From time to time, arguments are made that the entire hiring process for new head coaches should be delayed until after the Super Bowl. And there’s a very good reason for that.
With coordinators of playoff teams among the prime candidates for new jobs, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to interview for possible promotions and to put together the best possible plan for winning the next game.
Some coaches have downplayed the extent to which preparing to interview for a head-coaching job takes away from the job they have. The reality is that every minute spent getting ready to make a good impression on an owner (by, among other things, lining up an incoming staff) and the rest of the hiring committee is one minute less that can be spent on searching for tendencies in the next opponent and making sure his own unit, offensive or defensive, has smoothed out any and all tells.
Broncos coach Sean Payton addressed that dynamic with reporters today, as his team prepares to face the Bills in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
“The big challenge this time of the year though is when you’re playing in these games, is minimize the distractions,” Payton said. “The league is always looking at the windows of when to interview and when to do that kind of stuff. Being in that position, when I had a chance to interview for — when I came home, my wife wasn’t asking how the game plan was. She was asking, ‘How are the schools at this next city?’ There’s that balance, and I think that the league has looked closely at the windows to do it and understandably so.”
Payton won’t have to deal with coaches like defensive coordinator Vance Joseph being interviewed unless the Broncos upset the Bills. If that happens, Joseph will be interviewing with the Jets during a week that presents the challenge of coming up with a strategy for heading into Arrowhead and slaying the dragon that is the Kansas City Chiefs.
So, yes, the best solution is to delay everything. Create zero distractions until the confetti has fallen. Until that happens, head coaches with playoff teams will have to account for the possibility that a coordinator or two might be spinning one plate too many at a time when full focus should be on the task at hand — and not on getting ready for the interview, conducting it, and then being peppered at home by questions not about the upcoming playoff game but about the possibility of moving to a new city with a new title and a new zero on the annual salary.
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