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In no way, shape, or form did Bills head coach Sean McDermott tab anyone a potential internal replacement for Leslie Frazier if he were to depart this offseason.
Currently Frazier is considered to be in the running for the Texans head coaching job, but he hasn’t yet been hired. Therefore, there would be little reason for McDermott to have mentioned any of his assistants as the proverbial “next man up.”
But during his 45-minute end of season press conference on Tuesday. McDermott did mention one assistant, defensive line coach Eric Washington.
When asked to assess the current situation in the trenches, McDermott mentioned the coaching the unit gets.
“I thought that they did some really good things and they really grew during the season. That’s a credit to the players and their mindset,” McDermott said. “Also credit to Eric Washington and Jacques Cesaire, our two defensive line coaches, as well as Leslie. That’s the impact of coaching, and what you could see was that they were playing really good football.”
“More than anything, what I think coach Washington was able to do was to lay a foundation of techniques and understanding and that’s the growth through the season,” he added.
Nowhere close to saying Washington would be his pick, but McDermott clearly likes him. The other mentioned, Cesaire, is Washington’s assistant D-line coach.
For what it’s worth, McDermott didn’t have much information to provide on Frazier’s status as a candidate at this time. The only update we have as of late is that Frazier had a second interview for the Texans job on Tuesday.
“We’ll see what the future holds for the two of them,” McDermott said, grouping Frazier in with Buffalo quarterbacks coach Ken Dorsey who is reportedly interviewing with the Seahawks.
At minimum, one can assume that Washington would be candidate for the spot. He previously worked with McDermott while with the Panthers coaching staff, having even spent time as their defensive coordinator in 2018 and 2019. Another similar candidate in-house might be linebackers coach Bob Babich, who was a defensive coordinator as well, but hasn’t held the title since 2015. He does have more experience with the gig though, having done so from 2013-2015 (Jaguars) and 2007-2009 (Bears).
Having said all this, we wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t point out one factor here: This wouldn’t be the first time McDermott would have to replace a coordinator. He’s already done so on the offensive side, moving on from Rick Dennison in 2017 and hiring Brian Daboll… who was an outside hire, not internal.
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