NFL's message to teams looking for head starts in offseason: slow down

Alex Marvez

NFL's message to teams looking for head starts in offseason: slow down image

ORLANDO — The NFL earlier this week displayed something that continues to dwindle among its non-Super Bowl teams. Patience.

For the second straight year, that characteristic was evident in the tabling of a rules proposal that would allow a franchise to hire an assistant from another club as its new head coach while the latter is still alive in the postseason.

The proposal potentially could return to the agenda at the league’s spring meeting in May. However, rules that are not passed when first presented at the league’s annual March meeting usually fall short again upon reconsideration ... unless the wording is satisfactorily changed and/or enough momentum is generated to sway 24 of the 32 voting teams needed for approval.

Neither seems likely to happen in this case — and there's good reason why.

Simply put, a few stoplights are needed for a league that has never before operated at such a breakneck pace.

MARVEZ: No hyperbole — "lowering helmet" rule could change football

Front-office staffs used to take some time to catch their collective breath once eliminated from the title race as the playoffs unfolded. After a brief respite, attention toward the next season was then placed primarily on draft prospects at college all-star games before shifting toward free agency and veteran trade possibilities entering the NFL Combine in late February.

Nowadays, any franchise waiting that long to start putting moves in motion is being lapped by its competitors.

Here’s an example of how things have changed: In late January, Kansas City and Washington did something once heavily frowned upon by league headquarters. That was reaching terms on the kind of major trade that took attention away from the NFL's showcase game.

Five days before Philadelphia played New England in Super Bowl 52, the Redskins not only acquired Alex Smith in exchange for a third-round pick and cornerback Kendall Fuller. Washington also had already worked out Smith’s contract extension that helped set the market price for other quarterbacks trying to finalize new deals.

The way Chiefs general manager Brett Veach sees it, why wait?

Shortly after a first-round playoff loss to Tennessee, Kansas City began weighing trade offers from other Smith suitors, chomping at the bit to get started on finding a quarterback solution. Veach also understood the Chiefs would be in need of a top-flight cornerback like Fuller because of his plans to trade Marcus Peters.

"We knew what we wanted," Veach told co-host Mark Dominik and me Tuesday on SiriusXM NFL Radio at the league's owners meeting. “We did a good job of looking at the free agency market and having all that college data logged already. Maybe (prospects) didn’t run the 40 (-yard dash) yet at the Combine, but you knew where the pockets were in both free agency and the college draft.

"One of the things we brainstormed was, ‘Well, we're going to get picks (for Smith). Let’s go after a corner that maybe we can’t get in the free-agent market or the draft.'"

Speaking of free agency, the Reese’s Senior Bowl in late January proved as valuable a chance for franchises to begin laying the groundwork for upcoming veteran signings as it was for scouting college players. With no fear of league repercussions for tampering, agents and executives that met face-to-face in Mobile continued to make such headway in negotiations that free-agent deals featuring specific contract terms began surfacing the day before the actual start of the NFL’s signing period.

Super Bowl participants like the Eagles and Patriots don’t enjoy that head-start luxury. They actually become victims of their own success, because the focus must remain on the task at hand — winning a championship — rather than looking too far ahead.

While it sounds tongue-and-cheek after a Super Bowl appearance when Bill Belichick bemoans being "six weeks behind" on preparing for the next season, New England’s curmudgeonly head coach does have a valid point.

The Patriots and Eagles were not able to agree to trade parameters involving players like Kansas City did for Smith, nor could they start sniffing around potential free-agent acquisitions without significant risk. If any word were to leak about upcoming roster decisions, the team chemistry built with current players would be altered and potentially destroyed.

Coaching changes are a different animal. It’s no secret now when an assistant from a Super Bowl team will be leaving for an opportunity elsewhere shortly after the confetti has fallen.
But changing the rules to allow an early contract signing is going one step too far.

As things stand now, it's hard enough for departing assistants to stay mentally fresh amid family considerations and pressing tasks like the need to start assembling a coaching staff. Keeping full concentration on the Super Bowl game plan isn't easy, either.

Maybe the struggles in three of the past four Super Bowls experienced by the units of coordinators who were halfway out the door were not a coincidence. Dan Quinn’s defense in Seattle collapsed in the fourth quarter of a Super Bowl 48 loss to New England. Kyle Shanahan experienced brain lock with his second-half offensive play calling in the Falcons' Super Bowl 51 collapse against the Patriots. Matt Patricia’s defense yielded 538 yards and didn't force a turnover in New England’s 41-33 loss to Philadelphia.

If the challenges awaiting Quinn, Shanahan and Patricia with Atlanta, San Francisco and Detroit, respectively, were pre-game distractions, it’s hard to blame them. The situation will only get worse if the contract with a new employer can permissibly be signed before the current one has officially expired.

MORE: Explaining NFL's new catch rule

Imagine trying to juggle all the aforementioned responsibilities while additionally fielding calls from your new boss — i.e. the hiring NFL team owner — asking questions about what’s to come, or all the other inquiries that inherently come with a head coach hiring. It’s a headache-inducing recipe for failure.

Safeguards are needed to provide some insulation from those distractions for the sake of the affected coaches and the Super Bowl teams themselves. Keeping the current rule is the best way of accomplishing that, no matter how anxious teams hiring new head coaches from those staffs are to get started building their own winner.

Alex Marvez

Alex Marvez Photo

Alex Marvez is an NFL Insider at SportingNews.com, and also hosts a program on SiriusXM NFL Radio. A former Pro Football Writers of America president, Marvez previously worked at FOX Sports and has covered the Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos and Cincinnati Bengals.