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A few days ago, the Cleveland Browns hired Hue Jackson to be their new head coach. Jackson is now going about assembling his coaching staff, and apparently wanted to hire Minnesota Vikings' running backs coach Kirby Wilson to be his team's new running game coordinator.
It doesn't appear that move is going to happen.
Wilson is still under contract to the Vikings, and as such the Vikings are well within their rights to keep him from moving to another team. Generally, if a coach is going to be interviewing for a position above where they're currently at, such as a coordinator job, a team will let them do that.
Even in that case, however, they don't necessarily have to.
FOR HEAD COACH CANDIDATES, MANDATORY PERMISSION AFTER SEASON ENDS:
If an Assistant Coach is under contract for the NEXT season, AND his current season (including post-season) is over, then:
o An Assistant Coach MUST be given permission to discuss a Head Coaching opportunity if the request comes from the day of their last game, through March 1st.
o After March 1st, a club is not required to grant permission for another team to interview any of its Assistant Coaches.
LATERAL OPPORTUNITIES
Assistant coach - to - Non Head Coach opportunities
o Note: "promotions" to coordinator level are NOT promotions under this policy; a coach is either an Assistant Coach or a Head Coach, period.
The only opportunity that the teams have no right to block, by that language, is an interview for a head coaching opportunity, which Wilson is not in line for.
In addition, if a team gives one of its coaches permission to speak to other teams, they have to grant all their coaches that same opportunity. No other Vikings' coaches have been approached at this point. Jeff Davidson was hired by the San Diego Chargers to be their new offensive line coach, but he had been relieved of his duties and was no longer under contract.
With that, it appears that the Browns are going to have to look elsewhere for their running backs coach.