You might remember that, last year, Commanders fans found out in early January that Scott Turner had been fired, but the decision to hire Eric Bieniemy to replace him wasn’t publicly known until February 18th — more than a month later and 5 days after the Chiefs won the super bowl.
The rules on interviewing and hiring coaches are fairly complex, and have changed in each of the past two offseasons (2023 and 2024).
The current rules
Teams cannot hold initial interviews with candidates employed by teams participating in the AFC and NFC championship games until the end of the employer team’s season.