Following the Buffalo Bills’ hiring of head coach Joe Brady on Jan. 27, the team wasted no time filling out a large portion of its coaching staff.

Just four days later, they officially announced that Brady would be filling all three coordinator positions. On Jan. 31, the team hired Pete Carmichael to serve as the Offensive Coordinator, Jeff Rodgers to be the special teams coordinator, and Jim Leonhard to be the new defensive coordinator.

Both Carmichael and Rodgers bring decades of NFL coaching experience to help first-time head coach Joe Brady, while Leonhard will be taking his first-ever coordinator job in the league. So far, the staff has a great mix of veteran NFL coaches and young minds. This will allow the Bills to have a diverse group of voices on the staff, which they’ve lacked in recent years.

Offensive Coordinator, Pete Carmichael

Carmichael comes over from the Denver Broncos, where he served as a senior offensive assistant during the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Before his time in Denver, he coached with the New Orleans Saints from 2006 to 2023. From 2006 to 2008, he served as the team’s quarterbacks coach, and later became the OC in 2009. 

In his first season as Sean Payton‘s offensive coordinator in 2009, the team won the Super Bowl. He would serve in that same role until 2023, when he was let go at the end of the season. 

During his time as Sean Payton’s offensive coordinator, he never called plays. However, Carmichael has limited play-calling experience from the 2022 and 2023 seasons following Payton’s retirement.

His first season was less than stellar, as the Saints finished 7-10 and 22nd in the league in points scored. In year two, however, the team improved to 9-8 and finished 9th in the league in points scored. While it was already reported by NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo that Joe Brady would continue calling plays, it’s still important to get someone with Carmichael’s experience on the staff. 

He’s a guy who has a lot of seasons under his belt, and learning from Sean Payton certainly helps, too. It will be helpful for the team that Brady worked under Carmichael and Payton as an offensive assistant in 2017 and 2018. 

The scheme likely won’t change much offensively, but having a familiar voice in the headset will be crucial for Brady’s first year as head coach.

Special Teams Coordinator, Jeff Rodgers

Rodgers comes over from the Arizona Cardinals, where he served as the special teams coordinator from 2018 to 2025. He also received a promotion in 2019, adding assistant head coach to his job title.

While the statistics from this past season with the Cardinals’ special teams unit don’t seem flashy, Rodgers still has an overall great track record over the course of his long career. 

The highlights of Rodgers’ career so far come from his time with the Denver Broncos from 2011 to 2014 and with the Chicago Bears from 2015 to 2017. During his time in Denver, he helped turn Trindon Holliday into one of the best return specialists in the league. In just two seasons with Rodgers as his special teams coordinator, Holliday had four return touchdowns.

Rodgers also helped coach former Bills kicker Matt Prater for a few seasons during his time in Denver, too. In 2013, with Rodgers at the helm of the special teams unit, Prater made a then-NFL-record 64-yard field goal and even went on to make the Pro Bowl later that season.

Following John Fox’s departure from Denver, Rodgers would join him with the Chicago Bears in the same position. During those three seasons, the return game was a bright spot for them in 2017.

During that season, the Bears returned two kicks for touchdowns. One of those came from future All-Pro punt returner Tarik Cohen. While it took the season after Rodgers left Chicago for Cohen to finally receive recognition, he is largely responsible for Cohen’s first opportunities.

Resume aside, what makes the Rodgers hire so intriguing is that he gets to partner up with this past season’s first-team All-Pro kick returner, Ray Davis.

Most fans often neglect special teams until they need them to make a big play. A football team needs to be good at all three phases of the game, and if given ample time to leave his mark, Jeff Rodgers should have no issues creating a top special teams unit in the league for the Bills.

Defensive Coordinator, Jim Leonhard

Jim Leonhard is joining offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael in making the move from Denver to Buffalo. In 2024, Leonhard joined the Broncos staff as a defensive backs coach and defensive pass game coordinator. Before the 2025 season, he would trade in the defensive backs coaching position for the assistant head coach title. 

During his time in Denver, he helped turn the defense around quickly alongside Vance Joseph. In the season before Leonhard got there, the Broncos ranked 27th in points against with 24.3. Following his arrival, though, the Broncos’ defense went on to finish third in scoring in back-to-back seasons, only giving up 18.3 points per game.

While it remains to be seen what exact defensive scheme Leonhard will bring with him, it’s important to note that he’s coming from the Broncos, who ran a 3-4. This would be a brand new philosophy for the Bills, but not necessarily an unwelcome change.

Leonhard also ran a 3-4 defense during his time as the Wisconsin defensive coordinator from 2017 to 2022. Due to Wisconsin’s recent struggles in football, many people forget just how dominant they used to be. In six seasons calling the plays for the Badgers’ defense, they finished top five or 10 in scoring defense four times under Leonhard.

Leonhard has made a strong coaching impression in just two seasons. Before being hired by the Bills, there was interest across the league in Leonhard as a defensive coordinator. He even interviewed with the Los Angeles Chargers for their opening.

With a lot of league interest and an impressive resume between both college and professional football, it feels like the Bills were lucky to land someone as talented as Jim Leonhard. A possible driver of his decision was returning to the team where he spent four years of his playing career.

Either way, this was a home run hire for Joe Brady and the Bills. It wouldn’t be surprising at all to see Leonhard get head coaching interest after just one season in Buffalo.

The new Buffalo Bills coordinators will bring fresh, exciting elements to the team.

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