Ben Johnson should walk away from the Patriots head coach search after they disrespected Lions DC Aaron Glenn
The New England Patriots shocked a lot of people when they fired Jerod Mayo after just one season on the job with arguably one of the worst teams in the league. They never really gave him a shot. Since then the Patriots have been heavily linked to former Patriots player and former Titans head coach […]
The New England Patriots shocked a lot of people when they fired Jerod Mayo after just one season on the job with arguably one of the worst teams in the league. They never really gave him a shot.
Since then the Patriots have been heavily linked to former Patriots player and former Titans head coach Mike Vrabel. It's one of the worst-kept secrets in the NFL. One of the other worst-kept secrets is that teams like to take advantage of the NFL's Rooney Rule and the Patriots might have been the most blatant example of that ever this year.
The Rooney Rule was established in 2002 to make sure that minority candidates were getting opportunities to be head coaches. What it has unfortunately become a lot of the time is teams interviewing Black coaches they have no intentions of hiring to make sure they're working in accordance with league rules.
The Patriots had two interviews earlier this week with former Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and long-time coach Pep Hamilton. Those were the team's first two interviews in their search and it couldn't have been more clear that the Patriots were doing those interviews first to get them out of the way. Especially since both coaches haven't coached since 2022. It's extremely fishy.
The Patriots requested to interview Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson on Monday, January 6th. Then they did their interviews with Hamilton and Leftwich on the 7th and received immediate backlash because everyone and their mothers could see what they were doing. Then on the 8th, they threw out a request for Aaron Glenn. The Lions' defensive coordinator then declined that request.
Glenn has not publicly said why he declined the interview, but the inference from a lot of people is that he did not want to be a Rooney Rule interview or work with the Patriots after their use abhorrent use of the rule.
Glenn will interview with the five other teams and we know that two of those teams, the Jets and Saints, are very interested in him and there's a solid chance that he gets hired by one of those teams.
As for Johnson, after the disrespect the Patriots have shown his friend and co-worker, it doesn't seem right to go interview with New England at this time. Especially if they're just going to hire Mike Vrabel anyway.
Johnson was scheduled to interview with the Patriots on Friday and that interview has likely taken place already, but that doesn't mean he needs to go back for a second.
The NFL needs to sit down and make some more rules when it comes to the Rooney Rule because the current iteration is unfortunately being sidestepped. Some changes were made in 2022 that incorporate quotas for teams, but more could be done to make sure coaches with real aspirations aren't being used.
2025 Detroit Lions contingency plan, what the coaching staff will probably look like next season
Nobody wants to see it, Dan Campbell especially. But this is a way of life in the NFL. You get good, and then everyone wants what you have. The Detroit Lions are no exception. They kept their coaching staff together for as long as they could, but now it's very likely it gets picked apart. […]
