What NFL’s rebooted Accelerator Program means for rising coaches and execs as it expands outside minority pool
White men will be included in the seventh iteration of the program, which took a year off
By Jonathan Jones
The NFL’s Front Office and Coaching Accelerator Program is set to return in May after taking a 12-month hiatus, just as the league promised a year ago. And there will be big changes.
CBS Sports has learned the NFL will amend the two-day program, which has been aimed at identifying and advancing minority talent across the league, to include non-minority participants when the program restarts.
The league has spent the past year looking to reimagine a program that can claim just one head coach and two general managers since its inception in 2022. The NFL’s new-look Accelerator Program will begin on May 18, including white male participants while shrinking the total participant pool.
The program will now combine coach and GM candidates. NFL senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer Jonathan Beane expects about 40 total candidates with “really strong diverse representation,” he told CBS Sports on Wednesday. The focus will no longer be on candidates who are within five years of getting top jobs but instead on those the league views as being ready this upcoming cycle.
“The Accelerator still has the overriding goal of supporting the advancement of underrepresented football talent,” Beane said. “We believe, though, and if you look at all of our programs, we have a framework of broadening access across the board where we’re allowing availability for people of all demographics to participate in our programs. So, this is not something that just relates to the Accelerator, but this is a philosophy and a way of operating and an evolution for us as a league.
“There was a lot of discussion, got a lot of feedback. And when I spoke to GMs, head coaches, owners, participants, past participants, and I think there was an abundance of support for having a program that’s inclusive of all talent.”
The NFL is coming off another hiring cycle with poor results for diverse candidates. At his Super Bowl press conference, commissioner Roger Goodell said the league needs to ask, “Why did we have the results this year?”
While the NFL had 10 head-coaching vacancies this past cycle, Robert Saleh (Titans) was the only non-white coach to land a job, becoming the fifth non-white head coach currently in the league. Aaron Glenn (Jets), Todd Bowles (Buccaneers) and DeMeco Ryans (Texans) are the only Black head coaches.
There are four minority general managers in the league today: Brad Holmes (Lions), Ryan Poles (Bears), Omar Khan (Steelers) and Ian Cunningham (Falcons). All three GMs who were fired this past cycle are Black.
It was a difficult year for the NFL in terms of diversity at its top club ranks, but Goodell said he did not view the absence of the Accelerator Program as being related to those poor results.
“The Accelerator Program, first, as I mentioned before, we reevaluate every program. We evaluate every process, policy,” Goodell said. “That’s from every time we implement something, and every year, frankly, to make sure: What do we do to improve it, and how does it help us address the challenges in front of us?
“So, do I think that had any impact on this hiring schedule? No, but I think, long term, it’s something that we want to continue and figure out: How do we use that to make sure that people understand that the level of talent that’s out there — the extraordinary talent that’s out there — and how to give them the opportunities to continue their careers?
“And that goes for all the talent across the entire NFL, and people that are not in the NFL. I think that’s what makes us great, is our people — whether it’s on the field or whether it’s off the field — and that’s something why we’re — to us and to me — committed to diversity.”
‘It’s not a reaction to D.C.’
Goodell has repeatedly said the NFL values diversity, even as diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are being rolled back across the country.
Last year, the Trump administration stated its goal was to eliminate all DEI practices from the government. A 2025 order from the President required department heads, among other actions, to “terminate, to the maximum extent allowed by law, all DEI, DEIA, and ‘environmental justice’ offices and positions (including but not limited to ‘Chief Diversity Officer’ positions); all ‘equity action plans,’ ‘equity’ actions, initiatives, or programs, ‘equity-related’ grants or contracts; and all DEI or DEIA performance requirements for employees, contractors, or grantees.”
