EAGAN — Forty minority assistant coaches from around the NFL, including Minnesota Vikings special teams coordinator Matt Daniels and receivers coach Keenan McCardell, gathered in Minneapolis this week during the spring owners’ meetings to participate in the league’s new NFL Coach Accelerator Program.
To quote the original press release, the program’s goal is to, “increase exposure between owners, executives, and diverse coaching talent, providing ample opportunity to develop and build upon their relationships.”
While that description is true, it’s far less cynical than the way you could accurately describe it: The program comes in response to the league’s long history of hiring practices that ignored minority candidates and skirted the Rooney Rule, which was designed to… ummmm, increase exposure between owners, executives and diverse coaching talent?
It shouldn’t be viewed as a coincidence that this program popped up after Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores sued the league after he was not only fired for refusing to tank in Miami but also was allegedly given “sham” interviews with the Giants and Broncos to satisfy Rooney Rule requirements. The league had to do something after Flores shined a hot light on the issue.
Make no mistake, the accelerator program is good. It better be, since Flores risked his livelihood and career as an NFL coach to improve things for those like him. Daniels and McCardell described it as “speed dating” with owners and executives. They sat down with teams and talked about who they are, what types of schemes they like to run and described their personalities and leadership styles.
“You get a good idea of what the interview process is like, what types of individuals they are seeking, what qualities, what types of personalities and what’s the vision like for the team with who they want at the helm so you get a good inclination of how you should prepare for interviews and what types of individuals they’re looking for to lead their organizations,” Daniels said.
All of that is helpful information for coaches who have head coaching aspirations, like Daniels and McCardell. And there is undoubtedly a better chance for them to get future interviews if the owners and executives remember meeting them face to face as opposed to having their name thrown around by a hiring firm.
But let’s not lose sight of the fact that they shouldn’t have to do things like this to get on the map.
Daniels went to Duke, where he was All-ACC Academic twice. He played in the NFL. He’s worked his way up the ladder quickly, starting in 2018 as a grad assistant at Colorado, then as a special teams assistant with the Rams and Cowboys before becoming a full-time special teams coordinator in Minnesota. His unit was creative and explosive. His players thrived under his leadership. He has a Mike Tomlin-like presence at the podium that screams head coach.
Likewise, McCardell was one of the best players of his era and has been a receivers coach since 2010. He has a resume full of stars, including coaching Stefon Diggs at Maryland and now Justin Jefferson. He was retained by Kevin O’Connell after Mike Zimmer was let go, which doesn’t happen all that often but his players wanted him to stay. He’s sharp and competitive and has seen it all.
Did these guys really need someone to “speed date” them to get noticed? Joe Judge didn’t need that when he went from special teams coordinator and receivers coach to head coach of the New York Giants in 2020.
That isn’t to say either man should be named a head coach today but both have the resume to get on that track. Maybe the accelerator program will help nudge that along. Still, the NFL’s last hiring cycle leaves you to believe that their chances aren’t particularly great of that happening any time soon. DeMeco Ryans was the only minority head coach hired this year, bringing the league’s total to five.
There won’t ever be a magic bullet when it comes to solving the NFL’s problem with giving equal opportunity to everyone who is qualified for prominent jobs but the league has a lot of room for improvement. Sham interviews and hiring black coaches on tanking teams only to be fired one year later does not represent progress. Hopefully the accelerator program helps.
But it will only be considered progress when we see the results of the accelerator program with legitimate consideration. And the NFL will only have truly advanced beyond its ugly past hiring practices when people like Daniels and McCardell don’t have to participate in special programs to get the acknowledgement they have already earned.
