Rank the NFL coaches 1-32

1. Belichick
2. Reid
3. Mike Tomlin
4. Shanahan
5. Payton
6. Fisher
7. Rex Ryan
8. John Harbaugh
9. Ken Whisenhunt
10. Wade Phillips

Not sure the rest really matters.

 

Vermeil made Kansas City a dangerous team, if briefly, on top of that

 

everyone here except for one person -- i forget who, my apologies, i'm old -- is wacky for not having coughlin higher. i know it's because he's a humorless dick. but he's a helluva coach with a superb resume. having REX RYAN rated higher is WAAAY too premature.

putting any h.c. with less than three/four years experience is crazy. way too soon to tell how they will be under varying circumstances, vs. various sets of problems and with different personnel issues.

 

You brilliant sonofabitch.

At least I'm ranking as my no. 1 an active coach!!!! DUNGY SUCKS AND SO DOES PEYTON EAT SHIT!!!!

 

Going to give this a crack, with comments, because I think it's interesting.

1. Belichick -- I don't think, in terms of game-planning, there is anyone as consistently good. He also doesn't form emotional attachments to players and knows when to let them go and take the initial heat when people throw a fit.

2. Tomlin -- A great players coach who I think handles the modern NFL well. Even though they were atrociously inconsistent this year, so much of that has to do with the post-Super Bowl hangover, I don't think he can be blamed. I think he's going to be very good for a long time. I love the way he carries himself.

3. Fisher -- The way his teams fall apart in the playoffs drives me nuts. And I think he skirts a lot of the blame for their failures. Twice this decade, they lost to the Ravens in the playoffs when they were the No. 1 seed even though the Ravens had about 140 yards of total offense. But I think he gets guys to play for him, he knows how to coach defense, and he's never had a team quit on him, even when they were 0-6 this year. That's saying something.

4. Reid -- Another coach that it really pains me to rank this high, but I don't think you can let his playoff failures and total abandonment of the running game outweigh the fact that he's a consistent winner. Not a great play-caller in key moments (not at all) but overall, he has coaxed a lot of victories out of McNabb when for most of his career, he had below-average skill position guys around him.

5. Shanahan -- I'm really interested to see what he does with an average quarterback. He's a very good offensive coach and he somehow managed to reign in Jay Culter (who as a Bears fan, I've quickly grown to HATE) but I think he clearly knows how to run the ball, how to scout running backs, and how to call plays. He just needs to stop neglecting defense.

6. Ryan -- Rex might still be learning how to be a head coach, but I think he's already proven he gets it. It was obvious during his time in Baltimore that guys wanted to play for him, that they believed in him, and he took that to another level with the Jets. I think ultimately the Ravens are going to regret hiring Harbaugh instead of him. His wacky antics might bite him in the ass a few times, but I think he'll be a winner for a long time. The people who think he's ranked too high based on one year weren't paying attention to him when he was a coordinator. Players LOVE Rex Ryan. As far as I'm concerned, he was the head coach in Baltimore the year they went to the AFC title game. So he's been to two straight.

7. Sean Payton -- I don't know that one amazing year makes a career. He's a great play caller, and he clearly has balls and doesn't let the outside stuff affect him. But he's still got some stuff to learn. The only reason I put Ryan ahead of him is I think Payton had a lot more talent to work with, and I thought the Saints folded like punks in the NFC Championship in 2006 against an average Bears team.

8. Coughlin -- I guess I have to put him here. I hate him though, and I think his players eventually feel the same, more or less. I just think he's overrated based on that Super Bowl, when his team happened to get hot at the right time, and was a perfect match-up for the Pats. The Giants were soooo poorly coached this year at times. I don't know if we saw a defense get abused all year as badly as the Giants were abused in New Orleans. And I'm still not convinced the team won't revolt in unison one day over his "if you're on time, you're still late because you need to be five minutes early" bullshit. Never seems to have to answer for the fact that he couldn't get shit out of Kurt Warner either, even though Warner still clearly had plenty left in the tank.

9. Marvin Lewis -- Again, this franchise has losing so ingrained into it, winning there is a miracle. I don't like the way he privately bitches and complains and blames others, but I think he's a pretty good coach. They dealt with a lot of shit this year (coach's wife dying, Henry dying) and they still won their division. I think he gets points for degree of difficulty.

10. Wisenhut -- Probably still a little underrated. Can't even fathom how hard it was to shake free of the losing culture down there. I don't think you can rank him higher, however, until his teams prove they actually give a shit about defense, and are willing to play it consistently.

11. McCarthy -- Has done a nice job of remaking that team and moving on from the Favre stuff. Needs to prove he can win some big games though.

12. Harbaugh -- On the surface, taking a team to the playoffs two times in your first two years is pretty darn good. Especially with a quarterback in his first two seasons who has wide receivers who couldn't start anywhere else in the NFL. But the Ravens were the most penalized team in the NFL this year. Ryan covered up a lot of his faults in year one, and in year two, they started to show. Will get better, but is a little overrated right now. Really bad with time outs and challenges. Not challenging the muffed punt in the playoff games against the Pats was inexcusable.

13. John Fox -- I have no problem putting him this high, despite the shit year they had this year, because I think very highly of him. I think he's fairly even keel, and even if his message has worn a little thin in Carolina, I think he'll succeed elsewhere if given the chance. I think that franchise desperately needs to cut ties with its knuckleheaded quarterback, and things will get better.

14. Singletary -- My favorite player of all time, and someone who CAN be a great NFL coach, but I think is a touch overrated right now. We'll see. I did like how he handled the Vernon Davis thing. Davis is a tremendous talent, and he turned a spoiled brat into a great player. Although the culture of losing has been hard to shake here too, the team really needs to take a step forward next year and make the playoffs.

15. Del Rio -- A good coach in a bad situation, I think. Franchise is a joke. I do admire that he had the balls to cut Leftwhich out of nowhere and go with Gerrard, which everyone thought was crazy at the time. If Weaver makes them take Tebow with their first or second round pick, he should just resign.

16. Mike Smith -- I think he was a little too high on your list, Mizzou. I know they had injuries this year, but they regressed. I need to see a little more before I'm convinced that one good year wasn't just an easy schedule.

17. Phillips -- Right where he deserves to be. Average. The fact that his teams fold up every December is on him until proven otherwise.

18. Turner -- A brilliant offensive mind who simply can't prepare his team to win when it matters. The Chargers should have played in the Super Bowl this year. But their hissy-fit meltdown against the Jets was a perfect indictment of Turner's failings as a coach. Personal fouls, dumb bitching at the referees, kicking challenge flags. It's a shame, because he clearly knows football, but he just can't seem to create a culture of accountablity or focus when it matters.

20. Caldwell -- I don't know where to put him, really. I think we might never know as long as Manning is around because Manning covers up so many flaws. This really wasn't a great Colts team, but Manning dragged them to a great record. He clearly got out-coached in the Super Bowl. An incomplete would probably be a better grade.

21. Kubiak -- Actually, I think this is too low for him but I'm too lazy to reorganize my list on a hunch, because that's really what it is. I respect him and like him. He just needs to actually prove it now. Again, fighting a culture of losing that he's fially about to overcome.

22. McDaniels -- I think he knows football, I just think he's way too immature. The dickface fist pumps on the sideline, the soap opera with Brandon Marshall (I don't care what your beef is with Marshall, you figure it out and find a way to work with him). Will climb the list in years to come, but there is a reason most coaches don't become head coaches at such a young age. They're all over the map emotionally.

23. Childress -- So bad in so many ways. Bad clock management, moronic tweaking of Favre by nearly sitting him down in the middle of a game (then telling the press about it!), not preaching ball security enough with AP. Would have been fired this year had Farve not saved his bacon and had a career year. Will likely be fired if Favre retires and the Vikes go 8-8 with Tavaris Jackson back under center.

24. Cable -- Ranking him dead last or close to it, I think, is unfair. It's like going to a talent show and there is a guy who plays guitar with his foot because he has no arms. He can play a ton of songs, but he's clearly not as good as some of the guitar/singing acts with two good arms. So you ignore the degree if difficulty and rank him last. HE PLAYS GUITAR WITH HIS FOOT! This is the worst organization in football, and they actually played hard for him most of the year. I'd punch assistants too if I thought they were spying for the owner. If he wasn't forced to play awful draft picks like Russell and Heyward-Bey, this team would be something more than a laughing stock.

25. Lovie Smith -- To be fair, it's not this fault this team has the worst front office in football outside the Redskins. But the fact that he refused to tweak his defense after Urlacher went down -- when the only reason it really worked was Urlacher runs like a safety and can fill the gaps in the Tampa 2 -- drove me mad as a Bears fan. I blame Cutler's regression partly on him, because if nothing else he just let that idiot throw INTs without public comment FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON and I can't help but blame him a little for Cedric Benson quitting on his career, then suddenly remembering he was good again in Cincy. I hated Benson, and still do, but it infuriates me they couldn't find a way to motivate him to do something, anything, to get some return on the investment they made by picking him so high. He dumped Ron Rivera for some unexplained reason, even though Rivera was arguably the main reason they were successful in 2006, and he uses times outs and challenges worse than any coach in the league. The fact that he let the Vikings kneel and run out the clock instead calling a time out and forcing them to punt to Devin Hester in in a game in 2007 -- he forgot he had a time out left! -- probably should have gotten him fired right there.

26. Mangini -- An asshole with zero credibility. That pretty much sums it up.

27. Haley -- An hot-head asshole with zero credibility. Does not posses the temperment or maturity or patience to be a head coach.

28. Spaguolo -- Incomplete. Impossible to really grade him yet.

29. Schwartz -- See above. Although I think they made some tiny strides this year.

30. Morris -- Again, incomplete. Don't really have enough to judge him with.

31. Gailey -- An absolute joke that he got this job. An atrocious hire and Bills fans are right to be both outraged and ashamed.

32. Carroll -- Incomplete. I don't think you can even take into account his previous stints because he's such a different coach. I still suspect he'll fail though, because I can't imagine him working 19 hour days.

 

ryan's much too high; fox much too low. among other issues.

 

Good Stuff DD.

I see Ryan in Top 10 perhaps in a year or two but I need to see more. Have to put Payton above just based on this year.

What is it you hate about Coughlin? Is it personal? If you have him at 8 he must be doing a lot of things right.

I think Fisher is a great coach but he cannot overcome shortcomings he has had at QB

 

Great stuff. I'd read DD write the phone book. [/shameless asskisser] This line made me laugh and laugh and laugh:

That said, one quibble here:

Warner was set up to fail there, relatively speaking. There was absolutely nothing he could have done to win that job F/T. He was keeping the seat warm until Eli went in and the conservative game plan was tailored with that in mind. The Giants were awful, just awful, the year before and everyone knew they'd go to Eli sooner than later. And there was no chance of an Eli faceplant b/c he's not an idiot, like Matt Leinart.

 

1. Nick Saban
2. Whatever.

 

DD, great freeking work. I would rather read that than a lot of stuff I read online or in magazines.

Oh, you do have Tomlin way too high. He deserves that ranking only if he takes the Steelers, at minimum, to the AFC Championship Game.

 

If Rex Ryan wasn't a fat slob, he'd have been a head coach a long time ago. I've been paying close attention to his career for a long time. I'm pretty comfortable with where he is.

Some of it just is personal with Coughlin. I don't think you can deny that. I remember seeing an interview with a Giants player who was put on injured reserve, and Coughlin wouldn't even let him work out at the facility anymore. Couldn't come to games, wasn't allowed to watch film, participate in team fuctions. Coughlin said he didn't want any of the other players seeing an injured guy around because he was no longer part of the team. Struck me as just Napoleonic just for the sake of being a dick.

I understand it's hard to win in that market with all the pressure. But their inconsistency bugs me. Even the year they won the Super Bowl, they were an average team at best with about three games to go in the season. (The game where Manning threw three pick-sixes stands out the most.) Think about this: They went 4-0 the year they won the Super Bowl. They haven't won a playoff game outside that season (0-3).

BYH, I do agree Warner was set up to fail there. But I still don't think they used him well at all. Because Coughlin can't play anything other than boring ass football, he basically had passing plays where only two guys were running routes. That's not Warner's game. Even if Manning was going to play sooner rather than later, they could have been better if he had the guts to stick with Warner and actually let him be Warner.

Tomlin is mostly just a feel thing. I really like the way he handles himself with players and with the media. If Roethlisberger doesn't get yet another concussion, they beat the Ravens and do make the playoffs again, and probably do get to the AFC Championship.

 

I think that is a little too high for Tomlin, too. He absolutely does have to take some blame for how erratic his team was this year. Sure, injuries were a huge part of the problem, but there is no excuse for losing to the Chiefs, Raiders and Browns with that kind of talent. Breakdowns against Kansas City and Oakland are one thing. Flat-out not showing up in Cleveland was a disgrace. Tomlin has to take some of the blame for that. I'm sure he'd be the first person to say so.

I just can't see Ryan over Payton or Coughlin, either. I like him. I think he's a good coach. But he hasn't accomplished anywhere near what Payton and Coughlin have.