'Discouraging': Buffalo Bills Coach Leslie Frazier Bemoans NFL Hiring Problem

“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 said.

The Buffalo Bills have cranked out the NFL's finest defense by just most every statistical measure in 2021. And the hiring of Leslie Frazier as defensive coordinator in 2017 is central to that.

Frazier was recently named the NFL's top defensive play-caller by Pro Football Focus, which ranks players, coaches and teams based on an analytical formula that sometimes produces controversial, or at the very least, confounding results.

Conventional wisdom says that in Frazier's case, he is deserving of the top ranking no matter how you determine it.

But conventional wisdom would also suggest, that therefore, he's ready to move up a rung. And Frazier, who is Black, admits not being able to do so is "discouraging.''

“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 said on the AP Pro Football Podcast. “So it’s discouraging in some ways, but you just have to be able to control what you can control.''

The Bills allowed the fewest yards and points per game in 2021. The 4.6 yards per play they surrendered were a league-low and their 30 takeaways ranked third. Frazier, 63, a one-time head coach in Minnesota a decade ago, deserves credit for helping them get to the point at which they are now perennial Super Bowl contenders.

And he deserves another chance at the top spot.

Part of the formula around here: The Bills make opponents work harder and longer to score, and it shows in the results. The Bills allowed a league-low 12 passing touchdowns in the regular season last year.

And now? Frazier's guys have even more talent, having beefed up their pass rush with free agent Von Miller and drafting cornerback Kaiir Elam in the first round.

"You have no idea from season to season what it's is going to be like," Frazier said recently, "but the enthusiasm and the excitement that those guys have gives you hope. But everybody's moving forward, looking forward, and that's where you want to be in our league."

Everybody is moving forward ... except, when it comes to leaving Buffalo to become a head coach ... Leslie Frazier.