When the Buffalo Bills fired offensive coordinator Rick Dennison after the 2017 season, it was seen as a necessary step to upgrade the football team. Since that move, the Bills have stayed the course in the key positions on the coaching staff and have a longer track record than most of the NFL in that regard.
According to Field Yates, the Bills are one of just three teams to have the same head coach, offensive coordinator, and defensive coordinator going into their third season together. Head coach Sean McDermott hired Leslie Frazier as defensive coordinator nearly immediately upon his hiring and they’ve been together from the beginning. Brian Daboll came on board a year later after the firing of Dennison.
The New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers are the other two teams that share that continuity.
Both Frazier and Daboll have had head coach interviews since joining the Bills. Frazier was interviewed by the Indianapolis Colts following the 2017 season while Daboll interviewed with the Cleveland Browns this month.
The last time the Bills had the triumvirate of coaches & coordinators together for three years was all the way back in the time of Wade Phillips. With Joe Pendry as offensive coordinator and Ted Cottrell as defensive coordinator during Wade’s coaching tenure from 1998 to 2000, we saw two playoff berths in three seasons.
Even during the Bills’ heyday of the Super Bowl years, they weren’t able to stick together for longer than three years. Marv Levy, Ted Marchibroda, and Walt Corey were broken up when Marchibroda was named head coach of the Indianapolis Colts in 1992.
The last time a Bills team went four straight years or more with the same trio was in the early 1980s. Chuck Knox had offensive coordinator Ray Prochaska and defensive coordinator Tom Catlin from 1978 to 1982.