What the NFL's Interviewing Rules Mean For the Jaguars' HC Search

The Jacksonville Jaguars' search for a new head coach could take a few weeks, a result of the NFL's rules on interviewing coaches.

Jul 27, 2024; Owings Mill , MD, USA; Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken walks the field during the afternoon session of training camp at the Under Armour Performance Center, Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images / Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

The Jacksonville Jaguars officially kicked off their search for a new head coach this week, announcing interview requests for eight coaches -- a list that could expand as the search for Doug Pederson's replacement continues.

A critical factor in the Jaguars' search will undoubtedly come down to the NFL's rules on the interview process -- rules that have pushed the process back in terms of timelines for teams in recent seasons.

As of this writing, there are six open head coach jobs: the Jaguars, the New England Patriots, the New Orleans Saints, the Chicago Bears, the New York Jets, and the Las Vegas Raiders. And all six teams are set to be impacted similarly unless they are looking to hire a coach who is not currently under contract with a team, such as Mike Vrabel and Pete Carroll.

Here are some of the rules the Jaguars and these other teams will have to follow.

For coaches employed by teams that didn't make the playoffs this season, they can be interviewed three days after their final regular season game. For example, Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham can speak with the Jaguars as early as today. These interviews must be virtual, however, and can not be more than three hours in length.

For coaches on playoff teams, it looks a bit different.

Coaches from the two teams with first-round byes can hold virtual interviews with teams between Wednesday and the end of the Wild Card round. This would pertain to candidates like Detroit Lions coordinators Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson.

As for coaches on teams who will be playing on Wild Card weekend, they can not conduct interviews with teams until the Tuesday after the Saturday and Sunday Wild Card games. For the teams that play on Monday, they can not interview until Wednesday. These all must be virtual as well.

As for in-person interviews with coaches who are under contract with other teams, those can begin on Jan. 20 ... as long as the coaches are not on teams that are playing in the conference title games.

As for the coaches on those four teams, they can interview between Jan. 27 and Feb. 2 but can not do in-person interviews if they had not already previously done a virutal interview.

"We will put in our requests for candidates and then interview them. We want them to interview us (and) what we have and be open on how we can be better," Jaguars owner Shad Khan said on Monday. "Whether it’s organizationally, people, whatever. If it’s legitimate and compelling, certainly I’m open to everything.”

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