The NFL announced on Tuesday afternoon that they will be making big changes to their policy regarding coaching hires, including new stipulations for the Rooney Rule and diversity hires.
One of the biggest changes is that teams will no longer be able to block the interview of a positional coach when another team is looking to make a coordinator hire.
Prior to this rule change, a move from position coach to coordinator was considered a lateral move, and therefore a team could block the interview request in an effort to keep their positional coach from getting poached.
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For example, in 2015, the Chicago Bears wanted to interview Jim Bob Cooter for their offensive coordinator position.
At the time, Cooter was just the Lions quarterback coach, but the Lions denied the request anyways. Under these new rules, the Lions will no longer be able to block an interview like this.
This rule also applies to the assistant general manager position and teams’ scouting staffs, according to Albert Breer.
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