How the 49ers will benefit from losing Robert Saleh to head coaching job with Jets
While defensive coordinator Robert Saleh is reportedly leaving the San Francisco 49ers to helm the New York Jets, the 49ers won’t be left empty-handed.
That’s because NFL owners in November approved a new rule that rewards teams for developing minority coaching candidates. Teams that lose minority coaches to head coaching positions will be given conditional third-round draft picks in the following two drafts. The same is true for minority general manager candidates. And teams that lose a minority coach and GM candidate in the same offseason would get a third-round compensatory pick in a third consecutive year.
Saleh, who is of Lebanese descent, has reportedly interviewed for six of the seven current head coaching vacancies before he reportedly reached an agreement to helm the New York Jets. The only team with a coaching vacancy Saleh didn’t have a known interview with was the Houston Texans.
The decision to expand Rooney Rule came because the league wanted to create a more equitable hiring process for positions of power. According a study from The USA TODAY, 327 full-time coaches and general managers have been hired since 1990 and 40 have been Black. That’s roughly 12 percent for a league that’s made up of 70% players of color.
“The NFL is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, which I believe is critical to our continued success,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a statement in November. “While we have seen positive strides in our coaching ranks over the years aided by the Rooney Rule, we recognize, after the last two seasons, that we can and must do more. The policy changes made today are bold and demonstrate the commitment of our ownership to increase diversity in leadership positions throughout the league.”
The Rooney Rule, which was first adopted in 2003, called for teams to interview at least one one minority candidate for head coaching positions. But the rule didn’t create the desired outcome. The league currently has three head coaches of color (Mike Tomlin, Ron Rivera and Brian Flores) and three Black general managers (Chris Grier, Andrew Berry and Brad Holmes, who was hired by the Lions on Thursday).
This year, the rule was changed to interviewing two minority candidates for head coaching vacancies, at least one minority candidate for coordinator openings and one for general manager openings. No minority head coaches were hired after the 2019 season.
Teams and the league are also required to interview minority candidates, including women, for openings in business operations, including club president, senior executives in communications, human resources, finance, sales and marketing.
The rule was changed in a year the NFL went through a transformation in its handling of social justice issues. The league and its owners used to be fearful of retribution of President Trump regarding protests during the national anthem. But the league changed its public stance in response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and others by police officers — and the resulting nationwide protests.
Goodell went as far as apologizing to former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who did not have support from the league office when he first began protesting racial injustice and police brutality during the national anthem in 2016.
“I wish we had listened earlier, Kap, to what you were kneeling about and what you were trying to bring attention to.” Goodell said during an interview with former linebacker Emmanuel Acho. “We had invited him in several times to have the conversation, to have the dialogue. I wish we had the benefit of that, we never did. We would have benefited from that, absolutely.”
Critics of the rule changes argue the league should not incentivize something that should be a common sense practice.
“I just have never been in favor of rewarding people for doing the right thing,” Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy said last spring on the #PFTPM podcast. “And so I think there’s going to be some unintended consequences. To me it’s almost like the pass interference rule. Yeah, we need to do something. I don’t know if this is exactly it. We need to keep working until we find out what that best thing is to do.”
Saleh, meanwhile, might not be the only minority candidate the 49ers lose this offseason. Vice president of player personnel Martin Mayhew is expected to interview for the general manager position in Washington, according to the Washington Post. Losing Saleh and Mayhew this offseason would result in gaining five additional draft picks over the next three years.
The 49ers are currently slated to have eight picks in the upcoming draft in rounds 1, 2, 4, two in round 5, 6 and two in Round 7. They traded away their third-round pick to Washington for left tackle Trent Williams last April.
This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 7:06 AM.
