Joe Brady embraces high expectations as he succeeds Sean McDermott as Bills coach

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Joe Brady did not dismiss the past while looking ahead to leading the Buffalo Bills into the future as their head coach.

Before outlining his vision to bring the same attacking element to defense as he introduced to Buffalo’s Josh Allen-led offense as its coordinator for the past two-plus seasons, Brady first paid tribute to his immediate predecessor during his opening news conference on Thursday.

Brady acknowledged he’d otherwise be starting from scratch without Sean McDermott laying the foundation of sustained success and a winning culture over a nine-season tenure that ended with his firing last week.

The challenge now for Brady is taking a franchise that’s accomplished everything but reach the Super Bowl one step further.

“I understand that I’m walking into this role in a much better position than Coach McDermott did. I’m not naive to that,” Brady said.

“I also understand that the expectations are higher as well. I didn’t take this job to shy away from expectations. I sure as hell did not do that,” he added. “I’m embracing it. I’m understanding it. And I’m meeting it full on.”

The 36-year-old Brady has big shoes to fill after McDermott went 98-50 in the regular season and 8-8 in the playoffs — ranking second on the team in wins behind only Hall of Famer Marv Levy — and transforming the Bills from long-time losers to perennial winners.

And Brady has a challenge in addressing the team's postseason shortcomings.

Owner Terry Pegula believed the Bills had reached “the proverbial playoff wall” in deciding to fire McDermott two days after a 33-30 overtime loss at Denver in the divisional playoff round. It marked Buffalo’s third consecutive playoff loss to be decided by three points. And the Bills became the NFL’s first team to win a playoff round in six straight years but not reach the Super Bowl.

Brady was hired on Tuesday following a six-day search process in which the Bills held nine interviews before deciding to hire their only in-house candidate.

Though he has no previous head coaching experience, Brady brings an element of continuity and familiarity to a team on a seven-year playoff run, and led by an elite quarterback in Allen.

“We all know Joe. Joe is a brilliant offensive mind,” general manager Brandon Beane said of an offense that produced the AP NFL MVP in Allen a year ago, and featured the NFL’s rushing leader in James Cook this season.

“Joe’s offenses know how to attack in many different ways,” Beane added. “But what I and our team learned through this process was Joe’s vision for how he would run an entire football team.”

Brady is from Florida, played collegiately at William & Mary, and broke into the NFL coaching ranks as an offensive assistant on Sean Payton’s staff in New Orleans from 2017 and ’18. Brady then left to become passing game coordinator on an LSU team — featuring Joe Burrow at quarterback — that won the 2019 national championship.

Brady returned to the NFL as the Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator before being fired before completing his second season in 2022, and hired as the Bills quarterbacks coach a year later.

Brady credited Payton, now coaching in Denver, for providing him “a doctorate degree on offense.” And it’s an approach he wants to carry over to the entire team.

“The mentality as we go forward that it is a nameless, faceless opponent that we’re going against, and they’ve got to play us and not the other way around. And I mean that with everything,” Brady said.

“It does not matter the day of the week. The time of the day. Is it outside? Is it inside? It doesn’t matter. Just put the damn ball down and let’s go play.”

Brady took the podium with Allen seated in the front row, and with the silhouette of the Bills new $2.1 billion stadium evident through the shaded windows of team’s training facility.

“Culture starts with them,” Brady said, pointing to Allen and several teammates in the crowd. “The men in the locker room set the culture, regardless of who the head coach is. And it’s my job to make sure I’m allowing them to be their personality, allowing them to play to their personality.”

Allen, walking with crutches after having surgery for a broken bone in his right foot, played a role in the search process by sitting in on candidate interviews.

The quarterback lamented playing a role in McDermott's firing.

“If I make one more play that game in Denver, we’re probably not having this press conference right now. We’re probably not making a change and in all honesty,” he said, before backing Brady. “I'm very looking forward to Joe and guys getting behind him and rallying behind him and understanding his vision because I do believe in it.”

Brady's immediate priority is building out his staff with openings at defensive, offensive and special teams coordinator and various other positions.

Brady’s hiring still raised questions over the team’s vision. Though he brings continuity and has a tight relationship with Allen, Brady’s also spent four seasons as part of a coaching staff that fell short of Super Bowl aspirations.

Though Buffalo’s offense scored 24 or more points in each of its past three playoff losses, the unit has struggled in the clutch.

Buffalo’s final drives in each of those losses ended with an interception in overtime against Denver earlier this postseason; turning the ball over on downs at midfield in a 32-29 loss to Kansas City last season; and a missed field goal in a 27-24 loss to Kansas City in 2023.

“I'm just as responsible, right?” Brady said, noting the five turnovers the Bills committed against Denver were on him, not the players. “Josh Allen is the best player in the NFL, and I have to grow."

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Joe Brady, right, poses for a photo after being introduced as the new head coach of the Buffalo Bills by general manager Brandon Beane, left, in Orchard Park, N.Y., Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)

Joe Brady, right, poses for a photo after being introduced as the new head coach of the Buffalo Bills by general manager Brandon Beane, left, and Owner Terry Pegula, center, in Orchard Park, N.Y., Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, center, arrives at a press conference to announce Joe Brady as the new head coach in Orchard Park, N.Y., Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)

Joe Brady meets with reporters after being introduced as the new head coach of the Buffalo Bills by general manager Brandon Beane, left, in Orchard Park, N.Y., Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)

Joe Brady meets with reporters after being introduced as the new head coach of the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, N.Y., Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran sent its response to the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal to end the Iran war via Pakistani mediators on Sunday, but U.S. President Donald Trump quickly rejected it in a social media post as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” — the latest setback to efforts to resolve the standoff in the Persian Gulf that has throttled shipping and sent energy prices soaring.

Iranian state media reported that Tehran rejected the U.S. proposal as amounting to surrender, insisting instead on “war reparations by the U.S., full Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, an end to sanctions, and the release of seized Iranian assets.”

Washington’s latest proposal addressed a deal to end the war, reopen the strait and roll back Iran’s nuclear program.

Trump's rejection of the Iranian response included no details. In an earlier post, he accused Tehran of “playing games” with the United States for nearly 50 years, adding: "They will be laughing no longer!"

Trump is giving diplomacy “every chance we possibly can before going back to hostilities,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told ABC earlier.

Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen or heard publicly since the war began, “issued new and decisive directives for the continuation of operations and the powerful confrontation with the enemies” while meeting with the head of the joint military command, the state broadcaster reported, with no details.

The fragile ceasefire was tested when a drone ignited a small fire on a ship off Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported drones entering their airspace. The UAE said it shot down two drones and blamed Iran. No casualties were reported, and no one immediately claimed responsibility.

Qatar's Foreign Ministry called the ship attack a “dangerous and unacceptable escalation that threatens the security and safety of maritime trade routes and vital supplies in the region." The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center gave no details about the ship's owner or origin.

Kuwait Defense Ministry spokesperson Brig. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al Otaibi said forces responded to drones but did not say where they came from.

Iran and armed allied groups such as the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group have used drones to carry out hundreds of strikes since the war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28.

Trump has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran does not accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program. Iran has largely blocked the strategic waterway that's key to the global flow of oil, natural gas and fertilizer since the war began, rattling world markets.

The U.S. military in turn has blockaded Iranian ports since April 13, saying it has turned back 61 commercial vessels and disabled four. On Friday, it struck two Iranian oil tankers it said were trying to breach the blockade. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy says any attack on Iranian oil tankers or commercial vessels would be met with a “heavy assault” on U.S. bases in the region and enemy ships.

Another sticking point in negotiations is Iran’s highly enriched uranium. The U.N. nuclear agency says Iran has more than 440 kilograms (970 pounds) enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons grade.

In an interview posted late Saturday, an Iranian military spokesperson said forces were on “full readiness” to protect sites where uranium is stored.

“We considered it possible that they might intend to steal it through infiltration operations or heli-borne operations,” Brig. Gen. Akrami Nia told the IRNA news agency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an excerpt of an interview with CBS airing Sunday said the war isn't over because the enriched uranium needs to be taken out of Iran. “Trump has said to me, ‘I want to go in there,’ and I think it can be done physically,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Moscow’s proposal to take enriched uranium from Iran to help negotiate a settlement remains on the table.

The majority of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is likely at its Isfahan nuclear complex, the International Atomic Energy Agency director-general told The Associated Press last month. The facility was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in the 12-day war last year and faced less intense attacks this year.

Iran's deputy foreign minister warned against a planned French-British effort that aims to support maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz after hostilities are over.

“The presence of French and British vessels, or those of any other country, for any possible cooperation with illegal U.S. actions in the Strait of Hormuz that violate international law will be met with a decisive and immediate response from the armed forces,” Kazem Gharibabadi said on social media.

French President Emmanuel Macron responded by saying it won't be a military deployment but an international mission to secure shipping once conditions allow.

Several attacks against ships in the Persian Gulf have occurred over the past week, and a U.S. effort to “guide” ships through the strait was quickly paused.

South Korea announced initial findings from an investigation that said two unidentified objects struck the South Korean-operated vessel HMM NAMU about one minute apart while it was anchored in the strait last week, causing an explosion and fire. Officials have yet to determine who was responsible.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea; Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

Women walk in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A Revolutionary Guard soldier stands at the counter of a fast food restaurant in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

The front page of the Sunday May 10, 2026, edition of Iranian newspaper, Jamejam, is seen with a cartoon satirizing the U.S. President Donald Trump that asks: "Open the the Strait of Hormuz" on a news stand in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Vehicles drive past banners showing portraits of the school children who were killed during a strike on a school in southern town of Minab on Feb. 28, at Tajrish square in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

The South Korean-operated vessel HMM NAMU is docked after being damaged from a fire following an explosion in the Strait of Hormuz, at a port in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Friday, May 8, 2026. (Kim Sang-hun/Yonhap via AP)

Container ships sit at anchor in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Saturday, May 2, 2026.(Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)