Of the 10 head coaches who were either fired or resigned this offseason, six made the playoffs with the team that let them go. Two made the postseason in 2025. Three have won Super Bowls, including two with the firing club. Tough business. It has been made even more so by the inarguable improvement in coaching over the past decade-plus. Coasting on clichés is no longer enough when late 30something or early 40something hires keep winning Super Bowls. The demands on a coach — leadership, discipline, media savvy, scheme sophistication — are mostly the same as they have always been. What’s changed is the hypersonic speed at which they continue to evolve. The NFL has never slowed down, but like the rest of modern life, it only ever moves faster.
As I say every year, players, owners, assistants, injuries and acts of God can matter as much as coaching ability. That’s why, though this is a rankings article, I try not to think of it that way. I view it as more of an almanac, an assessment of where the league’s 32 coaches find themselves right now. How they got here and where they might be going. Last year’s list can be found here. 2024’s is here.
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1. Sean McVay, Rams
Career Record: 92-57 (.617)
With The Rams Since: 2017
Last Year’s Ranking: 2
The Sean McVay era in Los Angeles might best be described as “how to win games and influence people.” McVay just turned 40 years old. 16 percent of the league’s 31 other head coaches have already worked for him. That does not include his former assistants who have already been hired and subsequently fired, though that list is short at two. The league is always looking for someone to follow. Perhaps counterintuitively, McVay has proven to be the perfect leader for both his team and the NFL at large because he is not so set in his ways. One year it’s three-receiver sets. The next, three tight ends. Sometimes he’s bringing back old coaching friends (Kliff Kingsbury). Most others, he’s scouring the country for new talent (Nate Scheelhaase). Although he has stolen the mantle of the league’s greatest thinker from Bill Belichick, McVay is most comparable to Nick Saban. Belichick was felled by his devotion to his friends and familiarities. Like Saban, McVay is much too restless for that. He doesn’t just want to win. He wants to do so in ways either no one has ever tried before or everyone else has forgotten about. He is the perfect blend of new school and old, and destined to be remembered as one of the sport’s timeless geniuses.
2. Andy Reid, Chiefs
Career Record: 279-157-1 (.640)
With The Chiefs Since: 2013
Last Year’s Ranking: 1
Andy Reid is one of the greatest coaches in the history of football. This was true even before he found Patrick Mahomes. If you want to say he’s still the best current coach, you could easily win the debate. Now, is he still the most dynamic? That would be harder to argue. On the one hand, you could ask: Why would Reid fix what isn’t broken? Why wouldn’t he keep running back the same offensive approach, the same assistant coaches? On the other, that’s why. For as much as 2025 was about bad luck, unfortunate injuries and sometimes both (see Travis Kelce separating Xavier Worthy’s shoulder in Week 1), it was the lack of dynamism and adjustments that stood out more. I am not a “football mind.” I know there is always an overarching strategy that might not be immediately apparent to my civilian understanding. But I feel I am qualified to ask: What is the thesis of this passing game? How has watching Patrick Mahomes become boring? Then I might follow up, if it is forces beyond Reid’s control holding back the aerial attack — poor draft capital, lack of cap space, league-wide defensive trends — why is it being supplemented by nothing on the ground? Reid tacitly acknowledged the need for new ideas when he let former OC Matt Nagy’s contract lapse, but perhaps not the will to really implement them when his solution was simply recycling former OC Eric Bieniemy. The joke is on you if you question Reid’s overall greatness. The joke will be on him, however, if he thinks mere tweaks and shufflings will be enough to right what went wrong in 2025.
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3. Kyle Shanahan, 49ers
Career Record: 82-67 (.550)
With The 49ers Since: 2017
Last Year’s Ranking: 4
Kyle Shanahan’s teams always win at least 12 games except for all the times they don’t. Shanny has long since established himself as the king of variance. So is life when personnel takes a back seat to scheme and coaching. But has Shanahan finally discovered something he’s been accused of lacking: Resilience? 2025 had all the hallmarks of a lost 49ers campaign. A biblical wave of injuries, including at quarterback. Acrimonious disputes with the No. 1 and 2 wideouts. Questionable to nonexistent returns from many key recent draft picks. This would usually be the cue for Shanny to accept his 6-11 fate and start planning for next year’s Super Bowl loss. And yet, there his team was, playing for the NFC’s No. 1 seed in Week 18. Not even the dreary home loss to the Seahawks that ensued could obscure the fact this was a different kind of Shanahan squad, one that actually punched back after getting knocked down. That was confirmed the following week when they upset the Eagles in the Wild Card Round. By that point, another rough loss to the Seahawks in the Divisional didn’t even matter. This is a Shanahan team that still has all of its old strengths, but with some new ones thrown in. If “Shanny Ball” can actually denote toughness moving forward, Shanahan will soon shed his moniker as the best active coach not to lift a Lombardi.
4. Mike Macdonald, Seahawks
Career Record: 24-10 (.706)
With The Seahawks Since: 2024
Last Year’s Ranking: 19
Usually you at least introduce yourself before winning a Super Bowl. Mike Macdonald hasn’t been rude, but he’s sure in a hurry. He went 10-7 as a first-time head coach in 2024 but wasn’t satisfied. He fired OC Ryan Grubb and moved on from QB Geno Smith. Those decisive acts provided the hoped-for improvement on offense, though it was Macdonald’s defensive side of the ball that once again led the way. Macdonald has been responsible for four NFL defenses. They’ve finished top three in points allowed three times, surrendering the league’s fewest tallies twice. His “worst” group was the 2024 outfit that finished 11th. Macdonald was also top 10 in the much larger FBS pool his lone season calling Michigan’s plays in 2021. The word “genius” is thrown around loosely these days, but Macdonald certainly appears to be one when it comes to confounding opposing play-callers and quarterbacks. His judgment is almost as good on offense, where his decisions to start Sam Darnold, hire Klint Kubiak and feature Jaxon Smith-Njigba made the group formidable enough to win a championship without a true franchise player. That’s not easy in any era, but particularly now. Macdonald’s sample size is small, but if you’ve won a Super Bowl with Darnold before the age of 40, you are probably one of the five best active NFL coaches.
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5. Sean Payton, Broncos
Career Record: 184-108 (.630)
With The Broncos Since: 2023
Last Year’s Ranking: 12
Sean Payton didn’t need to prove anything. He’s done so anyways. The last of the Parcells disciples, Payton had a .631 winning percentage with the Saints. It’s .620 with the Broncos. It’s actually .666 since his infamous 70-20 loss to Mike McDaniel’s Dolphins in Week 3 of the 2023 season. That was Payton’s wake-up call. He’s been wide-eyed ever since. Payton’s continued Broncos success has come despite a few strange foibles. His vaunted short-passing game isn’t what it once was. The backfield has been reasonably efficient, if strangely inert. It obviously hasn’t precluded winning — Payton’s Broncos are the first team other than the Chiefs to take the AFC West since Patrick Mahomes became starter in 2018 — though it has turned what used to be a beautiful system into a tough watch. That’s undoubtedly what led Payton to make the shocking offseason decision of surrendering play-calling duties to OC Davis Webb. Payton is one of the best play-callers in the history of the game. That he was willing to hand over the keys speaks to not only an uncommon self awareness for someone with his résumé, but a truly burning desire to win. If Payton fails to reach another Super Bowl, it won’t be because he was unwilling to do whatever it takes.
6. Jim Harbaugh, Chargers
Career Record: 66-31-1 (.679)
With The Chargers Since: 2024
Last Year’s Ranking: 6
Jim Harbaugh has coached six NFL seasons. He’s won fewer than 11 games once. He has never finished below .500. He has won with the San Diego Toreros, and the team that used to be the San Diego Chargers. As is the case with many of Harbaugh’s all-time great compatriots, it can accurately be said he would do anything to win, right up to and including crossing the line. See the end of his time at Michigan. But if every Harbaugh and Belichick is sometimes willing to bend the rules for even the slightest of advantages, one thing they’re not always willing to do? Think outside the gilded box they’ve built for themselves. This was Harbaugh when he first arrived in L.A. His first hire on offense? Old friend Greg Roman. Although Harbaugh predictably won right off the bat, Roman was just as predictably stale as a play-caller. So then Harbaugh pulled off the hardest new trick for an old dog: He went outside his coaching tree. At first blush, Mike McDaniel isn’t just outside Harbaugh’s tree, but outside his planet. The old colliding with the new. Upon closer inspection, however, these are two gonzo thinkers who both tend to arrive at old time football principles. For Harbaugh, it’s toughness and fundamentals. For McDaniel, it’s execution. Paired together, they might finally find Harbaugh the Super Bowl ceiling that has eluded his annual playoff floor.
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7. Mike Vrabel, Patriots
Career Record: 68-48 (.586)
With The Patriots Since: 2025
Last Year’s Ranking: — —
Mike Vrabel overachieved until he didn’t in Tennessee. The dysfunctional Titans cut bait the second Vrabel stopped working miracles with an overtaxed, quarterback-free roster. So the Patriots decided to run an experiment: What might the details-oriented, player-friendly Vrabel accomplish with a young franchise quarterback? It’s doubtful even they thought the answer would be “instantly make the Super Bowl,” but that’s where Vrabel’s squad ended the year … after another season of overachievement. After winning three rock fights during the AFC playoffs — games decided by the smallest of margins, the crevices where Vrabel has always thrived — it was clear from the opening moments of Super Bowl LX his Pats were outclassed by the Seahawks. That they had maybe arrived a little too early. But it was final confirmation that, whatever your baseline might be, Vrabel is going to raise it. It was just as impressive of a feat in Tennessee, but your ceiling can only go so high if you are working around the quarterback rather than featuring him. Vrabel now has a featured player in Drake Maye. It might not be in 2026, but at some point, Vrabel is likely to finish the Super Bowl journey he started in 2025.
8. Dan Campbell, Lions
Career Record: 53-43-1 (.552)
With The Lions Since: 2021
Last Year’s Ranking: 7
The rollercoaster always comes down. In the NFL, you just hope it’s after you’ve already won the Super Bowl. When the answer is inevitably “no” for all but the luckiest few, the obsession then becomes getting it back up into the air. It’s a job for which the Lions’ caffeinated-consciousness, Dan Campbell, would seem uniquely well suited, but the question for every adrenaline junkie is always: Did you burn too much fuel the first time around? The hangover effect was everywhere you looked in Detroit last season. They failed to rebound on defense and at times appeared to be going through the motions on offense. Departed OC Ben Johnson was missed even more than anticipated, with would-be replacement John Morton going less-than-one and done as play-caller after Campbell took the clipboard mid-season then fired Morton after it. Campbell did not lose the locker room. Nothing went off the rails. The Lions were competitive until the very end of the year, where they beat Johnson for the second time in as many tries in Week 18. But his words after the team’s 2024 NFC Championship Game defeat — “this may have been our only shot” — are looking all the more prophetic. The Lions arrived earlier than expected. The same will be true of their departure if Campbell can’t fix his defense and coax a better Johnson impression out of new OC Drew Petzing.
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9. Nick Sirianni, Eagles
Career Record: 59-26 (.694)
With The Eagles Since: 2021
Last Year’s Ranking: 5
For having never posted a losing record and winning the NFC twice in five years, Nick Sirianni isn’t afforded much benefit of the doubt. That’s due to dubiousness about his true importance to the Eagles’ operation. Whereas the coach is usually king in the NFL, that’s not true in Philadelphia. More like an MLB franchise, this is GM Howie Roseman’s show. Regardless of how close that perception comes to reality, it provides a convenient buffer for Roseman, who undoubtedly believes some of his own hype after firing his previous Super Bowl-winning coach in Doug Pederson without missing a beat. So Sirianni’s seat is hotter than most despite his winning percentage being higher than most everyone to ever do it. He behaves accordingly, churning through coordinators at great speed, including on the offensive side of the ball this offseason. Sirianni understands that, fairly or not, he’s only as good as his next streak, and it better be winning. If that makes him a little hot under the collar — there’s nothing the sideline camera loves more than finding Sirianni yelling in any general direction — it’s understandable. Less understandable is what the Eagles might be missing if they fire Sirianni and move on to the next one.
10. Matt LaFleur, Packers
Career Record: 76-40-1 (.654)
With The Packers Since: 2019
Last Year’s Ranking: 10
Matt LaFleur has kept it respectable. The Packers have made the playoffs all three seasons since moving on from Aaron Rodgers. Unfortunately, it’s translated to only one postseason victory, as LaFleur’s brand of football is also expert at keeping the other team in the game. Perennially in the red in pass rate over expected, LaFleur is devoted to a balanced attack no matter how plodding the run or explosive the pass. He is an amazing individual play designer but highly questionable play sequencer. It’s why he’s blown second half leads in the game that eliminated the Packers two of the past three seasons, to say nothing of what happened when Rodgers was still at the helm. If you think that’s just media perception, multiple Packers players have lamented their inability to put teams away in 2025. And if LaFleur’s offense struggles to finish the opposition off, his defense has had a disastrous habit of collapsing at all the most inopportune times. LaFleur has struggled mightily to find the right defensive coordinator. Jeff Hafley was his best hire, but he’s now departed for the Dolphins’ head-coaching gig. LaFleur is smart. He is organized. He is, as we mentioned, respectable. That includes the respect he gets from the rest of the league for letting them hang around. If things don’t change in 2026 — and he has vowed they will — it will be LaFleur who is no longer in the game in Green Bay.
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11. DeMeco Ryans, Texans
Career Record: 32-19 (.627)
With The Texans Since: 2023
Last Year’s Ranking: 17
DeMeco Ryans is 3-for-3 on making the playoffs and has won at least one game every time he’s gotten there. Ok, exactly one game every time he’s gotten there. If Ryans’ floor has been shockingly high, the ceiling has not appeared within reach. None of the Texans’ Divisional Round losses were particularly competitive, while last season’s represented the nadir for an offensive side of the ball that has been the bane of the defensive-minded Ryans’ existence. Now, maybe there’s only so much he can do with C.J. Stroud. He nevertheless needs to find the offensive coordinator best capable of doing it. It wasn’t Bobby Slowik. It probably isn’t Nick Caley. If Ryans’ teams have had an identity on offense, it’s conservatism. Again, maybe that’s the only choice with an erratic QB. Again, it’s not getting the job done when it matters most. A leader on his side of the ball, Ryans is also a player’s coach. He is checking nearly every box, just not the one that matters most. Ryans may not be responsible for picking the quarterback, but he will be held responsible for the quarterback’s play. That’s life in the NFL. 2026 will be a critical year in Houston.
12. Kevin O’Connell, Vikings
Career Record: 43-25 (.632)
With The Vikings Since: 2022
Last Year’s Ranking: 11
Kevin O’Connell has never won a playoff game. That hard-to-believe stat is thanks to his seasons somehow always devolving into a “strange but true” factoid. He went 13-4 with Kirk Cousins … with a negative point differential. A playoff loss to Daniel Jones ensued. He went 14-3 with Sam Darnold before that was something everyone did. He failed to win the division in the process and got blown out in the Wild Card Round. By far his most miserable year, this past season’s J.J. McCarthy fiasco, ended with … a winning record. Now how do you make heads or tails of all that? A large part of McCarthy’s prestige as a quarterback whisperer relies on the fact that he made Josh Dobbs and Nick Mullens watchable in 2023. Sometimes I wonder if that oddity is doing a little too much heavy lifting for his reputation. Then I remember the Vikings probably would have remained a playoff team in 2025 had Carson Wentz’s shoulder remained attached. O’Connell has it figured out on offense. His top assistant, Brian Flores, has it figured out on defense. As a head coach, you need to handle your business on your side of the ball and know who to trust on the other. O’Connell passes the test. He will eventually get past the first round of the playoffs if that remains the case.
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13. Ben Johnson, Bears
Career Record: 11-6 (.647)
With The Bears Since: 2025
Last Year’s Ranking: — —
In a league and media landscape addicted to hyperbole and quick-fixes, no label gets misapplied more frequently than “offensive genius.” Well, maybe “franchise savior.” Ben Johnson arrived in Chicago to expectations of both. He blew them away. Tasked with “fixing” Caleb Williams, Johnson helped reduce Williams’ sack total from 68 to 24. Ridiculous. The Bears went from 26th in offensive EPA per play to seventh. They scored 131 more points than the year prior, jumping from 28th to ninth in scoring. So, offense fixed. If that was the longed-for first step, step two was something along the lines of: Just stop getting embarrassed in the rugged NFC North. Johnson won the division, earned the conference’s No. 2 seed, then humiliated arch-rival Green Bay with an epic Wild Card comeback. One year, etc. but these Bears are no longer embarrassing. They were lucky in 2025, living off one-score, and even sometimes one-point, victories. Regression comes for even the best players and coaches. The follow-up will be 10 times more difficult than the opening act. Johnson knows this, and as the rare offensive-minded coach who doesn’t just call plays but sets the tone for all 53 of his players, he seems perfectly-suited to keep leveling up. You should never speak too soon in the NFL — Chip Kelly, et. al say hello — but it sure seems like it won’t take long for Johnson to accomplish even greater things in Chicago.
14. Liam Coen, Jaguars
Career Record: 13-4 (.765)
With The Jaguars Since: 2025
Last Year’s Ranking: — —
Liam Coen’s Jaguars tenure had inauspicious beginnings. He somehow bungled the very act of getting hired before uttering the Jags’ signature “Duval” chant in the cadence of a killer movie clown at his introductory press conference. Paired with new GM James Gladstone’s “millennial word salad”-style of speech, Coen started off looking like the latest in a long line of failed Jaguars saviors. Then he got to saving them. Although that did not result in a postseason victory, Coen and company posted the club’s highest winning percentage of the 21st century. Making the playoffs is the first goal for any NFL head coach, but for Coen it was really just icing on the cake of his primary 2025 objective: Getting Trevor Lawrence’s career back on track. The often tentative and scattershot would-be franchise player was a more believable roster cornerstone by season’s end. So Coen accomplished his first-year priorities and then some, arguably cramming 2-3 years of work into one. Just like we shouldn’t overreact to one bad press conference, the same is true of one good season. But Coen certainly looks like the man primed to get the Jags out of the draft lottery for good.
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15. Shane Steichen, Colts
Career Record: 25-26 (.490)
With The Colts Since: 2023
Last Year’s Ranking: 20
We are trying to answer an either/or question with Shane Steichen. Does he deserve credit for keeping a dysfunctional franchise on the tracks, or blame for remaining mired at .500? I tend to believe the former, but it’s easy to indulge in the latter after Indy started 8-2 last season only to collapse out of the playoffs before Week 18 even started. It is inarguable that things could be worse in Indy. But how does Steichen make things better than his current 8-9, 9-8 carousel? Talk inevitably turns to things beyond Steichen’s control. Were GM Chris Ballard’s “lost years” more about late owner Jim Irsay than himself? Will new owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon run a more traditional operation, giving Steichen more stability and leeway? The early returns on both of those questions are “no” after last November’s hyper-aggressive, ultimately ill-considered trade for Sauce Gardner. Indy now lacks the draft capital it needs to get out of quarterback purgatory. That probably ultimately means Steichen’s Colts tenure will get hit with an incomplete grade and we might not get a final answer on his coaching ability until he is recycled elsewhere.
16. Todd Bowles, Bucs
Career Record: 61-74 (.452)
With The Bucs Since: 2022
Last Year’s Ranking: 15
Has Todd Bowles’ Bucs tenure gone better or worse than expected? It’s certainly never been worse than it was down the stretch in 2025, where an apocalyptic 1-7 post-bye stretch rendered the Bucs’ Week 18 victory over the Panthers irrelevant, coughing up one of the easier-to-claim division titles in recent memory. It would be easy to say it was emblematic of Bowles’ time by the bay, but until last season he had primarily been backing into good outcomes. His first year featured an 8-9 division title with the greatest player in league history before he pulled off similar feats each of the next two campaigns with the greatest walk-on in league history. Bowles’ somewhat-sustained offensive success has belied a conservative and stodgy reputation. It’s been necessary since he hasn’t quite lived up to expectations on the defensive side of the ball. That was especially true in 2025. On the whole, Bowles has been running pure in the 8-10 win zone. Good for him, but that’s an unsustainable approach whether you’re Jeff Fisher or Mike Tomlin, and Bowles seems much more like the former. Absent a big 2026 step forward, there will probably be big changes on the Bucs’ sideline.
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17. Zac Taylor, Bengals
Career Record: 52-63-1 (.453)
With The Bengals Since: 2019
Last Year’s Ranking: 14
Zac Taylor is now the longest-tenured head coach in the AFC North because he’s the only-tenured head coach in the AFC North. A man who seemingly half the world wants fired has now outlasted Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh. It’s not due to merit, of course. Taylor would have been churned in almost any other city by now. But Mike Brown’s Bengals will never be any other franchise. They favor thrift. They prefer slow and steady. They never win the race, but that’s a matter for another day. So if Taylor isn’t going anywhere, what are the Bengals left to work with? A coach who at least abides by “you’re only as good as your quarterback.” When Joe Burrow is healthy, Taylor doesn’t get in his way and the Bengals score a ton of points. When Burrow is out, Taylor stands around waiting for him to return. Hardly ideal. Also not as disastrous as it could be. A replacement-level in-game decision-maker, Taylor is never going to steal a game on his own. I guess Bengals fans should be thankful he — usually — doesn’t lose them on his own, either.
18. Kellen Moore, Saints
Career Record: 6-11 (.353)
With The Saints Since: 2025
Last Year’s Ranking: — —
Kellen Moore is only 36 years old but already had six years of NFL play-calling experience before landing the Saints’ head-coaching gig. Unlike some of his wiz kid brethren, Moore also played big-time college football and bounced around the fringes of NFL rosters for a few seasons before turning in his helmet and picking up a headset. That is the long way of saying he had more experience than most fans probably realized upon his arrival in New Orleans. It showed his first year on the job. Handed a 53-man roster the entire league knew was going nowhere, the best Moore could hope for was winning around the edges. He did just that as ran the fastest offense in the NFL as a way to at least keep opposing defenses off-balance. He benched Spencer Rattler and cajoled far better results than expected out of second-rounder Tyler Shough. Passing production of any kind should not have been easy to come by considering the Saints’ undermanned skill corps and underpowered running game, but Moore’s attack was positively league-average by season’s end. That would be damning with faint praise elsewhere, but genuinely surprising for the 2025 Saints. The next step is dealing with actual expectations after clearing last year’s nonexistent bar.
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19. Dave Canales, Panthers
Career Record: 13-21 (.382)
With The Panthers Since: 2024
Last Year’s Ranking: 23
Dave Canales has never had a winning season. That didn’t stop him from almost winning a playoff game last year. Canales’ 8-9 club did not close particularly well — it went 2-3 after Thanksgiving — but those victories were over previous division dominator Tampa Bay and Sean McVay’s Rams. It was those same Rams Canales and company nearly beat in the Wild Card Round. Strange. Probably random. Maybe, just maybe something. That’s not a lot to go on, but it is more to go on than the Panthers have had since the end of the Cam Newton era. Canales seems to be doing the best he can on his own offensive side of the ball. The defense got (a lot) better in 2025. Bryce Young is occasionally watchable. Canales has several factors holding him back. Young is, at best, a 2-3 year solution, and owner Dave Tepper does not seem to be a predictable man to work for. This is probably a hard-capped job. Canales is nevertheless doing his best to find out, and if nothing else, putting together a nice clip reel for his next gig.
20. Dan Quinn, Commanders
Career Record: 60-59 (.504)
With The Commanders Since: 2024
Last Year’s Ranking: 13
If the Commanders’ 2024 felt a little too good to be true, well … there’s no harm in letting someone have their moment. That felt especially apropos in Washington, where fans were desperate for anything to go right after the hellish Snyder years. So it was easy to look the other way when everything went right, right down to Dan Quinn reaching 12 wins for the first time in his coaching career. Even though it felt flimsy, I wanted to believe in the power of positivity. It just goes to show. That free lunch was paid for and then some in 2025, where Washington again became the football town where every good deed promptly gets punished. That included on Quinn’s sideline, where his bet that 2024 was the birth of a new Kliff Kingsbury was quickly disproven. He was also forced to fire DC Joe Whitt, reaching deep into his bag of scapegoats just one year after it seemed like the good vibes would never die. In some ways, that was actually true, as Quinn was one of just two head coaches to earn an A+ grade in the NFLPA’s annual survey. Players have always loved Quinn. That has never been up for debate. 2025 was just a necessary reminder of the limits of personality(-based coaching) in a league where personnel and play-calling are everything.
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21. Brian Schottenheimer, Cowboys
Career Record: 7-9-1 (.441)
With The Cowboys Since: 2025
Last Year’s Ranking: — —
The Dallas sky did not fall during Brian Schottenheimer’s first year on the job. It did not brighten, either. If the initial reaction of “why didn’t they just let a fan coach the team” was a little over the top for an assistant with 25 years of NFL experience, it was still directionally accurate. Schottenheimer exceeded expectations only because there weren’t any. A team that used to dream of Super Bowls now seems content to break parking and concessions records. If you’re wondering, “what does any of that have to do with Brian Schottenheimer,” the answer is nothing. That’s because this project is no longer really about football. It used to be the only Cowboy who was graded on a curve was owner Jerry Jones. “For an owner, he actually knows about football.” “Listen, the Cowboys at least usually get their first-round picks right.” That permissive attitude now permeates the entire operation. “Small wins” are enough. The 2025 squad might have gone 7-9-1, but Dak Prescott stayed healthy. They won the George Pickens trade. And yes, last but not least, they didn’t hire the very worst coach in football. Congratulations. To whom, we aren’t exactly sure.
22. Aaron Glenn, Jets
Career Record: 3-14 (.176)
With The Jets Since: 2025
Last Year’s Ranking: — —
What was Aaron Glenn supposed to do? It’s hard to say, other than “not that.” Glenn was plopped down in the middle of a collective nightmare. He failed to wake anyone up. A defensive coach, Glenn oversaw a unit that allowed the franchise’s second most points per week since the 16-game schedule was implemented. As you may have heard, the Jets were the first defense not to intercept a single pass since at least 1933. The front office didn’t do Glenn any favors when it traded Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams, but Glenn did himself no favors when he treated the press with Belichickian high-handedness. That might not matter on the field, but it also ensures no benefit of the doubt will be afforded off of it from the famously bloodthirsty New York media. To wit, the local scribes spent the offseason giddily keeping count of Glenn’s fired assistants (12, last time they checked). That includes both coordinators. In a tried-and-true desperation move, Glenn will call his own plays in 2026. It’s a sign Glenn at least realizes the gravity of the situation. He’s lucky to have received a second chance. You could credibly argue no one could succeed under these all-too typical Jets circumstances. You would also be correct to say the Jets’ 2026 “plan” of Geno Smith and Frank Reich on offense likely means it will be someone else’s turn to fail in 2027.
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New Hires (In Alphabetical Order)
Joe Brady, Bills
Career Record: — —
Don’t ever let anyone tell you the college doesn’t matter on the résumé. If a Harvard alum will never go hungry on Wall Street, the same is true for the play-caller of an elite NCAA quarterback. They keep calling Kliff Kingsbury back from Thailand because he knew Patrick Mahomes way back when. Joe Brady? How about Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson. Unlike Kingsbury, Brady’s LSU team actually won something. Like Kingsbury, however, Brady’s failures, whether they be up or down, haven’t seemed to have much effect on his job status since. There will apparently always be someone willing to take the chance you were the real brains behind the historic season. In fact, sometimes it will even be your own team. There is where I have to break in and say, Brady did at least make the spreadsheets go brr last year. Either that, or he knew to step aside long enough to let Josh Allen do so. The Bills needed to try something different. We’re about to find out if promoting the executive vice president to CEO was enough.
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Jeff Hafley, Dolphins
Career Record: — —
Where were you in December 2023? Then Boston College coach Jeff Hafley was busy beating SMU in the “Wasabi Fenway Bowl.” He celebrated by stepping down and becoming the Packers’ defensive coordinator. Always well regarded for what he wasn’t in Boston — embarrassing — Hafley remained respectable in Green Bay. It arguably should have been more, especially after the 2025 arrival of all-world edge rusher Micah Parsons, but it’s a tough game, tough division, etc. “League circles” seem to love Hafley for his defensive problem-solving and quiet dignity. He’s going to need bushels of both in Miami. This is a talent-emptied roster currently dominated by Tua Tagovailoa’s record-setting dead cap hit. Hafley’s initial plan is to build a “Green Bay South” outpost in South Beach, right down to recycling Nathaniel Hackett and the Pack’s No. 2 quarterback, Malik Willis. Hafley is just trying to buy time before the Dolphins’ “real” future can take shape. It’s his only real option. It’s also a low-probability approach in a league where time is the scarcest commodity.
John Harbaugh, Giants
Career Record: 180-113 (.614)
John Harbaugh had ceased to make his own luck in Baltimore. Long before Tyler Loop’s missed Week 18 kick, it had seemed as if Harbaugh had become cursed with something of a reverse Midas touch. “The process” was almost always right. The results … uniformly wrong. That’s why he was ushered out after 18 of the most successful seasons you will ever see from an NFL coach. Well, that was mostly why. If Harbaugh’s horrible misfortune in all the biggest moments got the most attention, his frosty relationship with Lamar Jackson had become a difficult-to-ignore subplot. Like most, if not all, franchise players, Jackson can be a prickly pear. It’s entirely possible the situation was not Harbaugh’s fault. But if luck is an all too common NFL denominator, fairness is not. Jackson is a future Hall-of-Fame quarterback still in his prime. Harbaugh is a coach. The QB wins that debate nine times out of 10.
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Harbaugh has, of course, landed on his feet. The Giants were so eager to hire him they let him win a power struggle with GM Joe Schoen before he was even onboarded. This is Harbaugh’s show in New York in a way it no longer was in Baltimore. That should be good as long as Harbaugh is a 63-year-old coach willing to adapt some new practices. His first Giants offseason was mixed in that regard, as he recycled woebegone assistant Greg Roman and shelled out for both the Ravens’ former fullback and punter. If Harbaugh fixates on creating Ravens 2.0 in New York, he will fail. If he allows Giants 1.0 to come to him, his lengthy track record suggests he will be successful.
Klint Kubiak, Raiders
Career Record: — —
It’s no secret how Klint Kubiak got his foot in the coaching door. The right last name continues to work wonders in the NFL. It does not work miracles, however. 2025 Raiders offensive line coach Brennan Carroll can attest to that. Nepotism gets you the opportunity. Success is required to sustain it. Arguably no coordinator had more of it in 2025 than Kubiak. Building off the good work of so many others — his dad, the Shanahan family, Kevin O’Connell — Kubiak helped finish the Sam Darnold product that led the Seahawks to their second-ever Super Bowl victory. If Kubiak comes from a long line of “Shanahan system” adherents, he is implementing the latest, greatest version of it. That’s really all you can ask for right now in a league where cycles and adjustments seem to be taking place over a 2-3 year period instead of 5-10. You might have an old NFL last name, but you have to have the new innovative energy. That was Kubiak as Seahawks play-caller. We’ll see how he does in the seemingly cursed position of Raiders head coach.
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Mike LaFleur, Cardinals
Career Record: — —
Although he wasn’t Sean McVay’s play-caller in Los Angeles, Mike LaFleur actually has called plays … for the 2021-22 Jets. They finished 26th and 25th in scoring, respectively. Now, longtime NFL observers will know there were no miracles to be worked with Zach Wilson and Mike White, but as I’ve said before, even that is a useful data point because some play-callers do arrive heaven sent. LaFleur evidently isn’t one of them. That’s fine. It just means he is likely settling in for a long, laborious rebuilding process for a team without a franchise player or any legitimate short-term prospects in a division that might have the three best coaches in football. If you’re not a miracle worker, it is exceedingly difficult to navigate those circumstances to a second contract. If you don’t crash the playoffs, you either crash out in a year or two or do just well enough to raise expectations, inadvertently leading to your own firing after you’ve set the stage for the next guy. Steeped in both the McVay and Kyle Shanahan systems, LaFleur was a by-the-book hire for 2026. There’s just no book on how to survive in a division where you’re coaching against those luminaries in addition to the defending Super Bowl champion, Mike Macdonald.
Mike McCarthy, Steelers
Career Record: 174-112-2 (.608)
Mike McCarthy won 61.8 percent of his games in Green Bay. He won 58.3 percent of the time in Dallas. He won 13 games in 2007, and at least 12 games three times this decade. Regardless of whether he’s overrated, underrated, exactly-perfectly-rated, there shouldn’t be much debate about whether he deserves an NFL head-coaching job. Maybe he’s not your cup of tea, but he makes sense in the right situation. Is the ghost of Aaron Rodgers and Will Howard that situation? I certainly don’t think so. 62-year-old McCarthy should be a job-finisher at this stage of his career. You’ve tried everything else, so why not bring in McCarthy and see what he can do for 3-4 years? That’s what makes his hiring by what had been the longest time horizon franchise in North American sports so baffling. McCarthy is not here to build a culture. He’s also not here to wring every last drop out of an imperfect quarterback situation. He’s supposed to take a loaded group and ensure they score points. That is not the setup in Pittsburgh, and it likely means a coach who has always had a difficult time getting his just due is fated to be remembered even more unfairly by the time he’s through in his hometown.
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Jesse Minter, Ravens
Career Record: — —
The latest Brothers Harbaugh protege has the unusual assignment of replacing one of them after they were let go against their will. Jesse Minter also has the unenviable inevitability of being compared to the last NFL head coach nurtured along by John and Jim, Mike Macdonald. All of this for an organization that’s had just two previous sideline leaders in the 21st century. If that is a lot of weight to place on a first-timer’s shoulders, Minter has earned the opportunity. He was lights out for Jim at Michigan then even better for the higher-strung Harbaugh in Los Angeles. He also knows the Ravens well, having worked for John from 2017-20. If that hands-on experience and success is what makes Minter worthy of a head-coaching gig at the age of 42, it’s the Ravens’ still-prodigious talent base that could make him an instant success. Minter has the kind of foundation first-time head coaches almost never get. It’s good fortune of the highest order. So if it’s better to be lucky than good, it’s even better to be both. That’s the kind of setup Minter and Baltimore seem to be looking at for 2026.
Todd Monken, Browns
Career Record: — —
Many are undoubtedly wondering “why now?” when it comes to 60-year-old Todd Monken getting his first NFL head-coaching opportunity. One person who is probably not wondering is Monken himself. Although he has a solid, decades-long reputation as a play-caller and coordinator, Monken isn’t coming off his best work in Baltimore. The Ravens, after all, cleaned house following the season. Even during the best of times, Monken was mostly along for the Lamar Jackson ride. His job was to get the car pointed in the right direction then stay out of the way. All of this is the long way of saying, Monken has the necessary experience to be a head coach, but he is neither an up-and-comer nor a late-bloomer. He’s just a football coach who needed a job. The Cleveland Browns are a franchise that needed a coach. Any coach, because this is a desperate situation between both QBs and stadiums. As the Browns count down the days to their new domed enclave, they have no discernible quarterback of the future, and no way to find one this spring. This is a thankless, serve-holding gig. No one would mistake Monken as “the guy” in Cleveland. Now, as the guy before the guy? Monken is credible enough. It will just be difficult to put a credible product on the field in 2026.
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Robert Saleh, Titans
Career Record: 20-36 (.357)
You don’t so much “coach” the New York Jets. It is more they school you. On what not to do. On the harsh realities of being a human being. On whether coaching football is what you really want to be doing with your one and only life on this earth. The Woody Johnson Jets have broken far more men than they have made. The man who preceded Robert Saleh in New York, Adam Gase, just now got back into coaching after a five-year sabbatical. It takes time to process one’s time in Florham Park. Saleh did his thinking on the job. The 49ers scooped him as soon the paperwork processed from his Jets firing, and Saleh immediately revived a typically injured and undermanned Niners defense. An avowed leader of men, Saleh’s 49ers return confirmed he can still coach ‘em up with the best of ‘em on defense. He makes all the sense in the world as another post-Jets reclamation project. Now, Saleh’s Titans setup isn’t a whole lot better than his Jets foundation, but Cam Ward is a sturdier quarterback prospect than Zach Wilson, and OC Brian Daboll is a more qualified offensive leader than Mike LaFleur and Nathaniel Hackett were during Saleh’s Jets tenure. All the qualities that made Saleh attractive as a head coach the first time around remain intact. While it was John Harbaugh and Kevin Stefanski who got the most “second chance” attention on this year’s coaching carousel,, it could be Saleh who gets the best results.
Kevin Stefanski, Falcons
Career Record: 45-56 (.446)
For having just gotten fired, Kevin Stefanski has it pretty good right now. Coming from what is widely perceived to be a thankless job, he gets to take all of the credit for his two 11-win campaigns and none of the blame for any of the various other fiascos. The thing is, this is probably the right call. Quite literally no other coach has had even one 11-win season for the reincarnated Browns. It’s a compelling data point … that lives amongst a sea of other noise. Why did Stefanski have to keep stripping himself of play-calling duties? Why does he get so much credit for one good Baker Mayfield season when the feat ended up getting repeated elsewhere? Why did Mayfield even have to play elsewhere? Why couldn’t Stefanski keep it going in Cleveland? It’s widely assumed — emphasis on assumed — Stefanski didn’t deserve any of the blame for the Browns’ Deshaun Watson courtship, but what about Watson’s disastrously poor play in Stefanski’s system? Again, it’s possible if not probable a washed Watson would have failed for any head coach. But like so many of the explanations for Stefanski’s ultimate Browns failure, it’s unfalsifiable. He has been graded on a sliding scale. It’s time to see what happens for a vaguely more competent franchise.
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