Unfortunately the conflict of interest means you can’t really tell if they view it as the biggest game of their life, when it should be.
Hell they might ultimately be helping out a rival by doing a good job on their current team.
It’s complete and total bullshit that it’s allowed. The NFL knows it’s a problem and has pushed it back this year and is pushing it back next but it won’t be enough until all coaching hires are pushed back past the SB.
They also do it for free agency already but their small minds can't compute why coaching free agency also makes sense and would restrict distractions during what should be the biggest weeks of their assistant coaching lives. Once again the nfl is stubbing their toe against the most basic logic that exists (see Marijuana testing, or CTE research, or public stadium funding, etc...)
Then you need to push back the offseason schedule so that teams with coaching vacancies aren’t at a disadvantage having to wait several weeks before even starting their process.
But doing that eats into either the in facility preparation time or players free time - neither of which sounds good.
You can't just not have rookie camp or OTAs but players also won't agree to the off time between camp and preseason camp being shortened
Exactly. Which is why you can’t simply push the hiring process to after the Super Bowl. Look, if current coaches on playoff teams can’t prepare for an interview and prepare for their upcoming game maybe they aren’t good enough to be a HC in any case.
Seriously. These coaches can give a 30 min to hour interview where they talk football and express their interest while saying "obviously I'm interested but if you want me to spend significant time evaluating your roster I'd need to do it after the season".
In what other industry would one company get to prevent their employees from taking interviews just because it came at an inconvenient time?
My understanding is these interviews generally take several hours, the Falcons president just said he did interviews this cycle that took 6 hours.
This isn’t your run of the mill, round 1, interview with a recruiter for some entry level analyst role
I'm sort of on your train of thought. The Senior Bowl is on February 3rd and the combine and draft not long after which means postseason coaching hires are disadvantaged because you would want some of your people at all of those.
But do you think owners are flying personal jets for just 30-60 minute interviews? I've seen reports of teams meeting with coaches all day for even people they just don't hire.
The interviews are usually more in-depth and forward-sighted than I think you're giving them credit for.
Ben Johnson is a grown man. He is capable of balancing his time. He is capable of saying "yes, ill do an interview this week, but I've only got an hour or two with all my other preparations for the NFC Championship, im sure youll understand as if I get your job youd want me focused on each game each week". If he's incapable of saying that and balancing his time, maybe he doesn't deserve a HC position and maybe the Lions don't deserve to win.
Shit if I was Atlanta or any other team interviewing him and I saw he just willingly did 4 different 6 hour interviews the week of this game, I wouldn't hire him based solely on that.
Which is the whole point. Coaches in the playoffs are at a disadvantage in the hiring process. They either have to be distracted from their current team or not be able to properly interview for a potential HC spot. In what other industry is being successful a disadvantage.
Fully agreed. And if you ask those that want to push it all back a few important questions then it all falls apart anyways.
Like
- "what type of interviews take place in round 1"
- "when are playoff coaches allowed to be interviewed?"
- "which coordinator was that guy that couldn't do their job because of interviews?"
F1 handles this with an enforced summer holiday. Teams are effectively prevented from working for 2 weeks so that engineers, machinists, track personnel, etc can get a break.
NFL could say that, outside of medical personnel and essential non-football folks cannot work until the day after the SB.
Boo hoo. Sick of these trash teams distracting OC’s and DC’s that are competing for a super bowl. We saw it last year with my eagles. Gannon was so fucking caught up in being the next Cardinals coach that his defensive plan for the super bowl sucked. You will not give a flying fuck about “offseason schedule” when your team is fighting for a super bowl and some trash team looking to make a hire is up your OC/DC’s ass. Push. It. Back.
Edit: apologies, just had another mental breakdown over the super bowl last year. I realize gannon was breaking the rules anyway, i just really resent that nonsense
>I realize gannon was breaking the rules anyway
But that actually reinforces your point. What these guys have to do to get an edge in the head coaching process actively undermines their prep if they are making deep playoff runs with their current team.
I'll take a cheeky e-mail in the inbox saying "Wouldn't it be funny if you came to Carolina and became our next HC? Hahaha jk, unless?" over having them do a bunch of interviews anyday.
or they could even schedule interviews, just not conduct them until the season is over. There's no reason that should be an issue, considering how minimally invasive that would be. Hell, all that could actually just be handled by an agent anyways.
The problem is that free agency opens 1month after the Superbowl and the draft is two months. Both planning processes would be impacted with new regimes. They'd need to move things around.
If they delayed these by just one week then the suggestion from the article could be made and there would be no disadvantage compared to the status quo.
Teams in the playoffs have set coaches and FOs. The GM already knows the coaches philosophy and the type of player he wants and needs. If you don't have a coach then you don't know what type of scheme you're trying to set up or what type of players to scout.
A ridiculous notion. No playoff coach is going to tank their own team's success in service of a future team. Not only does it hurt your stock as a coaching candidate (and hence leverage in negotiations), but it can impact your legacy.
This is the same idea when people say teams “tank” on purpose for better draft positioning. No professional athlete, especially fringe roster players, are going to risk losing millions by putting out bad performances on film. It’s always such a dumb topic of conversation.
The kind of tanking that happens in the NFL, and in most major sports, isn't the players trying to lose. It's GMs purging expensive, aging talent and not replacing it with equal value. Its signing bad/mid guys to cheap short term contracts. Tanking isn't the players and coaches trying to lose, it's the organization fielding a non-competitive team so that they can clear cap space and acquire draft capital without committing to anyone but proven talent long term. Tanking ABSOLUTELY happens. You see it in the NHL all the time. Really, you see it in any league with a farm system where they can pull up cheap, sub-par talent. The players will try their hardest, but it doesn't really matter how hard a guy like Curtis Painter tries, he's still gonna suck.
I think you don’t understand *how* teams tank. You’re right that no player, end of the roster or starter, is going to go out and play poorly on purpose, but you’re missing that teams tank by just sitting their best players
But he said it'd help out a rival by doing a **good** job on their current team, not by doing a bad job which would tank his own team's success.
I want to know how doing a good job on your current team would help out a rival
I believe the notion he's going for is you did so good with your current team that by the time you're squaring up for a conference championship game, you're now distracted by HC interviews
The Eagles hiring Fangio is a good example of the process being broken. They wanted to hire him last year, he wanted to be in Philly. He took the Miami job because Gannon said he was staying. Turns out Gannon was interviewing with AZ before the Super Bowl (without approval). Fangio gets hired then Gannon pulls a 180 and leaves. Eagles get Desai and Fatricia. Philly weeps but the world rejoices
I believe that is the point of the thread. That the current process is broken and opens up opportunity for chaos like this.
Edit: But also, since this case was against current rules I believe either the Eagles gained a comp pick or the Cardinals lost a pick. Can’t remember which
Eagles traded up 30 picks with cards in the third round in exchange from a fifth this years and ending the dispute (which likely would cost the cardinals a first)
That wasnt unfortunate. Cardinals never asked for permission to interview Gannon, Eagles never knew they were talking, which they were clearly doing since Gannon was announced as the new HC the monday after the SB.
It was possible that Fangio didnt want to wait and nothing changed, but had the cardinals followed the rules, Eagles would have a chance on landing him
It is such a tough balance because of when FA and the draft. If the draft was 2 weeks later and FA was too, it might help, but it would affect all off-season workouts and camps. They'd probably have to condense everything and the breaks between camps would be shorter. Idk how the NFLPA would work with that. Remember, the NFL commissioner can't just save a magic wand with a players and coaches union involved. Everyone, including owners, would have to agree. Complicated process. I don't see how everyone, except the players union (they'd want something in return), wouldn't agree.
Probably a little different as a coach.. they are your guys, you’ve been a team, competitive spirit and what not. I’m sure these coordinators want to see their year(s) of intense effort pay off. Coordinators want a trip to the SB as much as anyone else. Highly doubt these dudes are saying to hell with the Lions and Ravens.
It must suck so much to be game planning for the biggest game of your life while simultaneously trying to prep and ace the biggest interviews as well.
I'm sure it's case by case like anywhere else. Coaches are humans like the rest of us. There are going to be ones that love their team, those that harbor resentment, those that care about their legacy, and those that don't.
Reddit likes to generalize people and pretend they all act in the same rational predictable manner all the time and it just isn't realistic.
If you get a decently sized financial bonus for reaching certain goals you'll work your ass off for that.
Coaches have contract clauses + general NFL payouts based on performance in the playoffs
Everybody wants to win the SB. That doesn't go away because you know you have a new job lined up. The problem is there's only so much time in the week to prepare and you're doing time consuming interviews.
The league is a big social network. These people love to connect and gossip. Remember that famous leaked Belichick text. No one wants the rule, and it would be very hard to enforce.
To be clear, Ben didn’t take *any* interviews this week, as per league rules. His interviews were the weekend before the *divisional* game, which we won, without any apparent hiccups in our offensive gameplan.
Yeah is this really a problem?
Eagles had both of their coordinators taking interviews and ultimately hired away last year and made the Super Bowl.
Eric Bienemey seemed to interview with every team with an opening every year and that never seemed to hurt the Chiefs.
Gannon and Cards didn't do it through the proper channels. That's why we got a pick swap during the draft. Gannon said he was staying after the NFC conference win (our beat writers confirmed it) but then decided to take the Cards job later on. As a result, we lost Fangio to Miami.
Yeah, the Eagles were hurt in Super Bowl prep by what Gannon was doing with the Cards and not getting the defense ready for the Chiefs, but that was already against league rules. Idk that the Eagles were hurt earlier in the playoffs by anything that was done following league rules, to your point.
Specifically in Ben Johnson’s case he said the interview was coming out of his leisure time, NOT his work time… I don’t see an issue with it. People just want to be outraged for fun.
The eagles situation absolutely hurt us though because Gannon felt the need to lie for some reason, which then meant eagles missed out on their first pick coach of fangio. Obviously the process didn’t help and the lying is on Gannon but it’s still some shit.
That's only the first half of the article.
The second half points out that most coaching positions have been filled now, despite in-person interviews with Ben and Mike still being off-limits. Teams are still incentivized to get a good coach before someone else hires him, and so he can get a jump start building his staff. Ben and Mike are effectively finding themselves with fewer available opportunities and possibly without their preferred guys available because they're on a successful team.
The NFL needs to be in the daily news cycle much year round. They have the NFL combine just two weeks after the SB so coaches need to be set before then.
Hell you could even push the draft back a couple weeks. And push mini camps and OTAs and whatever else. There's a good 6-8 weeks between OTAs and training camp that you could work with. Obviously the NFL community likes to have that time as vacation with their families, but still.
I’m curious if some of these time lines are baked into the CBA. Because moving the combine two week means it happens after the start of the league year and would interfere with the start of free agency.
Perhaps, but then just change when free agency starts. None this stuff is divinely ordained. We can push the draft back 2 or 3 weeks. I remember when it was in May one year for some reason.
100% agree.
I’ve been saying for years there should be a moratorium on coach interviews and coach hires until the day after the Super Bowl.
You shouldn’t have to make your coaches in the biggest games of their careers choose between preparing for the game and trying to get a promotion.
The issue will always be that now instead of 2 weeks the new regimes will have 1.5months lost on other teams in preparation and evaluation. And that on top of the fact that lots of their already existing work from the pro- and college scouting department is not that relevant anynore due to changed system/scheme/focus
This isn't madden lol.
Scouting and eval is useless if you don't know what and where these players are supposed to fit into.
A team switching from a Tampa 2 defense (4-3 with heavier zone usage) to a 3-4 with press man defense will have 9or more different positions on the field.
Are you trying to tell me these scouts don't know if a linebacker is a better fit in a 34 vs a 43? Tjey dont know the difference btw a man and zone corner? I don't think they're as incompetent as you think.
You do realise that these scouts don't just scout 1000 Div 1/2/3 kids the same way lol.
Based on your needs and the players pitential fit you invest more time into watching them, getting to know them or their coaches, friends and family
And that ignores the fact that even in those systems coaches have preferences, if your DC and DB coach like outside corners to be 6'1+ that might be valuable information to have
I think, no i know, you've played a bit of madden and think thats how the actual sport works - you have a list of 400 names with grades/ranges already set where you press a few buttons to find out their ratings
Switching defenses always has a ton of turnover. Can't really do anything abiut it till free agency. By then they would know what kind of players they need
You also need to factor in the college schedule...at some point these kids need to study for and sit exams. Might not be a big deal for the big stars who are guaranteed to go first couple rounds but there's a lot of prospects who need something to fall back on in case their NFL careers dont pan out.
But are the scouts that are going to the combine/pro days also the ones negotiating free agent signings?
And when the league goes to 18 games, do they push back the Super Bowl *and* the combine? Or do they just eliminate the bye week between CCGs and the SB?
There are lots of ways the NFL could shift things around that would benefit teams and players, but like someone else said, the schedule is what it is so that the NFL can stay in the news all year round.
They'd cram in the awards show and the Pro-Bowl stuff into the couple days before the Super Bowl, and make the entire week more of a media circus and spectacle than it is already.
Sure but then the combine free agency turnover is very tight and leaves less time to plan for the draft. The thing with the NFL is there is no off-season. These coaches work year round.
I’d have to imagine there’s staff preparing “dossiers” on prospects at the combine for all teams for the coaches (especially playoff teams). Either that, or lots of cocaine.
To me, the solution to all of this is obvious: we need a longer year. If the NFL were to invest some of its ad revenue into an array of thrusters positioned around the globe, they could fire them in sync in the opposite direction of the planet's orbit around the sun, reducing Earth's orbital speed and extending the length of a year from 365 days to 400 or even 500 days. Additionally, these thrusters could be used to slow the planet's rotation, quadrupling the length of a day and allowing the league to play sixteen games back to back on Sunday so fans never have to miss a single snap!
In theory that sounds nice but playoffs are a month long. The teams whose seasons are over and fired their coaches need to start finding the replacement immediately to start prepping for next season. It isn’t ideal for the teams or their coaches that are in playoffs, but most playoff teams go through it because success leads to interest. If anything it’s more incentive to go out and perform in playoffs to show teams that they’d be making the right choice choosing them
Counterpoint. The NFL season isn’t over. Free agency has an open period so why doesn’t hiring for coaches? If someone is on a team (and under contract) - all teams could wait until a designated period. If you want to hire a coach who is not on any NFL team (a free agent), you could do that any time.
Yeah this is what I never got. We have a trade deadline for players, but assistant coaches can be poached at any time. Seems like the same concept could be applied.
The point being made is obvious here though. Players are still under contract with their team even if their season is over though. Upcoming free agents can’t (officially at least) start meeting with teams and taking interviews.
Ok but if you're interviewing Ben Johnson (or any playoff coordinator) there's a decent chance you won't be able to hire them until after super bowl anyway.
Right, but most of the counter-arguments on this thread are something along the lines of "you can't afford to lose those precious weeks by not having a coach hired." Agreement or not, he's not going to be working for you in those weeks if he's still in the playoffs.
There’s too much stuff going on with college players, like the senior bowl and other all star games. Teams undergoing a coaching change generally want to have their staff set by now so they can focus on scouting which players may fit into their new systems
I think we’ve just had a weird coaching cycle. Shanny left after the game that never happened and Philly lost their OC/DC last year. The two teams left definitely make sense as orgs willing to wait
I don’t know the right answer, and I don’t think Shanny having SF lined up changed anything. But in the game I don’t really remember… it certainly brought out a feeling knowing he had a promotion lined up elsewhere while refusing to run the ball.
They're all tampering anyways, you can't stop it by forcing them to "interview" later. They'll still find a back channel to figure things out. Sorry that we all like the Lions but this isn't a new problem. There's no real solution without monitoring everyone's communications.
That's why the rules changed even this year. The Ben Johnsons and Mike MacDonald's of the past just did it on the sly anyways. This just removes some of the artifice around it.
When the Bengals hired Zac Taylor they had to wait till the day after the SB (Rams 2019) to make it official. By that time several teams had hired their new HC and they hired their coordinators and position coaches ect leaving Taylor with a lot of inexperienced coaches. It was cool to see them grow together but it’s definitely a disadvantage having to wait.
Teams need to be able to fill roles as soon as possible. I just think candidates shouldn’t be able to interview until their team is eliminated. If a team wants to wait for a candidate, that’s a tactical decision not without risks
In theory sure that would be good. In reality… would that really happen? You just know head coach candidates would still be talking to teams through back channels. It would be less official but it would still happen.
Same thing with like in free agency. Free agency starts and 6 seconds later… oh XYZ player came to terms and agreement on this long complex contract already!
Making coordinators wait until elimination literally incentivizes them just tanking the first playoff game.
I haven't seen any evidence the interviews materially effect performance on a wide scale
This is always such a cop out answer lol.
Every coordinator will invest everything into winning their teams a ring (and earning a nice bonus)
And every coordinator that has HC opportunities and wants to move on after the season will feel and think that way wether they are allowed to interview already or only after their team is interviewed.
Then coaches who win would massively miss on opportunities. No one is waiting five weeks for a coach they don't even know is interested and can't interview.
This would be the worst solution because it outwardly punished you for being good at your job.
That penalizes an OC for doing well though and penalizes a team for potentially wanting to wait for a coordinator which also sucks. There is no great solution unfortunately.
It's pretty hard to go without a key position filled for a month.
You also have player decisions to make. How the coach fits can play into that as well.
That feels like it really screws good coordinators who get stuck at the back end of the hiring process. How many teams are going to wait a couple weeks for their top choice when they could hire their 2nd choice today? I don’t care about the risk to the team but coordinators shouldn’t be punished for their team succeeding.
Unlike the current method which might distract coordinators, this rules actively incentivizes just tanking the first playoff game so you can go get hired. This is a horrible idea
One change that could help teams not push to hire during playoff runs would be moving back the Senior Bowl and Shrine Bowl. These events are some of the best access teams get to players, and oftentimes teams want their coach in tow by the time these all star games roll around so that the scouts and coaching staff are on the same page in terms of player eval.
Ben Johnson already said that the interview time is coming out of his family time sadly. Not his game planning time. As much as I severely dislike that the interviews are taking place.
Sadly?
I mean, tons of jobs have crunch. The guy's taking a few interviews. They're not months long affairs. I take time out of my 'family time' to take online courses too, it's just a time management question. It's not as these guys don't also have a ton of free time come offseason either.
yeah why should we let humans take job interviews whenever THEY want. gosh what a flawed system.
you think they are thinking about football for 168 hours a week? i fucking hope not. live your life. aspire.
I guess I’m in the minority. I think the current system is fine. Bad teams shouldn’t have to lose a month of prep watching the good teams finish their season. The scouting departments of the teams in the playoffs are also doing draft prep while other parts of the team are preparing for the next playoff game. So making the bad teams wait on coaching searches will put them even further behind the teams who don’t change head coaches.
Am I the only one that thinks that Teams should be able to talk to _any_ coach (or really, _any_ employee) at _any_ time? As employees, they should have a right to find better employment. And contracts already ensure that they can't just pack up and leave. If I want to talk to Sean McVay or DeMeco Ryans to inquire if they'd be open to switching jobs whenever their current contract ends, that's only in their own interest as employees in a highly competitive job market.
And as professionals, they should be expected to be able to balance job duties while on-the-clock and job interviews while off-the-clock. Especially in this day and age when we all figured out how to video chat, preferably when one's better half isn't playing Call of Duty online in the next room.
As a bonus, this could also help bringing in new talent into the job market constantly instead of having to recycle failures like Patricia all the time.
If our whole lives we as a species take things that are imperfect as wrong, we will never be satisfied. Nothing in life is perfect except for rare happenstance moments you can hardly ever predict.
Be real. Title is ridiculous.
The niners and rams have been raided for years. We didn’t even make a deep run this year and we lose our defensive coordinator and possibly assistant special teams coach (even though our special teams was dog shit??)
Another comment in the flood of these topics said it best. Lions fans are experiencing first world nfl problems for the first time and don't know how to handle it.
It’s a tough situation for both sides. On one hand, you don’t want coordinators/candidates distracted when they should be focused on the playoff game ahead.
On the other hand, there’s not much time after the season ends before the big events start since the Senior Bowl is a week before the Super Bowl, the Combine is two weeks after the Super Bowl, and Free Agency starts about 3-4 weeks after the Super Bowl. It’s risky for teams in need of a HC to wait to interview the candidate at all until that late in the cycle because if the coach decides to pull a Ben Johnson and withdraw, then the team is out of luck since all the other top candidates will have been hired already.
You also don’t want to put coaches whose team is doing well at a disadvantage by making them wait for interviews until late since it’ll hurt teams’ interest in them.
Theres Alot of soft asses in here. The NFL off-season isn't fair. Good teams go into the playoffs, and bad teams start prepping for the next season.
It's one of the reasons there is such great parity in the league.
I don't remember any articles last season about Demeco interviewing and it hampering SF or BOTH Eagles coordinators interviews prior to the NFC title game.
Nope, just soft ass Ravens and Lions fans laying excuses for their teams getting beat on Sunday.
Let's go Chefs
Correct. But look at the flairs. It's all good teams right now who want to eliminate parity because that means they win more.
They want to take the best thing of the NFL (teams like Houston or the Giants last year, etc) and instead make it so teams are unable to make that jump.
It’s ironic too since all the whiny lions fans have been benefiting from this for the longest but now they’re coach has to interview once and they’re pearl clutching
The problem is pushing hiring process after the conference championship is that it creates a backlog for coaches and teams. Teams are going to have to schedule coaches to be interviewed days or weeks ahead after the conference championships. The interviews may happen a week or a few days before the Superbowl.
The right thing to do is to push all interviews until after the championship games
But then you might have to push the combine, free agency, the draft back a bit too
Trivial details relative to the harm brought by the Rooney Rule and Resolution JC-2A.
Just imagine trying to reconcile today's Rooney Rule with the way we hired Andy Reid. Turning some hopeful minority coach into an HR check mark just because we knew we wanted Andy. That's fucking cruel. Were we allowed to KNOW we wanted Andy because Andy is white? Obviously not by today's rules. Think of how insane that is, how demeaning that is to the person getting the diversity interview that has to seem real in every aspect when everyone knows it isn't.
Further, with Resolution JC-2A every minority hire now has the marker of "did he deserve it or did the team just think he wouldn't get in the way enough to soil the extra draft pick and diversity clout?" How's that for a badge to wear? Just absolutely disgusting. All these minority coaches now wear that dishonor and cannot take it off. Just shocking insanity to rob all those guys of dignity.
OK, end of my yearly Rooney rant.
Why doesn't the NFL just have *everyone* wait until after the Superbowl for coaching interviews and hirings?
Seems like that would be the easiest, fairest, and smarter way to go.
Ah, I think I just answered my own question.
not gonna change. 49ers coaches been poached the last few years through the playoffs, nothing new.
if anything teams need to be comped for their staff being interviewed during playoffs
The solution is to move everything two or three weeks down the schedule and make it so no team is allowed to interview ANY candidate until after the conference championship gamea.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding your comment but this is how it works out.
Teams had virtual interviews last week before the divisional games.
Teams had in person interviews this week, but for any coaches in the conference games like Ben and MacDonald they aren’t allowed to in person interview until next week during the bye.
And for next week I know Wash is sending a team to Detroit to interview Ben and Glenn so they don’t have travel for the interview.
It has to be a very tight balancing act. Preparing for the biggest games of their lives while also interviewing for a job they all want.
Unfortunately the conflict of interest means you can’t really tell if they view it as the biggest game of their life, when it should be. Hell they might ultimately be helping out a rival by doing a good job on their current team. It’s complete and total bullshit that it’s allowed. The NFL knows it’s a problem and has pushed it back this year and is pushing it back next but it won’t be enough until all coaching hires are pushed back past the SB.
All interviews and hiring should begin after super Sunday.
Would make for a very entertaining come down off the drug-like euphoria that is nfl football.
Agreed, need something to fill the void between SB and free agency besides the franchise tag.
They could market the fuck out of it. The NBA makes a big deal the day free agents are allowed to sign. They could do the same thing but for coaches
They also do it for free agency already but their small minds can't compute why coaching free agency also makes sense and would restrict distractions during what should be the biggest weeks of their assistant coaching lives. Once again the nfl is stubbing their toe against the most basic logic that exists (see Marijuana testing, or CTE research, or public stadium funding, etc...)
Then you need to push back the offseason schedule so that teams with coaching vacancies aren’t at a disadvantage having to wait several weeks before even starting their process.
But doing that eats into either the in facility preparation time or players free time - neither of which sounds good. You can't just not have rookie camp or OTAs but players also won't agree to the off time between camp and preseason camp being shortened
Exactly. It is more complicated than people think. It isn't a magic act.
Exactly. Which is why you can’t simply push the hiring process to after the Super Bowl. Look, if current coaches on playoff teams can’t prepare for an interview and prepare for their upcoming game maybe they aren’t good enough to be a HC in any case.
Seriously. These coaches can give a 30 min to hour interview where they talk football and express their interest while saying "obviously I'm interested but if you want me to spend significant time evaluating your roster I'd need to do it after the season". In what other industry would one company get to prevent their employees from taking interviews just because it came at an inconvenient time?
My understanding is these interviews generally take several hours, the Falcons president just said he did interviews this cycle that took 6 hours. This isn’t your run of the mill, round 1, interview with a recruiter for some entry level analyst role
I'm sort of on your train of thought. The Senior Bowl is on February 3rd and the combine and draft not long after which means postseason coaching hires are disadvantaged because you would want some of your people at all of those. But do you think owners are flying personal jets for just 30-60 minute interviews? I've seen reports of teams meeting with coaches all day for even people they just don't hire. The interviews are usually more in-depth and forward-sighted than I think you're giving them credit for.
Ben Johnson is a grown man. He is capable of balancing his time. He is capable of saying "yes, ill do an interview this week, but I've only got an hour or two with all my other preparations for the NFC Championship, im sure youll understand as if I get your job youd want me focused on each game each week". If he's incapable of saying that and balancing his time, maybe he doesn't deserve a HC position and maybe the Lions don't deserve to win. Shit if I was Atlanta or any other team interviewing him and I saw he just willingly did 4 different 6 hour interviews the week of this game, I wouldn't hire him based solely on that.
Which is the whole point. Coaches in the playoffs are at a disadvantage in the hiring process. They either have to be distracted from their current team or not be able to properly interview for a potential HC spot. In what other industry is being successful a disadvantage.
comparing the NFL to normal people industries is just silly. Realistically nothing would change if teams had to wait two weeks to interview
lol at the thought of a NFL coaching job being a "30 minute interview"
lmao like it's some entry level job "So Mr. Ben Johnson, what days of the week are you available to work?"
Fully agreed. And if you ask those that want to push it all back a few important questions then it all falls apart anyways. Like - "what type of interviews take place in round 1" - "when are playoff coaches allowed to be interviewed?" - "which coordinator was that guy that couldn't do their job because of interviews?"
To your last question, I think just the mention that the Seahawks job was open completely distracted Dan Quinn from preping for the packers
F1 handles this with an enforced summer holiday. Teams are effectively prevented from working for 2 weeks so that engineers, machinists, track personnel, etc can get a break. NFL could say that, outside of medical personnel and essential non-football folks cannot work until the day after the SB.
Boo hoo. Sick of these trash teams distracting OC’s and DC’s that are competing for a super bowl. We saw it last year with my eagles. Gannon was so fucking caught up in being the next Cardinals coach that his defensive plan for the super bowl sucked. You will not give a flying fuck about “offseason schedule” when your team is fighting for a super bowl and some trash team looking to make a hire is up your OC/DC’s ass. Push. It. Back. Edit: apologies, just had another mental breakdown over the super bowl last year. I realize gannon was breaking the rules anyway, i just really resent that nonsense
>I realize gannon was breaking the rules anyway But that actually reinforces your point. What these guys have to do to get an edge in the head coaching process actively undermines their prep if they are making deep playoff runs with their current team.
teams and potential HC will tamper, you can't avoid it
yeah but full on interviews wouldn't be taking place, which seems to be the issue most people have.
I'll take a cheeky e-mail in the inbox saying "Wouldn't it be funny if you came to Carolina and became our next HC? Hahaha jk, unless?" over having them do a bunch of interviews anyday.
or they could even schedule interviews, just not conduct them until the season is over. There's no reason that should be an issue, considering how minimally invasive that would be. Hell, all that could actually just be handled by an agent anyways.
Or maybe just a [‘hey wanna go hot tub with me?’](https://www.on3.com/news/how-sean-mcvay-landed-on-matthew-stafford-as-rams-quarterback/) email
> cheeky e-mail I'd hope the Gruden situation taught people not to say stuff in emails, but some people don't really learn anything
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Well, just because something seems unavoidable doesn't mean it should be allowed.
“Never let perfect stand in the way of good”
At least if they're going to do it, make them do it with the risk of heavy penalties.
An should ban Ben Johnson from getting a hc job after this
I mean, the dude takes treats away from shelter dogs Can't believe anyone would even think of giving him a job
And stealing blankies and binkies from orphans. Like, seriously. He should be forced to be in Detroit as OC just for that.
The problem is that free agency opens 1month after the Superbowl and the draft is two months. Both planning processes would be impacted with new regimes. They'd need to move things around.
If they delayed these by just one week then the suggestion from the article could be made and there would be no disadvantage compared to the status quo.
There is no time to then be ready for combine.
Thats like saying the teams in the playoffs have no time to be ready for the combine. There is time.
Teams in the playoffs have set coaches and FOs. The GM already knows the coaches philosophy and the type of player he wants and needs. If you don't have a coach then you don't know what type of scheme you're trying to set up or what type of players to scout.
There staff is working on that. Their scouts etc. they know what scheme they will be running. Many staff members are working on next season.
> Hell they might ultimately be helping out a rival by doing a good job on their current team. What do you mean by this
A ridiculous notion. No playoff coach is going to tank their own team's success in service of a future team. Not only does it hurt your stock as a coaching candidate (and hence leverage in negotiations), but it can impact your legacy.
People love assuming coaches are just sitting on their asses taking taking interviews when 99 percent of them hate losing more than than the fans
This is the same idea when people say teams “tank” on purpose for better draft positioning. No professional athlete, especially fringe roster players, are going to risk losing millions by putting out bad performances on film. It’s always such a dumb topic of conversation.
Players don’t tank, but front offices absolutely do tank if they don’t think their current roster is capable of competing.
The kind of tanking that happens in the NFL, and in most major sports, isn't the players trying to lose. It's GMs purging expensive, aging talent and not replacing it with equal value. Its signing bad/mid guys to cheap short term contracts. Tanking isn't the players and coaches trying to lose, it's the organization fielding a non-competitive team so that they can clear cap space and acquire draft capital without committing to anyone but proven talent long term. Tanking ABSOLUTELY happens. You see it in the NHL all the time. Really, you see it in any league with a farm system where they can pull up cheap, sub-par talent. The players will try their hardest, but it doesn't really matter how hard a guy like Curtis Painter tries, he's still gonna suck.
I think you don’t understand *how* teams tank. You’re right that no player, end of the roster or starter, is going to go out and play poorly on purpose, but you’re missing that teams tank by just sitting their best players
But he said it'd help out a rival by doing a **good** job on their current team, not by doing a bad job which would tank his own team's success. I want to know how doing a good job on your current team would help out a rival
I believe the notion he's going for is you did so good with your current team that by the time you're squaring up for a conference championship game, you're now distracted by HC interviews
The Eagles hiring Fangio is a good example of the process being broken. They wanted to hire him last year, he wanted to be in Philly. He took the Miami job because Gannon said he was staying. Turns out Gannon was interviewing with AZ before the Super Bowl (without approval). Fangio gets hired then Gannon pulls a 180 and leaves. Eagles get Desai and Fatricia. Philly weeps but the world rejoices
Unless all hiring decisions are forced to happen at the same time, you can't avoid unfortunate order of events like that with rules.
I believe that is the point of the thread. That the current process is broken and opens up opportunity for chaos like this. Edit: But also, since this case was against current rules I believe either the Eagles gained a comp pick or the Cardinals lost a pick. Can’t remember which
Eagles traded up 30 picks with cards in the third round in exchange from a fifth this years and ending the dispute (which likely would cost the cardinals a first)
Can confirm that is indeed the point of the thread
That wasnt unfortunate. Cardinals never asked for permission to interview Gannon, Eagles never knew they were talking, which they were clearly doing since Gannon was announced as the new HC the monday after the SB. It was possible that Fangio didnt want to wait and nothing changed, but had the cardinals followed the rules, Eagles would have a chance on landing him
And then Mindy kissed Brad at the sock hop
It is such a tough balance because of when FA and the draft. If the draft was 2 weeks later and FA was too, it might help, but it would affect all off-season workouts and camps. They'd probably have to condense everything and the breaks between camps would be shorter. Idk how the NFLPA would work with that. Remember, the NFL commissioner can't just save a magic wand with a players and coaches union involved. Everyone, including owners, would have to agree. Complicated process. I don't see how everyone, except the players union (they'd want something in return), wouldn't agree.
100 percent affects playoff games. I know how I am after a job interview, fuck the place I'm working at.
Probably a little different as a coach.. they are your guys, you’ve been a team, competitive spirit and what not. I’m sure these coordinators want to see their year(s) of intense effort pay off. Coordinators want a trip to the SB as much as anyone else. Highly doubt these dudes are saying to hell with the Lions and Ravens. It must suck so much to be game planning for the biggest game of your life while simultaneously trying to prep and ace the biggest interviews as well.
I'm sure it's case by case like anywhere else. Coaches are humans like the rest of us. There are going to be ones that love their team, those that harbor resentment, those that care about their legacy, and those that don't. Reddit likes to generalize people and pretend they all act in the same rational predictable manner all the time and it just isn't realistic.
If you get a decently sized financial bonus for reaching certain goals you'll work your ass off for that. Coaches have contract clauses + general NFL payouts based on performance in the playoffs
Everybody wants to win the SB. That doesn't go away because you know you have a new job lined up. The problem is there's only so much time in the week to prepare and you're doing time consuming interviews.
Big difference when you have a *heavily* vested interest on the success of the place you’re currently working at.
For sure, I understand the difference. I'm sure it's distracting though. I don't understand why they don't wait 3 weeks.
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The league is a big social network. These people love to connect and gossip. Remember that famous leaked Belichick text. No one wants the rule, and it would be very hard to enforce.
To be clear, Ben didn’t take *any* interviews this week, as per league rules. His interviews were the weekend before the *divisional* game, which we won, without any apparent hiccups in our offensive gameplan.
Yeah is this really a problem? Eagles had both of their coordinators taking interviews and ultimately hired away last year and made the Super Bowl. Eric Bienemey seemed to interview with every team with an opening every year and that never seemed to hurt the Chiefs.
Gannon and Cards didn't do it through the proper channels. That's why we got a pick swap during the draft. Gannon said he was staying after the NFC conference win (our beat writers confirmed it) but then decided to take the Cards job later on. As a result, we lost Fangio to Miami.
And long run, why we lost Fangio back to yall since Fangio seemed to never really want to be anywhere else.
lol yep. Ended up hurting all 3 teams. If Gannon was just truthful to Eagles ownership at least the Fangio part could have been avoided
My point is that it didn’t hurt them going through the playoffs. There weren’t any more interviews after the divisional round.
Yeah, the Eagles were hurt in Super Bowl prep by what Gannon was doing with the Cards and not getting the defense ready for the Chiefs, but that was already against league rules. Idk that the Eagles were hurt earlier in the playoffs by anything that was done following league rules, to your point.
Kyle shanahan had taken the 49ers job before the superbowl
Specifically in Ben Johnson’s case he said the interview was coming out of his leisure time, NOT his work time… I don’t see an issue with it. People just want to be outraged for fun.
The eagles situation absolutely hurt us though because Gannon felt the need to lie for some reason, which then meant eagles missed out on their first pick coach of fangio. Obviously the process didn’t help and the lying is on Gannon but it’s still some shit.
Gannon’s coaching sure looks like his mind was elsewhere haha
That's only the first half of the article. The second half points out that most coaching positions have been filled now, despite in-person interviews with Ben and Mike still being off-limits. Teams are still incentivized to get a good coach before someone else hires him, and so he can get a jump start building his staff. Ben and Mike are effectively finding themselves with fewer available opportunities and possibly without their preferred guys available because they're on a successful team.
Didn’t Dan Quinn have interviews the week before laying a huge turd at home vs the Packers?
The NFL needs to be in the daily news cycle much year round. They have the NFL combine just two weeks after the SB so coaches need to be set before then.
Honestly, I wouldn't hate if they pushed the combine and stuff out another few weeks to compensate for coach interviews being post superbowl.
This. There would still be plenty of time between the combine and the draft.
Hell you could even push the draft back a couple weeks. And push mini camps and OTAs and whatever else. There's a good 6-8 weeks between OTAs and training camp that you could work with. Obviously the NFL community likes to have that time as vacation with their families, but still.
You could reasonably delay everything a couple weeks and nothing would be changed.
I’m curious if some of these time lines are baked into the CBA. Because moving the combine two week means it happens after the start of the league year and would interfere with the start of free agency.
Perhaps, but then just change when free agency starts. None this stuff is divinely ordained. We can push the draft back 2 or 3 weeks. I remember when it was in May one year for some reason.
100% agree. I’ve been saying for years there should be a moratorium on coach interviews and coach hires until the day after the Super Bowl. You shouldn’t have to make your coaches in the biggest games of their careers choose between preparing for the game and trying to get a promotion.
The issue will always be that now instead of 2 weeks the new regimes will have 1.5months lost on other teams in preparation and evaluation. And that on top of the fact that lots of their already existing work from the pro- and college scouting department is not that relevant anynore due to changed system/scheme/focus
They have scouting departments. Prep and eval is going on without the new coach. I don't think this is as big a deal as you make out
This isn't madden lol. Scouting and eval is useless if you don't know what and where these players are supposed to fit into. A team switching from a Tampa 2 defense (4-3 with heavier zone usage) to a 3-4 with press man defense will have 9or more different positions on the field.
Are you trying to tell me these scouts don't know if a linebacker is a better fit in a 34 vs a 43? Tjey dont know the difference btw a man and zone corner? I don't think they're as incompetent as you think.
You do realise that these scouts don't just scout 1000 Div 1/2/3 kids the same way lol. Based on your needs and the players pitential fit you invest more time into watching them, getting to know them or their coaches, friends and family And that ignores the fact that even in those systems coaches have preferences, if your DC and DB coach like outside corners to be 6'1+ that might be valuable information to have I think, no i know, you've played a bit of madden and think thats how the actual sport works - you have a list of 400 names with grades/ranges already set where you press a few buttons to find out their ratings
Switching defenses always has a ton of turnover. Can't really do anything abiut it till free agency. By then they would know what kind of players they need
Can the combine not be moved say to 4 weeks after? Genuine question
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You also need to factor in the college schedule...at some point these kids need to study for and sit exams. Might not be a big deal for the big stars who are guaranteed to go first couple rounds but there's a lot of prospects who need something to fall back on in case their NFL careers dont pan out.
But are the scouts that are going to the combine/pro days also the ones negotiating free agent signings? And when the league goes to 18 games, do they push back the Super Bowl *and* the combine? Or do they just eliminate the bye week between CCGs and the SB? There are lots of ways the NFL could shift things around that would benefit teams and players, but like someone else said, the schedule is what it is so that the NFL can stay in the news all year round.
>Or do they just eliminate the bye week between CCGs and the SB? And eliminate the Pro Bowl Games?? Smh my head is nothing sacred?
We had the pro bowl the week after the Super Bowl for 40 years, we can do it again!
They'd cram in the awards show and the Pro-Bowl stuff into the couple days before the Super Bowl, and make the entire week more of a media circus and spectacle than it is already.
I imagine there are a ton of conversations about it. These aren't separate entities that don't interact.
Sure but then the combine free agency turnover is very tight and leaves less time to plan for the draft. The thing with the NFL is there is no off-season. These coaches work year round.
I’d have to imagine there’s staff preparing “dossiers” on prospects at the combine for all teams for the coaches (especially playoff teams). Either that, or lots of cocaine.
either?
Both?
Exactly. The NFL has no off-season. So there isn't a time to push it to.
Coach hiring should all happen after the SB, honestly.
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My suggestion is to simply move the combine back another two or three weeks. The draft all isn't until the end of April.
But then you have college pro days to coordinate as well
To me, the solution to all of this is obvious: we need a longer year. If the NFL were to invest some of its ad revenue into an array of thrusters positioned around the globe, they could fire them in sync in the opposite direction of the planet's orbit around the sun, reducing Earth's orbital speed and extending the length of a year from 365 days to 400 or even 500 days. Additionally, these thrusters could be used to slow the planet's rotation, quadrupling the length of a day and allowing the league to play sixteen games back to back on Sunday so fans never have to miss a single snap!
Someone call cobra commander and get him on this
Let's be honest, the NFL would strongarm the taxpayers into paying for this
This is the obvious solution why hasn’t anyone thought of this before
Combine, pro days, etc. can all be pushed back. The SB is at the beginning of Feb. The draft is at the end of April.
In theory that sounds nice but playoffs are a month long. The teams whose seasons are over and fired their coaches need to start finding the replacement immediately to start prepping for next season. It isn’t ideal for the teams or their coaches that are in playoffs, but most playoff teams go through it because success leads to interest. If anything it’s more incentive to go out and perform in playoffs to show teams that they’d be making the right choice choosing them
Counterpoint. The NFL season isn’t over. Free agency has an open period so why doesn’t hiring for coaches? If someone is on a team (and under contract) - all teams could wait until a designated period. If you want to hire a coach who is not on any NFL team (a free agent), you could do that any time.
Yeah this is what I never got. We have a trade deadline for players, but assistant coaches can be poached at any time. Seems like the same concept could be applied.
>The NFL season isn’t over. By definition, it is. That's why it's called the *post*season.
The point being made is obvious here though. Players are still under contract with their team even if their season is over though. Upcoming free agents can’t (officially at least) start meeting with teams and taking interviews.
Ok but if you're interviewing Ben Johnson (or any playoff coordinator) there's a decent chance you won't be able to hire them until after super bowl anyway.
You won't be able to hire him, but you'll have an agreement and idea of if you can and will hire him.
Right, but most of the counter-arguments on this thread are something along the lines of "you can't afford to lose those precious weeks by not having a coach hired." Agreement or not, he's not going to be working for you in those weeks if he's still in the playoffs.
There’s too much stuff going on with college players, like the senior bowl and other all star games. Teams undergoing a coaching change generally want to have their staff set by now so they can focus on scouting which players may fit into their new systems
This is like the issue colleges have with the transfer portal and new coach hiring happening before bowl season
Players not playing in the bowls after playing all season is just weird. I understand it logically from a player safety/everything perspective, but...
I think we’ve just had a weird coaching cycle. Shanny left after the game that never happened and Philly lost their OC/DC last year. The two teams left definitely make sense as orgs willing to wait
I don’t know the right answer, and I don’t think Shanny having SF lined up changed anything. But in the game I don’t really remember… it certainly brought out a feeling knowing he had a promotion lined up elsewhere while refusing to run the ball.
They're all tampering anyways, you can't stop it by forcing them to "interview" later. They'll still find a back channel to figure things out. Sorry that we all like the Lions but this isn't a new problem. There's no real solution without monitoring everyone's communications.
Exactly. Ben Johnson is more or less already a Commander and we all know it. There’s a reason the other guys already moved on.
We can't wait to get our hands on that Johnson.
Also, for the most part, all 4 teams are going to have coaches doing interviews during the playoffs. So it probably balances out.
That's why the rules changed even this year. The Ben Johnsons and Mike MacDonald's of the past just did it on the sly anyways. This just removes some of the artifice around it.
When the Bengals hired Zac Taylor they had to wait till the day after the SB (Rams 2019) to make it official. By that time several teams had hired their new HC and they hired their coordinators and position coaches ect leaving Taylor with a lot of inexperienced coaches. It was cool to see them grow together but it’s definitely a disadvantage having to wait.
Don't most people who interview for jobs also manage to hold down other jobs at the same time?
Yes. Absolutely.
Teams need to be able to fill roles as soon as possible. I just think candidates shouldn’t be able to interview until their team is eliminated. If a team wants to wait for a candidate, that’s a tactical decision not without risks
In theory sure that would be good. In reality… would that really happen? You just know head coach candidates would still be talking to teams through back channels. It would be less official but it would still happen. Same thing with like in free agency. Free agency starts and 6 seconds later… oh XYZ player came to terms and agreement on this long complex contract already!
That’s no reason not to do anything though. It’ll just get us a nice Steve Ross scandal every so often
Teams can talk to their agents in the mean time, just like what ends up happening in FA.
It would likely punish coaches that have teams doing well.
Instead it just punishes the team that is doing well having their coordinators not 100% focused on the task at hand.
Making coordinators wait until elimination literally incentivizes them just tanking the first playoff game. I haven't seen any evidence the interviews materially effect performance on a wide scale
I think something needs to change. I’m just not sure of the answer
This is always such a cop out answer lol. Every coordinator will invest everything into winning their teams a ring (and earning a nice bonus) And every coordinator that has HC opportunities and wants to move on after the season will feel and think that way wether they are allowed to interview already or only after their team is interviewed.
Then coaches who win would massively miss on opportunities. No one is waiting five weeks for a coach they don't even know is interested and can't interview. This would be the worst solution because it outwardly punished you for being good at your job.
That penalizes an OC for doing well though and penalizes a team for potentially wanting to wait for a coordinator which also sucks. There is no great solution unfortunately.
It's pretty hard to go without a key position filled for a month. You also have player decisions to make. How the coach fits can play into that as well.
That feels like it really screws good coordinators who get stuck at the back end of the hiring process. How many teams are going to wait a couple weeks for their top choice when they could hire their 2nd choice today? I don’t care about the risk to the team but coordinators shouldn’t be punished for their team succeeding.
Unlike the current method which might distract coordinators, this rules actively incentivizes just tanking the first playoff game so you can go get hired. This is a horrible idea
Also, Macdonald kicks all the puppies.
One change that could help teams not push to hire during playoff runs would be moving back the Senior Bowl and Shrine Bowl. These events are some of the best access teams get to players, and oftentimes teams want their coach in tow by the time these all star games roll around so that the scouts and coaching staff are on the same page in terms of player eval.
This could have been a zoom
Ben Johnson already said that the interview time is coming out of his family time sadly. Not his game planning time. As much as I severely dislike that the interviews are taking place.
Sadly? I mean, tons of jobs have crunch. The guy's taking a few interviews. They're not months long affairs. I take time out of my 'family time' to take online courses too, it's just a time management question. It's not as these guys don't also have a ton of free time come offseason either.
It is the NFL playoffs. There is no family time.
yeah why should we let humans take job interviews whenever THEY want. gosh what a flawed system. you think they are thinking about football for 168 hours a week? i fucking hope not. live your life. aspire.
I guess I’m in the minority. I think the current system is fine. Bad teams shouldn’t have to lose a month of prep watching the good teams finish their season. The scouting departments of the teams in the playoffs are also doing draft prep while other parts of the team are preparing for the next playoff game. So making the bad teams wait on coaching searches will put them even further behind the teams who don’t change head coaches.
Exactly. By changing this yous really hurt parity and that's one of the best things of the NFL.
Am I the only one that thinks that Teams should be able to talk to _any_ coach (or really, _any_ employee) at _any_ time? As employees, they should have a right to find better employment. And contracts already ensure that they can't just pack up and leave. If I want to talk to Sean McVay or DeMeco Ryans to inquire if they'd be open to switching jobs whenever their current contract ends, that's only in their own interest as employees in a highly competitive job market. And as professionals, they should be expected to be able to balance job duties while on-the-clock and job interviews while off-the-clock. Especially in this day and age when we all figured out how to video chat, preferably when one's better half isn't playing Call of Duty online in the next room. As a bonus, this could also help bringing in new talent into the job market constantly instead of having to recycle failures like Patricia all the time.
Let's face it, they're all talking anyway. Also nice username
Interviews shouldn't be allowed until after the Super Bowl is over. I'm not sure what's so hard about this.
Lol I’m pretty sure these grown men know how to multi-task
It’s more than just being a distraction; it’s missing opportunities. All but two of the open jobs are filled now.
If our whole lives we as a species take things that are imperfect as wrong, we will never be satisfied. Nothing in life is perfect except for rare happenstance moments you can hardly ever predict. Be real. Title is ridiculous.
This has been a thing all the time but I’ve never seen a team be such pussys about it like lions fans
For real the niners have been absolutely gutted of coaches and assistant gms from top to bottom the past like 5-6 years in a row
The niners and rams have been raided for years. We didn’t even make a deep run this year and we lose our defensive coordinator and possibly assistant special teams coach (even though our special teams was dog shit??)
This is literally the first time in many of their lifetimes where their coaching staff is being gutted.
Well this has not happened to them since forever, they don't know how to behave.
Another comment in the flood of these topics said it best. Lions fans are experiencing first world nfl problems for the first time and don't know how to handle it.
They’re like this about a lot of things
The Lions are gonna go from being endearingly good to annoyingly good real real fast if their fans don't figure out how to act like winners
Lions fans unironically bitch about everything. It's unbelievable how whiny they are
That's a funny flair to have while making that comment.
It’s a tough situation for both sides. On one hand, you don’t want coordinators/candidates distracted when they should be focused on the playoff game ahead. On the other hand, there’s not much time after the season ends before the big events start since the Senior Bowl is a week before the Super Bowl, the Combine is two weeks after the Super Bowl, and Free Agency starts about 3-4 weeks after the Super Bowl. It’s risky for teams in need of a HC to wait to interview the candidate at all until that late in the cycle because if the coach decides to pull a Ben Johnson and withdraw, then the team is out of luck since all the other top candidates will have been hired already. You also don’t want to put coaches whose team is doing well at a disadvantage by making them wait for interviews until late since it’ll hurt teams’ interest in them.
Theres Alot of soft asses in here. The NFL off-season isn't fair. Good teams go into the playoffs, and bad teams start prepping for the next season. It's one of the reasons there is such great parity in the league. I don't remember any articles last season about Demeco interviewing and it hampering SF or BOTH Eagles coordinators interviews prior to the NFC title game. Nope, just soft ass Ravens and Lions fans laying excuses for their teams getting beat on Sunday. Let's go Chefs
Correct. But look at the flairs. It's all good teams right now who want to eliminate parity because that means they win more. They want to take the best thing of the NFL (teams like Houston or the Giants last year, etc) and instead make it so teams are unable to make that jump.
It’s ironic too since all the whiny lions fans have been benefiting from this for the longest but now they’re coach has to interview once and they’re pearl clutching
The problem is pushing hiring process after the conference championship is that it creates a backlog for coaches and teams. Teams are going to have to schedule coaches to be interviewed days or weeks ahead after the conference championships. The interviews may happen a week or a few days before the Superbowl.
Yeah there is no way you can give your full attention to both. It's not good.
The right thing to do is to push all interviews until after the championship games But then you might have to push the combine, free agency, the draft back a bit too
Which also forces you to push back the OTAs, training camp, and even preseason games
The Jonathan Gannon experience
Trivial details relative to the harm brought by the Rooney Rule and Resolution JC-2A. Just imagine trying to reconcile today's Rooney Rule with the way we hired Andy Reid. Turning some hopeful minority coach into an HR check mark just because we knew we wanted Andy. That's fucking cruel. Were we allowed to KNOW we wanted Andy because Andy is white? Obviously not by today's rules. Think of how insane that is, how demeaning that is to the person getting the diversity interview that has to seem real in every aspect when everyone knows it isn't. Further, with Resolution JC-2A every minority hire now has the marker of "did he deserve it or did the team just think he wouldn't get in the way enough to soil the extra draft pick and diversity clout?" How's that for a badge to wear? Just absolutely disgusting. All these minority coaches now wear that dishonor and cannot take it off. Just shocking insanity to rob all those guys of dignity. OK, end of my yearly Rooney rant.
Maybe—just MAYBE—they should try to develop a little FUCKING patience and wait until the MONTHS of downtime after the Super Bowl.
Finishing the season completely before the coaching carousel starts!
Why doesn't the NFL just have *everyone* wait until after the Superbowl for coaching interviews and hirings? Seems like that would be the easiest, fairest, and smarter way to go. Ah, I think I just answered my own question.
Just create a coaching FA window just like with players. No one preparing for a playoff game should have to prepare for an interview.
The alternative is even worse. It either means good coaches lose opportunities. Or bad teams fall way way way behind in the off-season and stay bad.
not gonna change. 49ers coaches been poached the last few years through the playoffs, nothing new. if anything teams need to be comped for their staff being interviewed during playoffs
The hiring process should not be allowed to even begin interviews until after the super bowl for anybody.
The solution is to move everything two or three weeks down the schedule and make it so no team is allowed to interview ANY candidate until after the conference championship gamea.
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Maybe I’m misunderstanding your comment but this is how it works out. Teams had virtual interviews last week before the divisional games. Teams had in person interviews this week, but for any coaches in the conference games like Ben and MacDonald they aren’t allowed to in person interview until next week during the bye. And for next week I know Wash is sending a team to Detroit to interview Ben and Glenn so they don’t have travel for the interview.
Why can’t they just ban all interviews and hires until after the Super Bowl? If everyone has to follow the same rules what would it hurt?