Vance Joseph took charge of the Denver Broncos, while the San Diego Chargers picked Anthony Lynn to lead its team. The two hires happened the second week of January. That compares with the NFL hiring 22 first-time head coaches in the previous five years with only one, New York Jets head coach Todd Bowles, being a person of color. Bowles joined the Jets in 2015.

"The thing that was extremely gratifying is that there were no token interviews this year," says John Wooten, chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, a group that has worked to get more people of color into the NFL since 2003. "Several of the guys had two and three interviews. We saw the process operate as it should.”

The Joseph and Lynn hires also are significant in that they are the first people of color to become head coaches for their respective organizations. Eric Studesville did hold the head job for the Broncos in 2010, but only as interim coach. Joseph hopes his becoming the first creates opportunities for future coaches.

“As we go along in the future, it shouldn't matter what color you are,” he said. “If you can do the job, they should hire you.” But whether Joseph and Lynn represent progress for diversity in the NFL is up for debate. The 2003 Rooney Rule mandated that the NFL interview at least one person of color for any head-coaching vacancies. In the following decade, teams hired 10 first-time head coaches of color.

“The rule is firmly embedded,” says Robert Gulliver, the chief human resources officer for the NFL. “It makes us better.” In the years prior to Rooney from 1997 to 2001, former head coach of the New York Jets, Herm Edwards, was the only person of color hired.

The NFL also can tout another success this year as eight head coaches of color get set to start the season, NBC Sports reports. That matches the eight NFL head coaches of color in 2011. Last season there were six head coaches of color.

But, while Gulliver sees progress, others say the NFL is a long way from creating a sustainable pipeline for future coaches of color, ESPN reports.

White position coaches and assistants in the league were more than twice as likely to be promoted to coordinator than were blacks in the same position, a report from last year revealed. And performance, experience or coaching background had little to do with the white advantage.

“Just focusing at the top is unlikely to effect much change,” says Christopher Rider, a professor at Georgetown University and one of the study’s authors. What the study found, even with the Rooney Rule, is that white coaches were 114% more likely to ascend to the coordinator position.

"Black coaches are less likely to be promoted than white ones, independent of their first position, their current position, their employer, their prior experience, their education and their age," the study’s authors wrote. The so-called “white coach effect” has not diminished over the years, leading the study’s authors to conclude that discrimination remains a relevant factor in holding back diversity.

"This league is about relationships," Edwards, the former head coach of the Jets, told ESPN. "A lot of guys who are minority coaches that come in the league, after a while they get discouraged. They realize, 'I'm going to be a position coach. And I'm OK with that.' If no one in a position of authority gives you the next move, you get stuck. There's a cycle, and it hasn't been broken."

While the Rooney Rule was expanded in 2009 to general managers and front-office jobs, and recently to also include women, it has two major problems, Fivethirtyeight found. There is “the temptation to substitute sham interviews in place of a search for real diversity, and coordinator-level positions, a crucial step to head-coaching jobs, are not under the umbrella.”

The Rooney Rule has been hailed for having a positive domino effect in corporate America with major corporations, including Facebook, Pinterest, Intel, Xerox and Amazon, adopting their own version of the rule. But Rooney still comes up short for the NFL’s 32 teams.

“Even at its highest point, minority representation among coaches was a meager 25%,” Fivethirtyeight reported. “Almost 68% of the NFL’s players are African-American, but there are no African-American team presidents, and only one team president of color.”