Chiefs could ally with Bills on coaching, front office interview rules change proposal
The NFL’s Competition Committee will soon meet virtually in order to review the 2020 NFL season and submit new rules change proposals. Some information about the several proposed rules changes has begun to trickle in. One proposal that the Buffalo Bills have submitted is likely to receive support from the Kansas City Chiefs.
According to The MMQB’s Albert Breer, the Bills submitted a proposal barring interviews for coaching and front-office positions until after conference championship games. The proposal would also ban any hiring announcements until after the Super Bowl.
Breer also says that the owners could vote on this proposal this offseason.
Sources: The Bills have submitted a rules change proposal to the NFL that would bar interviews for front-office and coaching positions until after the conference title games, and hirings until after the Super Bowl.
Owners could vote on it this offseason. Would be a BIG change.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) March 3, 2021
The Bills, of course, lost to the Chiefs in AFC Championship Game. Their offensive coordinator, Brian Daboll, interviewed with both the Los Angeles Chargers and the New York Jets ahead of the game. Their defensive coordinator, Leslie Frazier, interviewed with the Houston Texans ahead of the game. Neither Daboll or Frazier ended up landing a head-coaching job, but the interviews happened ahead of the most important game of the season— a game that they lost. It’s easy to connect the dots on the perceived issue here.
So why would Kansas City potentially agree with this proposal if the current rule perhaps benefitted them last year? Well, they’ve now spent the past three seasons in contention for a Super Bowl title and in each of those three years, offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy has interviewed for head-coaching jobs with other teams. He’s yet to be hired for a head-coaching job and one perceived issue has been that he’s still coaching when teams are ready to make a hire.
If this rule change were to pass, it could do one of two things. It could help Bieniemy land an opportunity that everyone in Kansas City knows that he deserves. It could also perhaps dispel the myth that Bieniemy hasn’t been hired because he’s consistently been one of the last coordinators left coaching.
Whatever the case, this will be a polarizing issue and teams will likely have differing opinions on how to address it. In order to change any rule, the committee needs 24-of-32 teams to vote yes on the proposal. We’ll see if it comes to vote later this season, but it’s certainly something to monitor with Bieniemy in mind.
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