Reports: NFL to change Rooney Rule, owners to vote on draft pick incentive

The NFL is making changes to the Rooney Rule, which will now require teams to interview two minority candidates for head coaching vacancies and one minority candidate for coordinator vacancies, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported Monday.

The Rooney Rule already required teams to interview a minority candidate for head coaching vacancies.

Pelissero also reported that teams will be required to interview a minority candidate for senior football operations and general management jobs, and both teams and the league office must interview minorities or female candidates for senior positions such as club president.

The news comes after NFL.com’s Jim Trotter reported Friday that league owners would vote Tuesday on new resolutions intended to help minorities get opportunities as coaches or executives.

Among the two resolutions to be voted on is a rule that would boost a team’s third-round draft pick if they hired a minority for its head coach or GM job. Per Trotter, if a team hires a minority as its head coach, that team’s third-round pick moves up six spots. If a team hires a minority as its general manager, the team moves up 10 spots in the third round. The team’s third-round pick could bump up 16 spots if it hired a minority for both positions in the same year.

In any of those cases, the bump up would occur in the draft that comes before that coach or executive’s second season.

Trotter also reported that a team’s fourth-round pick is boosted by five spots if it keeps a minority head coach or GM for a third season. He cited Steve Wilks, formerly with the Cardinals, and current Cardinals DC Vance Joseph, formerly with the Broncos, as examples of minority head coaches that lasted fewer than three seasons.

The second of the resolutions to be voted on by voters would remove an anti-tampering rule that keeps assistant coaches from interviewing with coordinator positions with other clubs. Becoming a coordinator, Trotter notes, is a key piece of a resume for someone who aspires to be an NFL head coach.

The news comes amid concern that the league doesn’t employ enough minority coaches, as a large portion of NFL players are persons of color but only a few of their head coaches are as well. Just one of the five coaching vacancies this offseason and three of the last 20 resulted in minority hires. Of the 32 NFL teams, only two have GMs of color.

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