ORCHARD PARK - The Buffalo Bills did the necessary due diligence and kicked the tires on a couple of offensive coordinators, but Sunday afternoon they came to the decision to stick with Joe Brady based on his performance as the interim OC across the final nine games of 2023.

Brady did a nice job after replacing the fired Ken Dorsey in mid-November. He took Dorsey’s playbook and massaged a few things here and there and Josh Allen and company did seem to find a better rhythm while winning seven times counting the postseason.

Now, he will get a full blown shot to put his stamp on Buffalo’s attack. Meanwhile, Dorsey will get a new chance to proves his wares as he was hired Sunday as the Cleveland Browns' offensive coordinator.

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“I thought Joe did a really good job and deserves serious consideration for this job,” general manager Brandon Beane said last week at his season-ending press conference.

Coach Sean McDermott said basically the same thing, and Allen himself will likely be happy that Brady will continue on.

Last Monday, Allen was asked about the looming decision and he said of a Brady return, “I would fully embrace it. I love Joe. I love what he brings to this team, to our offense, the juice that he has, the passion he has for football. How much preparation he’s put into a tough situation these last seven to eight weeks. Yeah, I would fully embrace that. And obviously there’s stuff that needs to go on before that. I understand there’s probably an interview process and all that, but he’s got my vote.”

Over the first 10 games with Dorsey, the Bills offense had become a bit stale and predictable, but it’s not like they were the Carolina Panthers or New England Patriots.

They were eighth in points per game (26.2) which was just 2.2 points below where they finished in 2022 when they ranked No. 2 in the NFL in Dorsey’s first year. At 370.1 yards per game they ranked seventh, just six yards fewer than 2022 when they were second in the league. And on third downs, after leading the NFL in 2022 with a remarkable 50.2% conversion rate, they were still second at a nearly remarkable 49.2%.

The one key area where there was a clear decline early in 2023 under Dorsey was in the running game which was down 24 yards per game from 2022. That was largely due to Allen running less both on designed runs or scrambles, a curious edict that may have come from Dorsey and/or McDermott in an effort to lessen the punishment he takes each week.

Contrary to what many believed at the time, by no means was this a bad offense. But with the Bills in a rut and spinning their wheels at 5-5 after a dreadful home loss to the Broncos, McDermott needed to make a statement (some would say offer a scapegoat) and firing Dorsey was the choice.

After Brady took over, the offense enjoyed some improvement, but perhaps not as much as you would have thought, at least based on the numbers. The Bills scoring average went up a point to 27.1, their yards per game increased by nearly eight to 377.8, and their third-down success stayed the same at 49.3%.

The most noticeable change under Brady was his concentration on regenerating the run game by taking the governor off Allen and leaning harder into James Cook.

In the first 10 games, Cook averaged 12 carries for 61.5 yards; in the final nine games counting the postseason he averaged 17 attempts for 71.8 yards. Allen’s rushing numbers nearly doubled from 4.8 carries for 24.6 yards under Dorsey to 9.2 attempts for 47.1 yards under Brady. Specifically, Allen became critical in short yardage situations as he ran for 43 first downs in the last nine games compared to just 23 in the first 10.

“We ran the ball extremely well, stuck to that,” Allen said. “I think we got back to some simpler concepts; we did simple better with (Brady).”

Added center Mitch Morse, “I think he did such a good job. Joe came in at a point where we were in a tumultuous time in our season, things could have gone one way and he doubled down on the stuff that he knew worked. He didn’t make it sexy for himself; he stuck to the run game and I think that for us big guys, you really respect that.”

Of course, you would expect that coming from an offensive lineman because they all prefer to run block than pass block. Left tackle Dion Dawkins loved it, too, saying, “With the amount of times that I get to pull and hit people, like we are calm, violent people … so, the fact that he allows us to be violent in fun ways, I’m cool.”

That’s all fine, and Buffalo’s 7-2 record since the switch was admirable, but let’s not forget who the best player on the team is, nor forget that passing the ball effectively is what separates the best NFL offenses from the lesser ones. Of the top 10 rushing offenses in the NFL, only five made the postseason; of the top 10 passing offenses, eight made the postseason.

Allen running around is great because when he takes off, it’s almost impossible to stop him from gaining productive yardage and picking up first downs. But Allen and Cook running can’t surpass Allen throwing because the NFL remains a passing league.

When Dorsey exited, Allen was averaging 260 gross yards per game, he was completing 70.3% of his throws, and his average yards per attempt was 7.43. Under Brady counting the postseason, Allen averaged 232.7 yards, his completion percentage dipped to 62.4%, and his yards per attempt fell to 7.03.

There were some tangible reasons for this such as later season inclement weather and several games against very good defenses, but you can also point to the lack of production in the receiving group, headed of course by Stefon Diggs.

Rookie tight end Dalton Kincaid played well, and Khalil Shakir emerged after Brady took over, but the Bills did not get nearly enough out of Gabe Davis, Deonte Harty, Trent Sherfield and Dawson Knox. Diggs’ second half dropoff, though, was most troublesome.

Under Dorsey, Buffalo’s No. 1 receiver was targeted 102 times and caught 73 for 868 yards and seven touchdowns with five 100-yard games. Under Brady, Diggs was targeted 75 times and caught only 44 for 388 yards with one TD and no 100-yard games.

“I can’t say in particular why specifically,” McDermott said when asked about Diggs. “If I could, we would flip it back that way to the way it started earlier in the year. Sometimes defenses evolve, sometimes there are more things on tap through the course of the season and people copy them, what’s on tape.”

Defensive line might need to be priority one in the draft, but a close second has to be finding a speedy, dangerous wide receiver for Brady or whoever the offensive coordinator is going to be. The reality might be that while Diggs is still a fine player, he may no longer be a dominant player and Allen needs options in the passing game.

“(Brady) didn’t have his entire touch and his entire flair on this system,” Allen said, a nod to the fact that the offense was Dorsey’s creation, built on the foundation originally set in place by Brian Daboll. “So I know if that’s the route that we went, there’d be a little bit of change in terms of systematically what we would be doing, which I’m hoping for. Just seeing what could be, it does get me excited.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out each Friday during the offseason, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Joe Brady named offensive coordinator of Buffalo Bills: What to know