The Buffalo Bills cast a wide net in their search for a new head coach, interviewing 20 different candidates before landing on Joe Brady. But one name that never made it into the conversation?
Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak. Not because of interest-or lack thereof-but because of timing.
NFL rules around postseason interviews are strict, and in this case, they were a deal-breaker. Since the Bills made their coaching change after the Seahawks had already advanced in the playoffs, they missed the window to conduct a virtual interview with Kubiak during the Wild Card bye week.
After that, the league prohibits any contact with coaches from teams still in the postseason until their seasons are officially over. That meant no Zoom calls, no backchannel conversations-nothing until after the Super Bowl.
At Joe Brady’s introductory press conference, Bills GM Brandon Beane broke it down clearly.
“Because of when this change was made and when we started our search, we were no longer allowed to talk to coaches that were still in the postseason,” Beane said. “We said, ‘Let’s go ahead and start this process with all available coaches. Their seasons have ended.’”
Beane emphasized that the team wasn’t willing to wait and risk missing out on assembling a full staff. With other teams moving quickly to fill coaching vacancies, any delay could’ve left the Bills behind the curve-especially if their top candidates ended up elsewhere. And with assistant coaching positions filling up fast across the league, waiting for a post-Super Bowl interview could’ve been a gamble with diminishing returns.
“You hate to rule it out, but I think you would unfairly hurt them,” Beane said, referring to candidates like Kubiak. “Because all the staffs are going to be filled up. And I just don’t know if it would be fair to them or the Bills to wait any longer.”
This isn’t the first time the NFL’s hiring timeline has created complications. Just three years ago, the Cardinals got into hot water for contacting Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon during the Super Bowl bye week-a move that led to league scrutiny. The Bills weren’t about to make the same mistake.
It’s a frustrating reality of the current system. Coaches on successful playoff teams-often the very ones who’ve proven themselves under pressure-can find themselves boxed out of head coaching gigs simply because their teams are still playing. And on the flip side, teams like the Bills are forced to make high-stakes decisions without being able to consider every viable candidate.
Beane didn’t hide his frustration with the process.
“I’ve long been a proponent of changing the hiring process,” he said. “I’ve brought up rules changes, but I don’t make the rules. My job is to make sure I’m always doing what’s best for the Buffalo Bills.”
In this case, that meant moving forward with the candidates they could speak to. And once they did, Joe Brady emerged as the clear choice.
“If we went through these nine [candidates] and we’re like, ‘We’re not going to force it,’” Beane explained. “But we had some very good options when we did this. And clearly, at the end, Joe was the man for the job.”
The word that kept coming up in Beane’s comments? *Unfair.
- Not just to the teams trying to make timely hires, but to the coaches themselves. For guys like Kubiak, the deeper their teams go in the playoffs, the less access they have to career-changing opportunities.
It’s a cruel irony: the better you do your job, the less likely you are to get promoted-at least in the moment.
And that’s a problem the NFL still hasn’t solved.