Chicago Bears Coaching Carousel: Getting to know Leslie Fraizer

The Chicago Bears suffered yet another loss to their all-time rival this past Sunday. This loss brought them one week closer to the end of the year and ultimately, one week closer to hopefully looking for a new coach.

So in this article, I’ll be continuing our new series where we look at coaching candidates who should be receiving some attention this offseason. Earlier this week I started with an obvious one in Brian Daboll, which could be seen here. Now I’m going to look into a more out there candidate, in Leslie Fraizer.

Leslie Fraizer would certainly be an interesting choice to be the next Chicago Bears head coach.

Leslie Fraizer is someone that Chicago Bears fans of all ages should be pretty familiar with. He had a brief five-year career where he was a member of the Bears from 1981-1985. 1985 was his most successful year where he started all 16 games and recorded six interceptions.

If I’m being completely honest, I’m not sure if I would even be talking about Fraizer right now but per ESPN’s Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler, there may be interest between the two. So after his playing career, Fraizer was named the Bengals defensive coordinator in 2003.

He remained in Cincinnatti until the end of the 2004 season, where he then joined the Vikings as a DC. Fraizer found a lot of success in Minnesota serving as the DC for three years before he became the head coach in 2010.

As a head coach, Fraizer didn’t have too much success although his team made the playoffs in 2012 thanks to an MVP campaign from Adrian Peterson. Over the course of seven seasons in Minnesota, Fraizer produced a top 10 defense three times. Two of those seasons came as a DC, while one came in 2010 where he served as a DC and interim HC for the team.

After his time with the Vikings, he went to Tampa Bay for a couple of seasons and then eventually landed in Buffalo, where he’s been since 2017. Fraizer has once again found success as a defensive play-caller boasting the number one defense in 2021 while having the number 2 and 3 defenses in 2018 and 2019.

Final Verdict:

As I stated above, before the ESPN report I really didn’t have much of a thought about Fraizer as a head coach. If I’m being completely honest, he would be pretty far down my list of candidates. I have a lot of respect for Fraizer as a DC but his HC tenure in Minnesota wasn’t too convincing.

Of course, his time in Minnesota was years ago at this point and Fraizer has probably grown as a coach. As a coach, he’s very different from Nagy. He’s obviously a defensive-minded coach and I believe he is more soft-spoken than Nagy as well. If I had to make a prediction, I’d say that the Bears hire someone else. Although, I do believe the ESPN report and I think he at least gets an interview.

Let me know in the comments how you would feel to have Fraizer as the new head coach or any other candidates you would like to see.