NFL Notes: CBA, Draft, NFL International, Rooney Rule

CBA

• NFL Media’s Jim Trotter says that while both the owners and players are working off of a 17-game framework in CBA negotiations, not all of the owners are on board with ane expanded regular season. 
• Trotter notes some owners are traditionalists and prefer to stay at 16 games, while others have concerns about being able to sell tickets for the extra game. 

NFL Draft

• According to Tony Pauline of PFN, Baylor WR Denzel Mims could be a Day 2 selection in the 2020 NFL Draft if he runs well at the NFL Combine and could be selected in the top-60 picks. 
• Pauline mentions that St. John’s OL Ben Bartch was a “big winner” at the 2020 Senior Bowl and “several teams” grade him as a top-100 selection.
• Lenoir-Rhyne S Kyle Dugger and Southern Illinois S Jeremy Chinn were two more small-school players who improved their draft stock at the Senior Bowl, per Pauline. 

NFL International

• Per NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced there would be two more games played in Mexico City, with one each in 2020 and 2021. The participating teams will be announced later. 
• Goodell added the league would be open to a team in Toronto, Canada, assuming the city could get an NFL stadium: “It certainly could be a great city for an NFL team. A stadium up to NFL standards is going to be an important element.” (Pro Football Talk)

Rooney Rule

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the league’s struggles with diversity in its hiring process during Wednesday’s press conference. A small handful of head coaches and general managers are minorities, and prominent candidates of color like Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy and 49ers DC Robert Saleh were passed up for less experienced options like Matt Rhule with the Panthers or Joe Judge with the Giants. Goodell strongly suggested the league would be making changes to try and correct that going forward. 

“Clearly, we are not where we want to be on this level,” Goodell said via NFL Media’s Nick Shook. “We have a lot of work that’s gone into not only the Rooney Rule but our policies overall. It’s clear we need to change and do something different.

“There’s no reason to expect we’re going to have a different outcome next year without those kinds of changes and we’ve already begun engaging in those changes. Not just with our diversity committee, not just with the Fritz Pollard Alliance, but others. And trying to figure out what steps we could take next that would lead to better outcomes. It’s clear we’re all committed to doing that, and we have to make those changes. We will have a series of meetings which we’ve already scheduled over the next month to get that kind of dialogue going, to continue the dialogue to try to determine what are the solutions so we can have those better outcomes.”