ORLANDO, Fla. — Jeff Ulbrich is hoping his short stint as the New York Jets’ interim head coach won’t hurt his chances of running his own team in the future.
Daronte Jones is focused on preparing himself for advancement opportunities.
These two defensive coordinators were part of a group of 34 people who took part in the NFL’s updated coaching and front-office accelerator program, which took place Monday and Tuesday at an upscale resort near Disney World.
“I would like to hope that people don’t judge me 100% off of that experience because it is challenging but, at the same time, I learned a lot, although it was not necessarily my team and my culture and my staff,” Ulbrich said regarding his 3-9 record with the 2024 Jets after taking over for Robert Saleh.
“I loved all the members of that team, both players and coaches alike, but I did learn the responsibilities and the things that come across that desk that I had no clue of. I think we make assumptions that we know and until you actually sit in it, it was eye-opening to say the least.”
The NFL established the accelerator program in 2022 as part of the Rooney Rule’s expansion to boost diversity among coaching staffs and front office leadership.
Those who participate have chances to meet with team owners and executives, plus attend workshops meant to prepare them for future job interviews. The program took a break last year and now welcomes participants from all backgrounds. About half of this year’s attendees were white men, including Ulbrich.
Additional participants featured former Dolphins coach and current Chargers OC Mike McDaniel; former Giants interim coach and current Lions assistant Mike Kafka; Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy; and Vikings assistant Josh McCown.
“I get caught in my defensive-minded silo in that I don’t think about potential coaching staffs, I don’t think about the global vision of a team necessarily as often as I should,” said Ulbrich, who is starting his second season with the Atlanta Falcons. “This is that opportunity to step away from your club and step away from your primary role that you’re currently serving and really look at it from that perspective. There’s a ton of power in that because it’s not your job until it’s your job, and to think that you’re just gonna follow into it and have success, you’re setting yourself up for a real failure that way. This is definitely preparing us in a way that we wouldn’t otherwise be prepared. So I’m very grateful to the NFL for having this and providing this for us.”
Jones is working his first season with the Washington Commanders following two separate periods in Minnesota. He served as the Vikings’ defensive backs coach in 2020, worked as defensive coordinator at LSU in 2021, then returned to Minnesota from 2022-2025.
“It’s been great, the perspective of challenging who you are as a person and self-awareness, fear and how that can kind of tap into things and just identify things so it’s been very informative that way,” Jones said about his accelerator experience.
“I’m very thankful for having this program. Just the amount of information and resources that was allotted to us these last 48 hours has been huge so I’m just thankful and grateful to be a part of this. You’re getting so much information you want to share it to others and you’re like, man, I wish other people could hear this and it’s just been very valuable.”
Three people have landed top positions after completing the NFL’s original accelerator program: one head coach (Aaron Glenn) and two general managers (Ran Carthon and Ian Cunningham).
The NFL has faced criticism regarding its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Last week, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent a subpoena to the NFL while investigating potential civil rights violations connected to the Rooney Rule and the league’s employment practices, policies and programs.
In March, Uthmeier warned of possible enforcement action against the league unless it halted the 23-year-old Rooney Rule, which mandates NFL teams interview at least two external minority candidates for head coach, general manager and coordinator roles. Teams must also interview at least one minority candidate for quarterbacks coach positions.
In a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Uthmeier characterized the Rooney Rule as “blatant race and sex discrimination.”
“I think all of our policies, all of our programs need to be looked at because the challenges are different,” Goodell said. “And so as we’re looking at every single one of our programs, we did that, whether it’s the accelerator program or any one of the policies. It’s one of the things we spent time on today, is how do we continue to look at our policies in scheduling? How do we look at policies in international? All of those things are hoping to make our game better, make it more accessible to our fans. And that doesn’t happen without a lot of work and refocus. You can call it innovation, I think it is in many ways, but it’s a desire to get better.”
