Joe Brady was once the wunderkind offensive whiz who teamed with Joe Burrow to win a national championship at LSU.
Now with the Buffalo Bills, there are questions as to whether Brady is the offensive coordinator who will maximize Josh Allen's prime.
The Bills' offense has fallen off as the season has gone on. When Allen isn't being a superhero, Buffalo struggles to move the ball, particularly through the air.
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Some of that can be blamed on the wide receiver play. But some of it probably does fall back on Brady.
"GM Brandon Beane has been blamed for failing to land playmaking help for Allen at the trade deadline, but there has been real and reasonable criticism lobbed toward Brady, too," ESPN's Bill Barnwell wrote on Thursday. "Mesh is one of my favorite pass concepts and has a place in every NFL playbook for a reason, but Brady's reliance on it as a man-beater on key third and fourth downs for the Bills has grown to the extent of self-parody, with the Bills going to it over and over again against the Texans with diminishing returns."
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The best sign for Buffalo is that it just won in Pittsburgh by running for 249 yards, including 32 carries for 144 yards for James Cook.
The Bills' running game could be the key to winning in the cold and to unlocking the pass, too.
Things could still turn out a lot of different ways for Brady.
"If Brady can spark the offense by leaning back in to the run and getting his unit cooking into a deep playoff run, there will be interest in his services as a potential head coaching option from teams such as the Giants and maybe the Bengals if they move on from Zac Taylor," Barnwell writes. "(Brady developed Joe Burrow into a national champion at LSU.) If the Bills continue to struggle, though, there will be questions about whether Brady is able to flourish only with a superstar quarterback at the height of his powers."
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