Leslie Frazier stepping away for a year: who could be the replacement?

Leslie Frazier has decided to take a year off coaching, the Bills announced on Tuesday morning.

Bills fans did not expect to wake up to that news.

The Bills have consistently been a stellar defense in the regular season under the direction of Frazier. They have ranked top six in the NFL in total defense in three of the last six seasons.

However, over the last three years Frazier’s defense has failed to perform in playoff games against elite offenses. We saw it with the Bengals this past season, and the Chiefs the two seasons prior.

With that being said, Frazier does deserve credit for making the Bills a top defense the past several years. I wish him all the best in what he may be going through in his personal life right now that made him make this tough decision. The decision to step away from the game could be for personal reasons or health related reasons, we don’t know and it’s likely we won’t know for a while.

Whatever the case may be, the Bills are in need of a new defensive coordinator for the upcoming season. Earlier in February the Bills hired Al Holcomb as senior defensive assistant, and he is one to keep an eye on in terms of taking the defensive coordinator role. Holcomb most recently served as the interim defensive coordinator for the Panthers last season. He also spent time as the Panthers linebackers coach while Sean McDermott was the team’s defensive coordinator from 2013 to 2017.

We also can’t rule out McDermott calling the plays on defense.

We’ll all be refreshing our pages in the upcoming days as we wait with bated breath to see who will be taking over the Bills defense this year.