Duce Staley's Upward Stall Highlights NFL's Rooney Rule Problem

In an effort to fuel the opportunities for minorities when it comes to positions of power in the NFL, the league is reportedly weighing a tweak to the Rooney Rule.

The new path would essentially transform the process from checking a box to one where an organization would be rewarded in the form of pumped-up draft capital for the hiring of a minority candidate as either a head coach or a general manager.

According to Jim Trotter of NFL Media, a team hiring a minority head coach would move up six spots from where it is slotted to pick in the third round of the draft after the coach's first season. A team would jump 10 spots for hiring a person of color as its primary football executive in the same circumstance.

The intent might be an altruistic one but floating the idea has not been well-received in many quarters including many of those whom the rule is ostensibly trying to aid.

“I think sometimes you can do the wrong thing while trying to do the right thing,” Los Angeles Chargers coach Anthony Lynn, one of four current minority coaches in the league, told CBS Radio’s Zach Gelb on Friday. “... “There are some qualified applicants and they need an opportunity, and I think this is, out of desperation, this is something that has been thrown out there.”

The real issue can’t even be defined by society never mind the NFL.

In Philadelphia, for instance, Duce Staley is the assistant head coach and is very well-regarded by the organization, yet has been passed over twice in the wake of Frank Reich’s departure to Indianapolis and Mike Groh’s firing earlier this year.

Despite the game of “title three-card monte” with Staley, when it comes to being named a head coach in the NFL an offensive coordinator carries far more weight than an assistant head coach.

If you were to do an Eagles’ offensive coaching depth chart right now it would read Doug Pederson, Rich Scangarello, Press Taylor, and Jeff Stoutland before you can even think about listing the assistant HC.

Post-Reich it would have been Pederson, Groh, Stoutland, and then perhaps Taylor. With Reich, Staley would have been in front of coaches like Groh and certainly Taylor so not only has he been lapped in-house, he’s also been passed over for coaches like Scangarello from outside the organization, all because Staley doesn’t have a history with the passing game as a former running back.

Guess what Lynn played?

Eric Bieniemy, another former RB and the presumed next coronation from the revered Andy Reid tree has been at least slowed for the same reasons.

Lynn suggested an evolution from the assumption that coordinators are the only logical candidates to take the next step, assessing that other assistants, including assistant head coaches like Staley, should we weighed more heavily.

“There are a lot of brilliant guys that can call plays but can’t lead a damn team,” said Lynn.

More than one personnel executive has told me the most important trait of any head-coaching position is leadership, yet they’ve also tainted the process by defining a template before starting and, in the modern NFL, that’s usually an offensive mind with experience in the passing game, more often than not.

The NFL is also a lot like other industries and life in general in that often it’s now what you know, it’s who you know. Networking is more important than any other aspect of the job hiring process.The flawed human condition defaults to comfort and that’s why the real answer in any project like this is getting qualified candidates on the fast track by inserting them in the lower rungs of the hierarchy where they can actually network and build up the trust to advance.

That, however, is a catch 22 in that the entire job universe is filled by the same familiarity pitfalls no matter the level of the job description, something that explains Staley’s stall in Philadelphia.

“Sometimes we hire people that we have something in common with or someone that looks like us,” said Lynn. “Someone that came from the same background as I did, you’re more comfortable doing that.”

Indoctrination is a powerful tool because it’s so ingrained in cultures. It replicates almost automatically with little prodding.

In the case of minority candidates in the NFL the league hasn’t been able to fix the problem because it can’t even identify the crux of it. In the world of COVID-19, think of it like searching for a vaccine without even identifying the virus.

“I think that there are a lot of qualified African-American coaches that could be a head coach in this league," said Lynn, "and I just pray that we do our due diligence and give these guys an opportunity."

John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM’s Tony Bruno Show with Harry Mayes, and every Tuesday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SBNation Radio. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen