The Buffalo Bills spoke to 20 different potential candidates for their head-coaching job. They didn’t talk to Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, because they missed the window to interview Kubiak virtually during the bye week.
To interview Kubiak (or any other assistant coach employed by the Seahawks or Patriots), the Bills would have had to wait until after the Super Bowl. They chose not to do so.
G.M. Brandon Beane explained the decision during new coach Joe Brady’s introductory press conference.
“Because of when this change was made and when we started our search, we were no longer allowed to talk to coaches that were still in the postseason,” Beane said. “To the point, the way we did it was we said, ‘Let’s go ahead and start this process with all available coaches. Their seasons have ended.’ . . . But we can’t even — because of the rules — we can’t even Zoom anyone on either of the remaining teams. And you hate to rule it out, but I think you would unfairly hurt them, because all the staffs are going to be filled up. And I just don’t know if it would be fair to them or the Bills to wait any longer.”
Three years ago, the Cardinals got into a pickle by talking to Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon during the bye week prior to the Super Bowl. Any contact with Kubiak would have put the Bills in line for a similar problem. They had to keep away from Kubiak until the confetti falls. And, by then, the Raiders (in theory) could be on the brink of hiring him.
It’s one of the fundamental problems of the current rules of the coaching carousel.
“I’ve long been a proponent of changing the hiring process,” Beane said. “If you guys remember, and I’ve brought up rules changes but I don’t make the rules, and my job is to make sure I’m always doing what’s best for the Buffalo Bills. And so I just thought once we got to this point, it would be just not smart to wait any longer. We need our guy. As long as we find the right guy. Now, listen, if we went through these nine [candidates] and we’re like, we said that we’re not going to force it, but we had some very good options when we did this. And clearly, at the end, Joe was the man for the job.”
The key word in everything Beane said is “unfair.” But not because of the difficulty in hiring staffs. The current timeline hurts the candidates whose teams keep winning. And it hurts the teams, because the candidates are necessarily distracted by the possibility of achieving their lifelong dream of becoming a head coach. At the expense of achieving their lifelong dream of winning a Super Bowl ring.
