Report: NFL Owners Will Vote On Draft Incentives As A Potential Change To The Rooney Rule

With the NFL scheduled to have another league meeting next Tuesday, a major change could be on the docket. According to Jim Trotter of NFL.com, the league will consider adjustments that would dramatically reward franchises that hire minority head coaches and front office executives.

The report indicates that if the resolutions were to be voted in next week, as part of an improvement on the current Rooney Rule that mandates NFL teams interview minority candidates for these jobs, those that actually hire such candidates would move up as many as 16 spots in the third round of the NFL draft.

If an NFL team hires a racial minority head coach and keeps him for a second season, that franchise would jump six spots in the third round of the draft following that coach’s first season at the helm. The reward would be a 10-spot vault if a team hired a minority general manager.

“If a team were to fill both positions with diverse candidates in the same year, that club could jump 16 spots — six for the coach, 10 for the GM — and potentially move from the top of the third round to the middle of the second round,” Trotter wrote.

In addition, the benefits would extend past Year 2 for a coach under these circumstances, with the team jumping five spots in the fourth round should they keep the coach for a third season.

As Trotter notes, there are only two black general managers and four head coaches of color heading into the 2020 season, which is a 17-year low for the NFL. Many franchises have worked around the Rooney Rule by interviewing an in-house candidate for head coach who has no real shot at the job. Others have hired strong minority candidates such as Steve Wilks (Arizona) or Vance Joseph (Denver), only to dismiss them after one poor season.