The Buffalo Bills will not have a key member of their coaching staff for the 2023 season as the team announced on Tuesday morning that defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier would be taking the 2023 season off from coaching. However, he does plan to return for the 2024 season.
Frazier signed on to be the Bills defensive coordinator in 2017, and has served as Sean McDermott's assistant head coach since 2020 as well. Under his guidance, Buffalo has consistently had one of the best defenses in the NFL. In 2022, Buffalo had the No. 6 defense in the league, allowing an average of 319.1 yards of total offense per game. The Bills also had the No. 5 run defense (104.6 rushing yards per game), and the No. 2 scoring defense in the league (17.9 points allowed per game).
The 63-year-old Frazier has also served as defensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals, Minnesota Vikings and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. During his time with the Vikings, Frazier was promoted from defensive coordinator to interim head coach in 2010 once Brad Childress was fired, and then received the full-time gig that following offseason. He was fired in 2013 after going 18-29 in three years.
Frazier said just last offseason that he's still waiting for another crack at being a head coach, and pointed to his being a defensive mind as an obstacle that he's had to overcome.
"I'd be lying if I told you that I felt like it would take this long to have that opportunity come along, especially after some of the success and particularly the most recent success we've had in Buffalo," Frazier told the AP Pro Football Podcast, via the Associated Press. "So it's discouraging in some ways, but you just have to be able to control what you can control."
