Technically, teams looking to hire head coaches can’t hire assistant coaches from other teams that are still playing until those teams are finished playing. But technically doesn’t matter; more and more often, teams have a wink-nod deal with their next head coach while he’s still employed as an assistant coach with another team.
Last year, the 49ers were hiring Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. Everyone knew it. No one said anything about it. A couple of years before that, the Falcons were hiring Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn. Again, everyone knew it.
Now, three jobs have unofficially officially been filled, with the Lions planning to hire Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, the Colts planning to hire Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, and the Giants planning to hire Vikings offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur.
So what will the league do about what amounts to a violation of the rules? Not a thing. Until, of course, a team is sufficiently indiscreet or blatant to prompt the NFL to choose to suddenly enforce a rule that is being routinely ignored. Or until the league simply decides for whatever reason to bust a team.
The better course would be to change the rules to allow tentative deals to be reached with assistant coaches working for other teams, especially since the website owned and operated by the league essentially currently is presenting these deals that can’t be done yet as done deals.