Ex-Bills DC Frazier to attend Coach Accelerator

Alaina Getzenberg, ESPNMay 17, 2023, 01:25 PM ET

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Leslie Frazier will be among the 40 participants in the NFL’s Coach Accelerator program held at the spring league meeting in Minneapolis next week.

The NFL announced on Wednesday the coaches who will be participating in the program.

The program’s aim is to “increase exposure between owners, executives, and diverse coaching talent, providing ample opportunity to develop and build upon their relationships.”

This accelerator follows the inaugural Coach and Front Office Accelerator and the Front Office Accelerator hosted at previous league meetings in 2022. For the first time, however, teams were able to nominate coaches outside of their organization. The coaches who were chosen are attending “based on their high potential” to be considered for head-coaching jobs.

Frazier took a step back from his role as the Buffalo Bills‘ defensive coordinator, a role he held since 2017, in February. The team officially announced that he would be taking a year off from coaching, and general manager Brandon Beane said that Frazier told the team he wanted to return to coaching and not retire. Coach Sean McDermott has taken over coordinator responsibilities.

“It’s tough. It’s a hard business as we know. There’s a lot of scrutiny on it, and there’s a lot of hours, a lot of time put in and, and, again, not speaking for Leslie, but sometimes you may just want to take a breath for a minute,” Beane said at the NFL combine in February. “Again, that would be for him to say, but he was very adamant that he’s not going to retire. My two cents, just wanted to take a step back this season.”

Transitioning from interim to full-time head coach of the Minnesota Vikings after the 2010 season, Frazier, 64, held the role through 2013. In addition to being defensive coordinator, Frazier was also the Bills’ assistant head coach from 2020 to ’22.

Frazier interviewed for multiple head-coaching jobs during his time as the Bills’ defensive coordinator.

“I don’t want to say that I’m OK with it where it doesn’t matter anymore,” Frazier told ESPN in September when asked about any frustrations with young coaches with offensive backgrounds being hired over coaches with defensive backgrounds. “You’re disappointed that people get that narrow-minded and only believe that I gotta hire this young offensive mind to lead my team because I’ve got this young quarterback, but [it’s the owner’s] team.

“They paid all this money for that team. They get to choose how they want to run and how they want to do it, so you have to do the best you can with what you have and I’m gonna do the very best I can as the defensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills, and there are a lot of other worthy defensive-minded coaches in our league that could be head coaches as well, and you just have to keep doing what you do and do it well, and you can’t control the decisions that they make.”

Bills running backs coach Kelly Skipper will also be in attendance. Other participants include Cleveland Browns assistant wide receivers coach Callie Brownson, Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, Philadelphia Eagles coordinators Brian Johnson and Sean Desai, former New Orleans Saints assistant Kris Richard and former Houston Texans offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton.

Frazier, Richard and Hamilton are the only three coaches listed without an NFL team.

The full list of participants: