 2008 and at William & Mary from 2009-12. He was a linebackers assistant at William & Mary in 2013 and ’14 and a graduate assistant at Penn State in 2015 and ’16 before catching on with the Saints.

Brady is one of several former LSU coaches to become NFL head coaches.

Among those are former LSU assistant coach Bill Peterson (1955-59) with the Houston Oilers in 1972 (1-13) and 1973 (0-5), former LSU head coach Nick Saban (2000-04) with the Miami Dolphins in 2005 (9-7) and 2006 (6-10), former LSU graduate assistant (2000) and defensive assistant (2001-02) Adam Gase with the Miami Dolphins from 2016-18 (10-6, 6-10, 7-9) and New York Jets in 2019 and ’20 (7-9, 2-14) and former LSU graduate assistant Freddie Kitchens (2000) with the Cleveland Browns in 2019 (6-10).