Bills Hire Leslie Frazier As DC

The Bills moved quickly to bring in their next defensive coordinator, going with a high-profile assistant in Leslie Frazier, Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com reports.

Frazier’s name surfaced as a candidate to head up Sean McDermott‘s defense earlier tonight, and the Ravens’ defensive backs coach will transition back into a role with which he’s quite familiar. The 57-year-old coach has served as DC for the Bengals, Vikings and Buccaneers, with those roles sandwiching his HC tenure in Minnesota.

Frazier and Panthers linebackers coach Al Holcomb represented the primary assistants the Bills considered for this position. McDermott and Frazier have history after each spent time on Andy Reid‘s staff. Frazier served as DBs coach from 1999-2002 in Philadelphia while McDermott was breaking into the NFL as a scout.

McDermott broke into the coaching ranks midway through Frazier’s Eagles tenure, and the duo will now be tasked with repairing a unit Rex and Rob Ryan couldn’t elevate into an upper-echelon group. The Bills finished with the 19th-ranked defense in each of the past two seasons, representing a drop from their Jim Schwartz-led defense’s No. 4 ranking in 2014. Frazier and McDermott could well move this group back to a 4-3 after it spent two seasons as a struggling 3-4 outfit. McDermott’s Panthers defenses ran a 4-3 look, with Frazier’s groups in Minnesota and Tampa Bay doing the same.

Fired after three seasons with the Vikings, Frazier elevated the Bucs to the No. 10 defense last season. However, Tampa Bay did not exercise the option for a third year with Frazier once it canned Lovie Smith in 2016.