The NFL's football operations department has been working to identify premier coaching and general manager candidates, an annual undertaking with league officials speaking to current and former executives to determine the best and brightest candidates.
The committee will meet again in Week 11 to discuss the talent pool, sources said, before distributing materials to teams and owners about their work. To this point, sources said the bulk of the head candidates receiving high marks are individuals who already have prior head coaching experience.
Stanford coach David Shaw is again receiving ringing endorsements and has very strong support within the league. The longtime former NFL assistant has been adamant in the past about not considering pro jobs. Former longtime college coach Urban Meyer is also on the list, along with former Colts and Lions coach Jim Caldwell, former Vikings coach Leslie Frazier (now an assistant with the Bills) and former Broncos coach Josh McDaniels (New England's offensive coordinator). There are also a few candidates without prior head coaching experience who are on the preliminary list - Chiefs assistant Eric Bieniemy, Colts assistant Matt Eberflus and Cowboys assistant Kris Richard.
With so many owners hiring inexperienced head coaches in recent years, particularly from the offensive side of the ball, there appears to be a more limited group of "hot" coordinators this year. That could change with the upcoming playoff push, but there are many executives and agents who anticipate this being a hiring cycle heavy on past experience (former Packers coach Mike McCarthy is another name to watch), particularly given the significant struggles of many of this year's first-time head coaches.
On the management side, there is heavy support for former Giants GM Jerry Reese; Troy Vincent, VP of football operations for the league has gone on record about his dismay that Reese was not given serious consideration for openings last offseason. Former Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland, former Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie and former Lions GM Martin Mayhew are also generating support from the committee. As for those without prior GM experience, Nick Caserio (Patriots), Andrew Berry (Eagle), George Paton (Vikings) and Louis Riddick (ESPN, former NFL exec) are also being discussed as those most ready for the position, sources said.
It is commonplace for teams to hire coaches and general managers who are not on the top tier of the league's list, but the NFL takes the matter seriously and puts significant work into trying to aid owners with the process. With the number of non-white coaches and executives hitting record lows recently there is a real push for owners to take diversity seriously in 2020 when selecting whom to interview.
