INDIANAPOLIS — Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel was asked Wednesday at the NFL Scouting Combine how he casts a wide net in assembling a racially diverse coaching staff.
The question came on the heels of an NFL head coaching cycle that saw just one minority — new Titans head coach Robert Saleh, who’s of Lebanese descent — hired to fill 10 vacancies. It was just the fifth time that no black head coaches were hired since the Rooney Rule was implemented in 2003.
Vrabel’s staff includes six black position coaches, including three on the offensive side of the ball, plus former defensive coordinator Terrell Williams, who’s being moved on staff to a high-ranking position with an undetermined title.
“Well, the thing for me that’s really critical is the diversity of ideas, of backgrounds, of race, allows us to make sure that every one of the 90 players that we have or 91 players that we’ll take to camp doesn’t fall through any crack,” Vrabel said. “That if they need something, if they need some extra teaching, if they need something off the field, whoever it is, that one of those players doesn’t fall through the cracks. That’s really important to me. We want the best coaches and want the best people, but the diversity of ideas, backgrounds and race is critical because we’re getting players from everywhere across the country, and even we’ll add an international player as well.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stated before Super Bowl LX that the league must reevaluate its approach to hiring minority coaches.
“We need to continue to make progress,” Goodell said Monday. “I believe that, and I believe diversity is good for us. … I think we have become a more diverse league across every platform, including coaching. But we still have more work to do.”
This offseason, the Patriots hired B.J. Edmonds, who participated in the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship with the Patriots in training camp.
“I’ve always tried to be really intentional with the people that we bring in for that internship,” Vrabel said. “Go back to Tennessee — (defensive line coach) Clint McMillan did a minority internship. And really, really quickly did we realize, like, ‘hey man, this is a guy that we would like to have with us for the season.’ … I’ve put Clint in charge of kind of vetting through some of these applications, because I’m like, ‘listen, you know what it took. You know the type of coach that we’re looking for’ – (cornerbacks coach) Justin Hamilton did the minority internship with us. Now he’s a position coach for us.
“(Quarterbacks coach) Ashton Grant did this program in Cleveland. So I’ve tried to be very intentional with that because it’s a four- or five-week interview. And some of those coaches we weren’t able to hire as quality control coaches once the internship ran out, but we still know the job that they did. And when there’s an opportunity that presents itself, we were able to, you say, hey, we really liked this coach and bring them back and hopefully continue to develop them and provide opportunities.”