Buffalo Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins has explained why head coach Joe Brady connects with players in a way that former head coach Sean McDermott, in his view, did not always manage. The five-time Pro Bowler made the comments on The Rich Eisen Show.

“Like, you’ll get lost. And as a coach, if you can’t connect with your players, you know, there’s, like, that’s a huge disconnect,” Dawkins said on the show.

The remarks arrive while the Bills sit at 5-1 under their first-year head coach, who is the youngest active head coach in the NFL.

Dawkins started with a general point about the changing league. He said the new generation of athletes arriving in the NFL is “drastically different” from the one before it, and that coaches who cannot learn how those players speak risk missing out on good talent or watching the team fall short of its potential.

Eisen asked whether Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman was the example Dawkins had in mind. Dawkins answered that Coleman is “a great example,” but he made a point of not painting McDermott as clueless about handling a player like him.

“I’m not saying that, you know, McDermott didn’t know how to deal with that, but it’s just some things are like it just comes off smoother, right?”

The Coleman history gives that answer its context. McDermott benched him for the Bills’ Week 11 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in November 2025 after he was late to a team meeting. The former head coach said at the time that he believed Coleman would “learn from it.”

Under Brady, Coleman caught six of six targets for 63 yards against the Detroit Lions in Week 2 and scored a 12-yard touchdown from Josh Allen in the 33-30 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. After five games, the WR had posted 224 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns, which projects him for a career year this season.

McDermott’s time in Buffalo ended on January, 2026, after the Bills lost to Denver in overtime in the playoffs. Bills owner Terry Pegula wanted a new direction, and soon after, the Bills named Brady head coach on a five-year deal.

McDermott has since wished him well, saying on the Jim Rome Show in August that Brady would do a great job. Brady has also been clear about not copying his predecessor, saying on the Shout Buffalo Bills Podcast in June:

“Sean was an extremely successful head football coach. I hope as I’m coaching, I can accumulate the wins he had and the success he had. I don’t want to be Coach McDermott, not in any negative way, but I want to be Joe Brady.”

This is not the first time Dawkins has drawn the contrast. Speaking on Yahoo’s Inside Coverage with Andrew Siciliano in March, he said the mood felt different and that Brady understands players better.

“Like their swag is just different. Like we’re not in military, like uniforms, like McD, which is also a great way of coaching. It’s just a different course for your team.”

The results so far back up the early reviews. Brady became the first Bills head coach to open his tenure 2-0, then won 37-34 in overtime vs. the Los Angeles Rams. They held off the Raiders, too.

However, Brady’s ‘successful’ run in the season so far has also seen its problems. The offense becomes reckless at times, and the defense needs to pull up.

Buffalo gets a bye before hosting the Baltimore Ravens on November 1 at 1 p.m. ET. Brady’s next challenge is turning that locker-room connection into results when the Bills return to action.