Buffalo Bills Have a Ready-Made Replacement for Leslie Frasier

Buffalo Bills coaches were given a week off prior to the NFL Scouting Combine. Upon returning, defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier informed the team that he was taking 2023 off from coaching.

While he will likely return to coaching in some capacity in 2024, it appears likely that his time with the Bills is done. His legacy with the Buffalo Bills will be a stellar regular season track record, with a concerning pattern of collapsing in big games against top-tier offenses and getting out-coached on the biggest stages.

While losing a key member of the coaching staff at this point in the offseason may seem like a big blow, there are reasons for optimism with the change in Buffalo. Let’s examine some of the key factors surrounding this change.

Leslie Frasier’s Track Record of Regular Season Success

It is hard to argue with the regular season success Frasier enjoyed. The Buffalo Bills had one of the best regular-season defenses over the past four years.

When measured by Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA), which measures a team’s defensive success in comparison to the NFL average when adjusted for a number of factors the Bills showed both excellence and consistency that was unmatched in the league over the past three years.

In 2020-2022 they were ranked fourth, second and first respectively in DVOA, and were the only team during that time to be ranked in the top five in the league each year. They also improved in total points allowed each season during that time and made the playoffs each year winning 13, 11 and 13 games.