Competition Committee adds Sean McDermott and Sean McVay, leaving former players underrepresented

The NFL announced two coaches were being added to the league’s influential Competition Committee, replacing three that stepped down. Bills coach Sean McDermott and Rams coach Sean McVay have been named to the committee which meets next week for its annual meetings to review rules and competitive policy issues for potential changes to propose to the owners.

The Seans take the seats vacated by the departures of coaches Frank Reich, Ron Rivera, and Mike Vrabel. All three were fired from their teams, and the coaches on the committee must be an active head coach. Reich and Vrabel joined in August 2021, and while there are in-season responsibilities for the committee members, they were in the full cycle of rulesmaking duties in 2022 and 2023. The two-year tenure for both is the shortest for anyone since Colts general manager Bill Tobin was on the committee from July-December 1997, and for coaches since George Seifert from May 1995 to the end of the 1996 season.

McDermott returns the Bills to the committee for the first time since general manager Bill Polian had a stint on the committee from 1990-93. (Polian rejoined the committee when he was with the Colts.) The Rams were previously represented on the committee by coach Jeff Fisher from 2012-15 when the team was in St. Louis and following his tenure on the committee as the Titans coach.

Mike Tomlin of the Steelers is the only coach held over from last year’s committee.

The Competition Committee went from its high-water mark of four former NFL players for the past four years — we are not counting Sean Payton who was on the 1987 Bears as a strike-replacement player — to zero. Ravens executive vice president Ozzie Newsome was silently dropped from the committee sometime between June and September 2023. The three departing coaches all had NFL playing experience. The last time the committee did not have a former player was 1974. A quarter of the active head coaches entering the 2024 season are former NFL players. [Update: Newsome’s departure was never announced and was not indicated in the original publication of this post.]

There are now 8 people on the Competition Committee, which has had between 7 and 10 members since 1990.

• Ownership
  • John Mara (NYG)
  • Stephen Jones (executive vice president, DAL)
  • Katie Blackburn (executive vice president, CIN)
• Executives
  • Rich McKay (president/CEO, ATL)
  • Ozzie Newsome (executive vice president, BAL)
  • Chris Grier (general manager, MIA)
• Coaches
  • Mike Tomlin (PIT)
  • Sean McDermott (BUF)
  • Sean McVay (LAR)