{"id":719381,"date":"2026-01-31T15:55:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T15:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/719381\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T15:55:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T15:55:25","slug":"bills-reportedly-hiring-broncos-defensive-pass-game-coordinator-jim-leonhard-as-dc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/719381\/","title":{"rendered":"Bills reportedly hiring Broncos defensive pass game coordinator Jim Leonhard as DC"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Buffalo Bills took a chance on Jim Leonhard after he didn’t hear his name called during the 2005 NFL Draft. Buffalo brought aboard the undrafted Wisconsin safety, and that’s where he began his 10-year NFL playing career.<\/p>\n

More than a decade later, he’s reportedly headed back, this time as a coach after serving as the Denver Broncos defensive pass game coordinator the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

The Bills are hiring Leonhard as their new defensive coordinator, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Saturday<\/a>. Leonhard, who doubled as Sean Payton’s assistant head coach in 2025, will now be Joe Brady’s DC in Buffalo.<\/p>\n

Leonhard joined the Broncos’ staff ahead of the 2024 season, during which he also coached the team’s defensive backs.<\/p>\n

He last held a DC gig at his alma mater. Leonhard was Wisconsin’s defensive coordinator from 2017-22. He finished the 2022 season as the Badgers’ interim head coach.<\/p>\n

This coaching cycle, Leonhard visited the Los Angeles Chargers and Baltimore Ravens as well, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter<\/a>, but he’ll be responsible for a Bills defense that allowed the 12th-fewest points per game (21.5) this season yet ranked 28th against the run, giving up 136.2 yards per game on the ground.<\/p>\n

This story is being updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Buffalo Bills took a chance on Jim Leonhard after he didn’t hear his name called during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[104018,117,215,214,53,2086,2792,258,7,5328,90259,262,6,126,1813,3025],"class_list":{"0":"post-719381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-2005-nfl-draft","9":"tag-baltimore-ravens","10":"tag-bills","11":"tag-buffalo","12":"tag-buffalo-bills","13":"tag-buffalobills","14":"tag-defensive-coordinator","15":"tag-denver-broncos","16":"tag-football","17":"tag-ian-rapoport","18":"tag-jim-leonhard","19":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-nfl-network","22":"tag-sean-payton","23":"tag-the-bills"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115990529556498554","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}