Remember These Important NFL Rules Amid Bill Belichick Uncertainty

As of midday Monday, the fate of Bill Belichick remained unclear.

He’d reportedly met once with Patriots owner Robert Kraft and planned to do so at least once more. Belichick indicated he’d be open to New England hiring a general manager, but only if the organization “collectively” agreed that was the right path forward. Kraft had not commented publicly, so his thoughts on the matter remained a mystery.

It’s still possible that Belichick will remain with the Patriots, his all-encompassing role unchanged, for the 2024 season. But if New England ultimately decides to either hire a new head coach or keep Belichick but install an official GM to handle personnel duties, there are some key rules they’ll need to follow.

Head coach
The most notable of those rules is a new stipulation that was approved for this season: Teams are barred from conducting in-person interviews with any head-coaching candidates currently employed by other NFL clubs until Jan. 22, the day after the divisional round.

The window for virtual interviews opens earlier: three days after the conclusion of the regular season for coaches on non-playoff teams and teams that earned a playoff bye (Baltimore and San Francisco). Assistants on teams playing on wild-card weekend cannot be interviewed until next week.

For teams that reach the conference championship round, their assistants cannot interview for head-coaching jobs until after their season ends unless they already met virtually with the club in question.

“If a team has not conducted an initial interview with a candidate, and that coach’s team is in the conference championship game, they cannot conduct an initial interview (either in person or virtual) until the conclusion of that team’s season,” CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones explained.

“In essence, if you don’t connect with a coach virtually between midweek next week and Jan. 22, and his team is in the conference championship game, you can’t talk to him until his team has either lost in the conference championship or won/lost the Super Bowl.”

Teams with head-coaching vacancies are free to interview internal candidates and college coaches at any point.

The Rooney Rule also requires each team to interview two external minority candidates before hiring a new head coach. Those interviews must be in person.

Interviews with internal assistants do not count toward that total, so even if Kraft wanted to promote Jerod Mayo from linebackers coach to head coach, New England still would need to bring in two candidates from outside the organization who are either persons of color or women.

The Patriots also would need to satisfy the Rooney Rule before completing a theoretical trade for Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel, according to NFL Media’s Judy Battista. Vrabel, the three-time Super Bowl-winning former Patriots linebacker, has been rumored as a possible Kraft target.

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General manager
The timeline for hiring GMs isn’t nearly as regimented. Now that the regular season is over, teams are permitted to interview any candidate, in person or virtually, at any time, regardless of whether that person is employed by a club that qualified for the playoffs.

The Rooney Rule still applies here, however. As with head coaches, teams must hold in-person interviews with at least two external minority candidates before hiring a new GM (or “primary football executive,” in the NFL’s official terminology).

Here are the full details on the hiring processes for both jobs (plus rules related to offensive coordinators and quarterbacks coaches):

What does all of this mean for the Patriots? It means if Belichick either leaves the organization or limits the scope of his responsibilities to only coaching, Kraft can’t immediately hire his replacement(s). He’d need to interview a minimum of two candidates from outside of the organization for either job.

And if the Patriots are looking for a new head coach, Kraft and company can’t meet in person with anyone outside of Belichick’s current assistants or college coaches until Jan. 22 at the earliest.

So, unless Belichick remains in both roles, it’ll likely be weeks before we know who New England’s head coach and general manager will be next season.