The Buffalo Bills have their Sean McDermott replacement and it's...the guy who was already the team's offensive coordinator. I suppose there's something to be said for continuity, right? Joe Brady has been with the team since 2022, and the offense hasn't been an issue, so I get the reasoning here, even if it seems a bit odd to fire someone only to replace him with a member of his coaching staff.
One thing that keeping Brady around does is it shows us early on what to expect as far as offseason moves. This isn't a "new coach has no allegiance to the old coach's players" situation. Instead, it's more of an "old players who were already not getting snaps now need to worry they're going to be replaced" situation. Who might those replaceable players be?
RB Ray Davis
It's hard to really develop much as a player when you're playing behind someone as good as James Cook. That's been Ray Davis' issue in Buffalo.
Davis saw his carries cut down big time in 2025, going from 113 attempts in 2024 to just 58 this past season. But even that "58" number is misleading, as 21 of those carries came in the regular-season finale against the Jets, a game where the Bills largely rested Cook and went with Mitch Trubisky as their starting quarterback. That means across all the team's meaningful games, Davis totaled 37 carries. Outside of that Jets game, he had three games with nine carries, then not a single other game with more than three.
Carries | Targets | |
|---|---|---|
2024 | 113 | 19 |
2025 | 58 | 13 |
While Davis still has two more seasons under contract and will likely stick around Buffalo at least through the preseason as he fights for a roster spot, there's really no reason to think that hiring Brady is going to do anything as far as his lack of touches go. If Brady wanted to get Davis the ball, he'd have done so with more consistency.
WR Keon Coleman
Keon Coleman is easily the biggest name to be in trouble here. Drafted at No. 33 overall just two seasons ago, Coleman followed up a disappointing first season with an even more disappointing second season.
Targets | Receptions | Yards | Touchdowns | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2024 | 57 | 29 | 556 | 4 |
2025 | 59 | 38 | 404 | 4 |
The icing on the cake came when Coleman was made a healthy scratch for two games for missing team meetings. In the four games after he returned from that suspension, Coleman averaged 1.5 receptions per contest. He had two catches in the Bills' two playoff games.
It's pretty clear that the relationship between the Bills and Coleman is damaged. Likewise, it's not outside the realm of possibilities to think that a new coaching staff might have been capable of salvaging that relationship, but that's not what we have. The guy who was already calling the offensive shots will still be calling the offensive shots, so why would we expect things between the team and Coleman to improve?
This is also probably the last chance to trade him for value, as he still has two seasons left on his rookie deal. In fact, I'd probably say that Coleman is the most likely player on this entire Bills roster to be dealt away before the NFL Draft.
WR Josh Palmer
Who is the Bills' highest-paid wide receiver entering next season? Why, it's Josh Palmer, of course! Yes, the same Josh Palmer who finished sixth on the team in targets this season.
Brought in from the Chargers to hopefully provide an answer for this passing attack, Palmer wound up setting a career low in receiving yards, though the fact that he missed five games helped contribute to that. He also failed to score a receiving touchdown for the first time in his career.
Trading Palmer after June 1 would save the Bills a good bit of money: $10.15 million in 2026, to be exact. Now, that obviously relies on a team with extra cap space wanting to bring him in, but even a post-June 1 release would save $5.31 million, so that's still a consideration.
WR Curtis Samuel
I used to play the Madden mobile game. This was probably 2017, when Curtis Samuel was a rookie in Carolina. It was really easy to acquire him in the game, and his speed made him a huge mismatch. I remember thinking that he was destined to be a star in the NFL. I was, uhh...not correct on that one.
Samuel has now bounced around for a bit, and his two-year stint with Buffalo has been especially rough. After finishing with 613 receiving yards in 2023 with the Commanders, Samuel sank to just 253 in his first season with the Bills, then had only 81 yards in six games this season.
Now, an elbow injury played a big role in that, but Samuel was activated for the postseason game against Denver and finished with one reception for two yards. He has one more year on his deal, but considering Brady hasn't really used him over the last two seasons and the team can save a good deal of money by cutting him this offseason, I'd say his time in Buffalo is over.