On Wednesday, the NFL agreed to a proposal that could have a large ripple effect on the coaching carousel process in the league. The proposal, which will be implemented on a one-year trial basis, per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, allows teams to interview coaching candidates two weeks before the end of the regular season. According to previous rules, teams had to wait until the end of the regular season to reach out to potential candidates.
Here’s the catch: Pelissero reports that in order for teams to interview coaches early, they must no longer employ the coach who began the season in the role (or at least have provided notice of termination to the coach).
Teams can only request these early, virtual interviews if their head coach who began the season is no longer employed or has been given notice he won’t return. So in order to take the head start, teams must fire their current coach two weeks early. A second Black Monday?
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) December 15, 2021
What this means is that teams will now have an incentive to fire coaches before the conclusion of the regular season, which previously didn’t serve much of a purpose. This could have potential impacts on Jacksonville, as one of the main arguments in favor of retaining coach Urban Meyer at least until the end of the season was the inability to get a head start on the search. Now, that is no longer the case.
If owner Shad Khan decides to make a change in Year 1, that change could come sooner rather than later. It’s also worth noting that, as Pelissero points out, this could add a second “Black Monday,” the day immediately following the conclusion of the regular season when most head coaching changes are made, to the calendar.
This change, if permanent, could also have an impact on college football coaching searches in the future. Considering most college coaching changes are made after the regular season on Thanksgiving weekend (or even earlier for universities that don’t wait), NFL coaches have been historically difficult for schools to target because their regular season ends in January. It’s unclear if the new rule applies to colleges, as well, or just NFL franchises, but if it does, the impacts could reach beyond the professional ranks.
Per Pelissero, teams can formally request interviews beginning at 8 a.m. EST on Dec. 28, though teams retain the right to deny requests. Considering Jacksonville could be looking at its second coaching search in as many years, this rule could have an immediate impact on the team’s strategy in the coming weeks.