This week, two things that many NFL assistant coaches dream about collide for only a select few of them: the playoffs and head-coaching interviews.
Tuesday, virtual interviews began with head-coaching candidates whose current teams played in the wild-card round. (Coaches on teams with a first-round bye started virtual interviews last week; teams are allowed to interview unemployed coaches for their vacancies at any time.)
There are a staggering eight head coach openings across the league (there were nine until the New York Giants began finalizing a deal with John Harbaugh to become their next head coach). The number of vacancies means that some candidates have received up to five requests to interview with teams — and 12 of them are still coaching through the postseason.
Coaches want to leave enough of an impression with their prospective new franchise to get a second, in-person interview. Beyond the divisional round, still-active coaches can’t speak with teams in person until after the conference championship games.
But interview preparation can’t come at the expense of an intense playoff schedule, when coaches’ sense of urgency increases along with their work hours.
“You only have so many opportunities to make a Super Bowl run,” said an assistant coach who has interviewed for head-coaching jobs in multiple cycles. “So the last thing you want to do is try to split time between prepping for an interview and game planning.”
Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula is one of at least 12 assistant coaches on teams still alive in the playoffs expected to interview for head-coaching jobs. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)
The virtual interviews typically span an hour or two in length, current and former candidates told The Athletic. They are often designed to be more of an introduction, versus the intensive sessions that happen later in the process (and in-person).
Some coaches think it’s better to have less prep time. A coach who went through a previous interview cycle said that he couldn’t find more than 30 minutes of time in advance of an interview, but that he was OK with it because he wanted to be more conversational and not rehearsed, and to show the hiring committee what he would sound like in front of the team. Another coach familiar with the process said candidates shouldn’t look at their notes while on a virtual call to ensure they come off as authentic.
“I think the most important thing is (to) be yourself,” Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay said this week. He has lost coordinators and other assistant coaches to head coaching or other coordinator opportunities in all but one of his eight previous seasons in L.A.
“I think in some instances you can sometimes be so scripted that it’s not natural,” McVay added. “It’s like, what are your core beliefs … what are the things you want to stand for? What are your key and critical philosophies in each of the different phases (offense, defense, special teams)? Then, most importantly, who are you surrounding yourself with? What type of people does that really look like? What are some of your blind spots that you need to supplement yourself with people that can help you?”
McVay has often been a resource for his many current and former assistant coaches who are head-coaching candidates.
“Sometimes when you get into the head-coaching role, you just have this imaginary vision that you think you have to have all the answers — and no, you don’t,” he said. “You can lean on other people. You can say, ‘I don’t know that right now. I’m going to be able to figure it out.’ And I think you can impress people with your strengths, but you connect with them through your weaknesses and your vulnerability.”
McVay does have one caveat for his assistants: “Don’t ask me about interview stuff when we’re in the middle of game planning.” The three who are candidates for head-coaching jobs this year — defensive coordinator Chris Shula, offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur and passing game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase — all scheduled their respective interviews in the brief Friday window between the Rams’ last game-planning meeting and some time with their kids before the team reconvenes on Saturday morning.
The hours of interviews stack up for highly requested candidates — and their week is already spoken for by their current team. Mondays and Tuesdays for a team playing on a Sunday have the heaviest emphasis on game planning, with some coaches describing 12- to 15-hour days or longer to get strategies in place before players’ first real practice of the week on Wednesday. Four to five hours per day are additionally spent by staff adjusting that game plan between Wednesday and Friday after walk-throughs, practices and position and team meetings spent installing and discussing it. Saturday playoff games further condense this timeline.
“The job stuff for me is (on the) back burner,” Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said this week before his team’s Saturday afternoon game against the Buffalo Bills, the first of the weekend. “Winning is the priority right now.”
Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph is a veteran of the interview and hiring process. (Ron Chenoy / Imagn Images
Joseph has been through multiple hiring cycles, so he is very accustomed to the process and also a familiar candidate to teams. Many coaches put together a book or digital packet for interested teams that can outline who they are as a candidate — their core philosophies, coaching lineage, the progression with which they teach concepts and install their scheme, film cutups of their work or that they’ve narrated to demonstrate how they explain scheme and problem-solve, notes on how they’d like the relationship between coach and front office to function and even written or broadcast profiles of who they are and how they think. Joseph said he no longer uses those types of materials, at least in this virtual phase of the process.
“This is probably my third or fourth time going through the process, and it’s more of a conversation for me (in interviews),” he said. “What you learn in the process is (that the) prep is overrated. Having a book is overrated. It’s more a conversation as to, ‘Is this the right fit?’
“Most of all, you realize winning helps. … You have to win to gain respect for those jobs.”
Coaches who do put together a book do it in the offseason. That is also when they build out preferred “depth charts” of potential assistant coaches who would join them if they got a head-coaching job, plus denote why those people would be a good fit. This is the area in which some candidates invest the most thought and preparation time; one coach said he kept handwritten lists of names with him in a journal.
Agents often help a new head coach build out his coaching staff — especially when identifying candidates for some of the more under-the-radar, yet important roles such as game management strategists or an assistant to the head coach. Team and league sources have noted an increased urgency, especially among first-time head coaches, to bring in top people in those roles. A game management expert can help an inexperienced head coach make the decisions that can win a one-score game instead of lose it, while his assistant will help him structure and chart practices and walk-throughs and make sure the team is CBA compliant in settings such as OTAs and training camp. But that prep work often needs to be done before the frantic overlap of interviews and the playoffs.
Head-coaching candidates poach each other’s top choices for assistant coaching jobs all the time, and sometimes a head coach at a former team prevents a new hire from taking his preferred people. Agents frequently try to pair clients together, but some coaches like to lean on trusted members of their new staff to identify and recruit lower-level assistants. Organizations can also block lateral interview requests (such as an offensive coordinator at one team interviewing for the same role with another team). In short, a new head coach has to have backup plans for every assistant coaching position — and those logistics are difficult to keep track of while also preparing for playoff games.
In 2023, the NFL altered the rules for when candidates are allowed to interview with teams, pushing back in-person interviews with active coaches until after the divisional round. The intent, according to commissioner Roger Goodell, was to increase opportunities for diverse candidates beyond the Rooney Rule. Overall, team owners wanted the entire process to move a little more slowly.
A coach who went through the interview cycle several years ago while in the playoffs remembers how frantic that process felt, and thinks it’s less stressful for candidates now. At one point, a family member had a minor emergency right before two interviews — both of which were scheduled to be in-person over the two days following his team’s elimination. The coach went to the hospital, changed into a suit and then continued with one of the most chaotic weeks of his career.
— The Athletic’s Nick Kosmider contributed to this story.
