After taking a nearly year-long sabbatical, Leslie Frazier is ready for his second opportunity as an NFL head coach.
In a phone interview with CBS Sports on Friday, the former Vikings head coach said he has been preparing for several months to interview for a head coaching job this month, with between six and eight positions to be filled over the next week.
“I want to be able to be a part of this hiring cycle. I would love to be able to interview an owner or an organization for one of the head coaching vacancies,” Frazier said. “And I’m based on my past experience as a head coach who took a team to the playoffs, the success I had in the NFL as a coordinator. And I hope that will justify this to me. opportunity. That’s the goal, that’s it.” I hope I will be included in this round and have the chance to interview with one of the organizations that have the opportunity.”
Frazier, 64, retired from coaching at the end of the 2022 season. He had been the defensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills since 2017. In 2021, he led the Bills’ unit to first place in yards and points awarded. In 2022, the Bills were second in points allowed and sixth in yards.
Between 2019 and 2022, the Bills have allowed the fewest points of any team and the second-fewest yards.
But defensive success didn’t lead Frazier to a head coaching job. He’s interviewed with the Colts, Texans and Bears in recent years, but he didn’t get a single interview this past cycle.
Since taking a step back, Frazier has worked with NFL Network and The 33rd Team to stay connected to the game and grow in analytics. He said he also consulted with coaches on game planning for specific teams in recent months.
“It’s forced me to broaden my horizons a little bit,” Frazier said, “looking at the league from a big-picture perspective, as opposed to just a team that I’m on and the opponent that we’re on. we prepare. allowed me to see the league in its entirety and it helped me become more involved in some of the angles that make it possible to win.
Frazier went 3-3 as the Vikings’ interim coach in 2010 before getting the job permanently this offseason. He went 18-29-1 as Minnesota’s permanent coach between 2011 and 2013, and he took the Vikings to the playoffs in the 2012 season where they lost in the wild-card round with backup quarterback Joe Webb.
While he’s not opposed to continuing his coaching career as a defensive coordinator, Frazier says his goal now is to get an interview for a head coaching job and prove what he has learned in the decade since his last term.
“My maturity as a coach and my growth as a coach are very different because of the experiences I’ve had over the last 10 years, and I think each of those experiences has helped prepare me to become a better head coach in this second half. opportunity,” Frazier said. “I just understand the importance of building a strong team, which I didn’t have the opportunity to do when I was interim head coach.
“There is no doubt in my mind, because of the things that have happened over the last 10 years and the things that I have seen and experienced, that I will be a better head coach the second time around, it ‘is on.”
