BREAKING: NFL proposes higher draft picks for teams if they hire minority coaches, GMs

New rules are being proposed in the NFL that will improve the draft position of teams that hire a person of colour as their head coach or general manager, according to nfl.com.

Commissioner Roger Goodell gave a state of the league address at Super Bowl LIV a few months ago and mentioned a need for minority head coaches and general managers.

"Clearly we are not where we want to be on this level," he said. "It's clear we need to change. We have already begun discussing those changes, what stages we can take next to determine better outcomes."

NFL owners will vote on the resolution next week. If they are voted in they will be under League Policy on Equal Employment and workplace Diversity.

According to nfl.com, the specific resolutions would be these:

• If a team hires a minority head coach, that team, in the draft preceding the coach's second season, would move up six spots from where it is slotted to pick in the third round. A team would jump 10 spots under the same scenario for hiring a person of color as its primary football executive, a position more commonly known as general manager.
  
• If a team were to fill both positions with diverse candidates in the same year, that club could jump 16 spots -- six for the coach, 10 for the GM -- and potentially move from the top of the third round to the middle of the second round. Another incentive: a team's fourth-round pick would climb five spots in the draft preceding the coach's or GM's third year if he is still with the team. That is considered significant because Steve Wilks and Vance Joseph, two of the four African-American head coaches hired since 2017, were fired after one and two seasons, respectively.