The Professional Football Writers of America (PFWA) has selected Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier and the late Greg Knapp as the 2022 Paul “Dr. Z” Zimmerman Award winners.
Frazier and Knapp are the 19th and 20th recipients of the Dr. Z Award, which was instituted by the PFWA in 2014.
The Dr. Z Award is given for lifetime achievement as an assistant coach in the NFL. The award is named for Zimmerman, who covered the NFL for 29 years as Sports Illustrated’s lead pro football writer.
Other 2022 nominees for the award were longtime Steelers linebackers coach/defensive coordinator Keith Butler, the late defensive line coach Bobb McKittrick and the late defensive coordinator Floyd Peters.
Frazier is in his 24th season as a coach in the NFL in 2022, and his sixth with Buffalo as defensive coordinator. He also has served as the Bills’ assistant head coach since 2020.
Frazier’s other stops were in Philadelphia (1999-2002), Cincinnati (2003-04), Indianapolis (2005-06), Minnesota (2007-13), Tampa Bay (2014-15) and Baltimore (2016).
Knapp completed his 26th season as an NFL assistant coach when he was killed in a bicycle accident in July 2021 after he had joined the Jets as passing game coordinator.
He was San Francisco’s offensive quality control coach (1995-97), quarterbacks coach (1998-2000) and offensive coordinator (2001-03) and offensive coordinator for Atlanta (2004-06), Oakland (2007-08) and Seattle (2009). Knapp served as the quarterbacks coach in Houston in 2010-11, and he returned to the Raiders as offensive coordinator in 2012. He joined Denver in 2013 as quarterbacks coach, and he added passing game coordinator duties from 2014-16. He rejoined Atlanta as quarterbacks coach (2018-20), before he was hired by the Jets.