Revisiting the Rooney Rule

The Rooney Rule has been a point of contention in the National Football League (NFL) in recent years. It has helped shape the head coaching hiring practices of the NFL since its implementation in 2003 (National Football League, 2023). The NFL describes the rule as “one part of the NFL’s effort to develop a deep, sustainable talent pool at all levels of the organization” (National Football League, 2023). The Rooney Rule helps to promote diverse leadership among the coaching and front office groups of NFL franchises and to ensure that promising coaching/front office executive candidates have the chance to prove they meet the qualifications of open positions (National Football League, 2023). Since its inception, the Rooney Rule has been expanded and amended a few times as the league realized it needed to be adjusted or modernized. Now, teams must conduct at least two interviews with candidates of a minoritized background for all head coaching positions (National Football League, 2023). Clubs also must have an in-person interview with an external candidate of a minoritized background for any head coaching or general manager position interview (National Football League, 2023). In 2020, the NFL passed Resolution JC-2A. This allowed for teams that develop coaching and front office executive candidates to receive draft pick compensation if the team that develops them loses the candidate due to them being hired as a head coach or general manager with another team (OverTheCap, 2023). The current compensation for developing head coach and general manager candidates of a minoritized background is a compensatory third-round pick in each of the next two NFL drafts (OverTheCap, 2023). For reference, a compensatory draft pick is a draft pick that was added to the NFL draft for the year that was not originally included in the usual 224 NFL draft picks (Edmonds, 2023). This proves as a potentially bountiful incentive for NFL franchises to ensure that they are developing coaching and front-office executive candidates of a minoritized background as teams are always looking for ways to acquire more assets.

The NFL should pass another resolution expanding the Rooney Rule to the offensive and defensive coordinator coaching positions and the assistant general manager front office position. These positions tend to act as a pipeline to become a head coach or general manager since they are essentially a tier below the top of their position hierarchies. Expanding and adjusting draft pick compensation to these positions will provide a further incentive to develop coaching and front office candidates from a minoritized background. The proposed new resolution will tie a fourth-round compensatory draft pick in each of the next two NFL drafts to developing a candidate of a minoritized background who is hired to be a coordinator or assistant general manager.

This mirrors Resolution JC-2A but provides slightly less valuable compensation as the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, and assistant general managers are not at the pinnacle of their positional tracks. Draft picks are crucial to the future of a team as they allow the NFL’s teams to acquire young talent for a cheap price. According to Spotrac, the rookie contract value for a fourth-round pick in the 2023 NFL draft ranged from approximately $4.7 million to $4.35 million with a salary cap hit ranging from $960,571 to $877, 345 (Spotrac, 2023). The low salary associated with a fourth-round draft slot makes this compensation valuable to the teams in the NFL. If the team scouts and drafts well, they can pick a starting-caliber player in the fourth round. Then, they are paying them under a million dollars a year for four years (Corry, 2023). This would open more team salary cap space to potentially sign a player at another position. An important note is that an NFL team has two coordinators and can have more or less than two assistant general managers. For this reason, the league will need to mandate that each NFL franchise will designate two upper-level front-office executives as assistant general managers going forward. This will make it easier to comply with the new proposed resolution.

The last part of this resolution would be to make an important distinction. If an NFL team develops and loses two candidates of a minoritized background in the same year, then the second candidate will only provide the team with one fourth-round pick in compensation–not two compensatory picks. This, again, mirrors the compensation structure of the Rooney Rule, as it stands. For example, the San Francisco 49ers only got 3 compensatory picks for losing DeMeco Ryans and Ran Carthon in 2023 (Wohlfart, 2023). This will, hopefully, help prevent draft picks from being devalued as more are being added.

Expanding Rooney Rule compensation can potentially lead to some disadvantages for the NFL. A disadvantage to this recommendation is that teams may think that the draft is getting too watered down with picks. Since there would be a higher supply with a similar level of demand, adding more and more picks will ultimately decrease the value of the draft picks each round and could result in a lower return on investment if traded. The NFL won’t likely change their roster sizes to compensate for these additional draft picks, so it will have to be something that is monitored.

Overall, the Rooney Rule has been an important development regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion in the National Football League. It has not been without some controversy, but it has had an overall positive impact on the league. There have been additional amendments and resolutions that were passed by the NFL to update the rule, but some more work has to be done. Expanding the compensation for developing coaching and front office executive candidates to offensive coordinators, defensive coordinators, and assistant general managers is an easy way to continue rewarding teams for the development of those candidates. The biggest potential downside to this recommendation is the possibility of NFL draft picks being devalued.

Mr. Rooney, If you are reading this I hope you enjoyed!

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References

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Corry, J. (2023, April 4). Agent's Take: 2023 NFL rookie contract projections for key Round 1 picks, with a rookie wage scale explainer. Retrieved from CBS Sports: https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/agents-take-2023-nfl-rookie-contract-projections-for-key-round-1-picks-with-a-rookie-wage-scale-explainer/

Edmonds, C. (2023, March 10). What are compensatory draft picks and why do NFL teams get them? Retrieved from NBC Sports Chicago: https://www.nbcsportschicago.com/nfl/chicago-bears/what-are-compensatory-draft-picks-and-why-do-nfl-teams-get-them/343172/

National Football League. (2023). The Rooney Rule. Retrieved from National Football Leauge: Football Operations: https://operations.nfl.com/inside-football-ops/inclusion/the-rooney-rule/

OverTheCap. (2023). 2020 Resolution JC-2A. Retrieved from OverTheCap: https://overthecap.com/2020-resolution-jc-2a

Spotrac. (2023). NFL 2023 Draft Tracker. Retrieved from Spotrac: https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/draft/

Wohlfart, J. (2023, January 18). Why 49ers get draft picks for losing Ran Carthon, DeMeco Ryans. Retrieved from NinerNoise: https://ninernoise.com/2023/01/18/49ers-draft-picks-losing-ran-carthon-demeco-ryans/

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