Jaguars 2025 head coach candidate profile: Payments OC Joe Brady

For the third time in 5 years, the Jacksonville Jaguars are looking for a brand new head coach.

Massive Cat Nation’s Jaguars head coach hiring course of tracker is consistently being up to date — however to offer extra info on the highest candidates being interviewed, we’ll be releasing in-depth profiles all through the search.

Subsequent up: Joe Brady – who has acquired a number of interview requests, together with the New York Jets and New Orleans Saints.

Expertise

Joe Brady’s head coach candidacy:+ Statistically finest CFB offense ever (LSU)+ Handled the Panthers administration+ 2023 Payments EPA: fifth passing, fifth speeding+ 2024 Payments EPA: 2nd passing, 2nd speeding

— Hayden Winks (@HaydenWinks) December 17, 2024

A Florida native, Joe Brady performed huge receiver at William & Mary from 2009 to 2012 – however solely registered three catches for the Tribe throughout his 4 years there. With a professional profession clearly not one thing within the offing, Brady as an alternative turned his consideration to teaching, along with his first alternative coming underneath Sean Payton as an offensive assistant with the Saints. He solely spent two seasons in New Orleans, earlier than Ed Orgeron lured him to LSU to turn out to be passing recreation coordinator and huge receivers coach.

It was in Baton Rouge the place Brady actually made his mark. Working with a riches of expertise, he helped lead the Tigers to a Nationwide Championship in his one season there, creating stars equivalent to Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson. The LSU offense have been primary within the nation in factors per recreation (48.4) and yards per recreation (568.4), taking down an unimaginable seven top-ten groups en path to successful all of it. Brady’s star was shining so brightly he was attracting curiosity from NFL franchises searching for the following massive offensive coordinator – and regardless of signing a 3-year extension to remain within the Bayou, left for the Carolina Panthers simply days later.

Below Matt Rhule, the Panthers struggled. And so did Brady’s offense, scoring greater than 30 factors simply as soon as in each the 2020 and 2021 seasons. He was fired by Carolina consequently, and within the first second of adversity in Brady’s younger profession, he needed to take a step again – becoming a member of the Buffalo Payments because the quarterbacks coach. He was credited along with his work with Josh Allen following the departure of Brian Daboll, and was elevated to offensive coordinator halfway by means of the 2023 season. Since then, Brady has managed to keep up the Invoice’s standing as one of the crucial lethal offenses within the NFL, regardless of the lack of star huge receiver Stefon Diggs.

Efficiency

Picture by Carmen Mandato/Getty Photos

2024 Payments offense

Factors per recreation: 30.9 (2nd)

First downs per recreation: 21.4 (sixth)

Yards per recreation: 365.3 (ninth)

Yards per play: 6.0 (sixth)

EPA per play: 0.18 (2nd)

Success fee: 46.4 (ninth)

Passing offense

Complete touchdowns: 30 (eighth)

First downs per recreation: 10.65 (nineteenth)

Yards per recreation: 233.9 (sixteenth)

Yards per try: 7.7 (joint eighth)

EPA per play: 0.25 (third)

Success fee: 50.0 (joint eighth)

Speeding offense

Complete touchdowns: 32 (1st)

First downs per recreation: 140 (sixth)

Yards per recreation: 135.6 (ninth)

Yards per try: 4.6 (eleventh)

EPA per play: 0.10 (2nd)

Success fee: 44.8 (joint 4th)

Quotes

Josh Allen’s perception in Joe Brady

Josh Allen chatting with Doug Farrar (Could 2024)

“It’s not the same mundane things we’ve been doing for the last six years. My eyes have got to be better, my footwork has to be better, and ultimately, the ball placement has got to be better. So, it’s forcing me to be a better quarterback.”

Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow praises Buffalo Payments coach Joe Brady

Joe Burrow (November 2023)

“Joe’s awesome, Joe’s very creative. He always has something for a certain look that you’re seeing on tape to take advantage of that. It’s a big opportunity for him, I’m excited for him. He helped me a lot. He helped me become the player I am today. Nothing but love for Joe.”

A have a look at why the Joe Brady experiment failed

Schuyler Callihan (December 2021)

“One of the biggest reasons I believe the Brady/Panthers marriage didn’t last long is because of Brady’s experience calling plays. A lot of people forget that he wasn’t the offensive coordinator at LSU, he was the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach, thus meaning he has never had full control of an offense before. Looking back on it, you could argue that those star players that he had at LSU were the sole reason he earned an opportunity with Rhule and the Panthers in the first place.”

Obvious Pluses

When Joe Brady has expertise to work with, the outcomes are unquestionable. Certain, your life is made simpler when you might have Joe Burrow or Josh Allen on the helm of your offense, however we solely need to look introspectively to know {that a} franchise quarterback doesn’t assure success. Wherever Brady has been, he has put his QB able to succeed, and even elevated their recreation. Burrow got here to LSU having did not make the grade at Ohio State, and Brady turned him right into a Celebrity worthy of the #1 general decide. Allen, regardless of being the most effective within the NFL underneath Daboll, has additionally matured. If he was to finish up in Jacksonville, you’d have each proper to get enthusiastic about what he might obtain with Trevor Lawrence.
Brady has a fame as somebody who can create an explosive passing recreation. However this season in Buffalo, he has accomplished an incredible job in delivering a balanced offense. The Payments misplaced Stefon Diggs within the offseason – and regardless of buying Amari Cooper since, dedicated to establishing a speeding assault. James Cook dinner has developed into the most effective backs within the league, and had sixteen speeding touchdowns within the common season. If it’s one factor Lawrence seems to be crying out for, it’s a floor recreation to maintain defenses balanced. With Cook dinner having an analogous profile to Travis Etienne, it’s not onerous to think about the Jaguars working an analogous offense.
Brady has accomplished properly to outlive a troublesome time in Carolina and bounce again. That reveals a stage of resilience that not each candidate can show, notably up and coming younger coordinators with no head coach expertise. Certain, there are questions on his time with the Panthers (extra on that under), however on the very least he is aware of what dysfunction appears to be like like and has come by means of adversity.

Lingering Questions

Assist this make sense…

And, sure. Joe Brady getting fired by the Panthers might be the factor he’ll look again at sooner or later and say, “that was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.” https://t.co/rVa60AUKS3

— Kenneth McClamrock (@KennethMcClamro) December 6, 2021

At 35 years previous, Brady is a younger teaching candidate. That doesn’t imply he’s not a great one – we’ve seen Sean McVay be an unimaginable success on the Los Angeles Rams, and he was 4 years youthful than Brady when he first began in LA. Not like McVay although, Brady doesn’t hail from any particular ‘coaching tree’. His profession thus far has been nomadic, flipping from NFL to varsity and again, and dealing inside a handful of buildings. McVay’s extra linear growth allowed him to lean on a litany of coaches steeped within the Shanahan mantra when it got here to finalizing his teaching workers, which in flip meant he was capable of hit the bottom working in LA. Does Brady have an analogous rolodex of names he’s capable of go to ought to he land in Jacksonville?
Regardless of Trevor Lawrence, I feel it’s affordable to recommend that the present iteration of the Jaguars is nearer to the 2020/21 Carolina Panthers than it’s the 2024 Buffalo Payments – and even the 2019 LSU Tigers for that matter. That needs to be a priority for Jags followers, as a result of he actually struggled to make his mark in Carolina and assist flip the ship round. Perhaps much more problematic is the state of Jacksonville’s protection, a unit that Brady has zero expertise in teaching or dealing with. The Payments OC will possible must be paired with an skilled defensive coordinator in his first few seasons.
As talked about, Joe Brady has each expertise in a franchise the place the entrance workplace and training workers are completely aligned, in addition to a scenario the place they weren’t. Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott’s relationship is without doubt one of the greatest causes the Payments have turn out to be an NFL heavyweight in current seasons, whereas the Matt Rhule – Scott Fitterer marriage was strained and undermined the Panthers’ begin to life underneath David Tepper. With Shad Khan retaining Trent Baalke, how will Brady work with an under-fire GM that appears to all the time outlast head coaches? If he needs a shot as a head coach, he could also be keen to just accept the present scenario in Jacksonville, for higher or worse. Conversely, with different groups wanting to talk to him, maybe there are extra interesting entrance workplaces on the market to select from.