Leslie Frazier abruptly takes hiatus from Bills defensive coordinator job

With a critical offseason just beginning for the Buffalo Bills after being knocked o🎃ut in the Divisional Round for the second straight seasﷺon, they suddenly need a new defensive coordinator.

Leslie Frazier, who has run the Bills’ defense since 2017 and has been an assistant head coach for the last three seasons, is taking a year off from coaching, the team announced Tuesday morning. The Bills said Frazier plans to return for the 2024 season.

The Bills allowed the sixth-fewest yards per game (319.1) in the NFL during the 2022 season and surrendered just 17.9 poi🅰nts per game, second-fewest in the league.

Frazier, 63, was the head coach of the Vikings for three-plus seasons, taking over as interim coach late in 2010 before becoming the permanent head coach in 2011. He was previously Minnesota’s defensive coordinator after stops with the Eagles, Bengals and Colts.

The former Bears cornerback was the Buccaneers’ defensive coordinator for two seasons and spent one year coaching the Ravens’ secondary before joining the Bills in 2017.

Buffalo has made the🐼 playoff𝕴s for four straight seasons, boasting enough talent to be Super Bowl contenders, but they have consistently fallen short in the playoffs. They lost to the Texans in overtime in the wild-card round in 2019-20 postseason before falling to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship game the following year. They did not get the ball in overtime when they fell to the Chiefs again in the Divisional Round last year and they were bounced by the Bengals this year, 27-10.

Frazier’s one-year hiatus follow’s Brian Daboll leaving Sean McDermott’s staff last year as offensive coordinator to become the Giants head coach. Ken Dorsey was promoted from quarterbacks coach to take Daboll’s place.