The 2026 NFL season is nearly here and rosters will soon be chopped down to 53 players around the league. But sometimes we can forget about the men and women who don't count toward that total: the coaching staff.
Coaching has a far bigger impact in the NFL than you'd think — maybe the biggest of any major American sport.
NFL head coaches make crucial in-game decisions — managing the clock, calling timeouts, challenging plays and deciding when to go for it on fourth down — and then spend all week explaining the decisions that went awry. They also hire and manage a deep team of assistants who play key roles, and they build team culture in the locker room.
Behind any good modern offense is a great offensive coordinator (OC), and an elite defensive coordinator (DC) who maximizes talent with the perfect scheme. They're multipliers rather than additive, making their unit far better (or worse!) than the sum of its parts.
Units like special teams (ST) and offensive lines (OL) have their own positional coaches, too, capable of turning average talent into great hidden edges.
That's why we're ranking entire NFL coaching staffs today — not just head coaches.
A few quick notes before we jump in:
- Offense matters more than defense. Good (and bad!) offense is stickier from one year to the next, and offense just has a bigger impact. That means offensive coaching is weighted heavier.
- Passing is more valuable than rushing in the modern NFL. In-game coaching aggression is important. Those things matter on the field, and they're weighted accordingly. Coaches set the tone.
- The OC and DC rankings are meant to encapsulate the full-staff impact on offensive and defensive playcalling, not rank one specific coach. The HC ranking focuses more on things outside of playcalling: leading a staff, managing a game, even acting as franchise CEO in many ways.
- Key assistants are also noted as major difference makers. Outstanding offensive line and special teams coaches are especially important (and oft overlooked!) and factored into the rankings.
So before we kick off the new season, let's study the coaching landscape and rank all 32 NFL coaching staffs.
This is one of the best-hidden edges for both teams and analysts alike, so it has major implications for us as NFL bettors — from live betting to spreads to futures. What can we learn by studying the folks on the sidelines?
Be sure to check out the whole NFL rankings series!
Related Articles
2026 NFL Coaching Staff Rankings
| Tier Number | Category |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | The Gold Standard |
| Tier 2 | Something Old, Something New |
| Tier 3 | Two Strengths, One Weakness |
| Tier 4 | Let’s Piss Some People Off |
| Tier 5 | We Got Next |
| Tier 6 | Fine, Thanks For Asking |
| Tier 7 | Whole Lotta New Head Coaches |
| Tier 8 | Wait, How Do You NOT Have New Coaches?! |
| Betting Takeaways |
Tier 1 — The Gold Standard
The two coaching staffs at the top shouldn't be particularly surprising.
Everyone in the league is chasing a McVay or Shanahan system. These are the only two teams that actually have them.
1. San Francisco 49ers
Head coach: 2 | Offensive coordinator: 1 | Defensive coordinator: 9 | Last year: 1
The 49ers hold the top spot for a second straight year.
Does that mean I'm taking Kyle Shanahan over Sean McVay? Yes and no.
It's important to remember we're ranking coaching staffs here, not just head coaches. And as you can see in the subhead above, I actually rank Shanahan second as a head coach — behind McVay.
Both have similar in-game flaws and are a touch conservative at times, and both could pay a bit more attention to special teams, but we know all the good stuff. McVay has been better at hiring, developing, and replacing an excellent staff, and his teams have had the highest ceilings at peak.
Shanahan ranks ahead of McVay as a playcaller. Shanahan's offenses have been top-7 in yardage in 6-of-7 seasons and top half of the league in 11 straight, and his creative rushing attack creates a reliably high floor and unlocks super efficient passing numbers.
Look at how good Shanahan's offense has been the last two seasons, even with injuries up and down the 49ers' roster.
Still, that leaves Shanahan and McVay close to even — for the record, I'd take McVay — but the edge here goes to DC Raheem Morris, and you won't have to convince Rams fans of that since Morris led their defense to a Super Bowl win! He'll get plenty of help from D-line specialist Kris Kocurek, and that makes up our top coaching staff.
2. Los Angeles Rams
Head coach: 1 | Offensive coordinator: 2 | Defensive coordinator: 15 | Last year: 4
What else is there to say about Sean McVay at this point?
Outside of the 2023 season bomb with all the injuries, McVay is 87-45 as an NFL head coach, an 11.2-win pace in the regular season.
And as incredible as his offense is, the crazy part is how McVay continues to evolve and reshape things. His rushing attack last season lapped the rest of the league and quietly opened everything up for the passing game everyone focuses on.
Defensive coordinator Chris Shula has been a hot name among head coaching searches, but I've been a bit lukewarm on him so far. Shula tends to stay away from blitzing and trusts his talent up front, and that could work pretty well this season with Myles Garrett in tow.
Both Shula and new OC Nate Scheelhaase could be the next coaches from the McVay tree to end up leading NFL franchises.
Tier 2 — Something Old, Something New
A couple of the head coaches in this tier are stalwarts, with staffs always ranked near the top.
The other three in this group have only been head coaches for a few years but have already pushed their way toward the top of the list, thanks in part to the absence of some staffs that have long been near the top of the ranks with John Harbaugh, Sean McDermott, and Mike Tomlin no longer with their old teams.
3. Chicago Bears
Head coach: 5 | Offensive coordinator: 3 | Defensive coordinator: 12 | Last year: 11
We went all-in on Ben Johnson last season and nailed our worst-to-first Bears division pick, and I'm not wasting any time installing the Bears right into the top-3.
Johnson immediately worked his magic in Chicago, turning an anemic Bears rushing attack into one of the best overnight and elevating the offensive line into one of the best in the league. He also helped Caleb Williams take huge strides forward in development, turning two of his biggest weaknesses — deep ball and pocket presence — into strengths.
Johnson waited before leaping into the head coaching ranks, and it's clear he was worth the wait.
Dennis Allen needs to show this defense can be more than just turnovers, but his units have been stickier than a typical team in forcing turnovers year over year. The underlying numbers were not good last season, but Allen effectively played all year without anyone healthy in the secondary, and his system tends to rely heavily on good man coverage.
4. Los Angeles Chargers
Head coach: 3 | Offensive coordinator: 4 | Defensive coordinator: 24 | Last year: 9
It's hard to argue with Jim Harbaugh's winning pedigree.
His teams have won 11+ games in five of six NFL seasons, on top of all his college success. And that college experience has unlocked a next level of Harbaugh, widening his coaching tree and giving him access to a ton of new intriguing names.
Harbaugh's last two defensive coordinators were Mike MacDonald and Jesse Minter, brought up from the college ranks, and those are two of the top handful of playcallers in the NFL now — but they're both gone.
Minter is a big loss, but it's hard not to be intrigued by replacement DC Chris O'Leary. What he did transforming Western Michigan in one season was remarkable, and he learned under Minter and should pick up where his mentor left off.
The big swing, though, comes in the move from departed OC Greg Roman to Mike McDaniel.
McDaniel didn't work as a head coach for any number of reasons, but he is an elite, S-tier playcaller. We love a failed head coach that falls back into his role doing the thing he does best, and McDaniel is a top-5 offensive mind.
Even with precious little QB play or O-line talent, he's built creative, efficient rushing attacks, elevated line play, and found crazy levels of offense.
I wrote in the offensive line rankings that a healthy Chargers offensive line could represent the single biggest one-unit swing in the NFL. It may take some time, but once McDaniel finds the best way to optimize this offense, Roman-to-McDaniel may be the single biggest coaching swing in the league.
5. Kansas City Chiefs
Head coach: 6 | Offensive coordinator: 9 | Defensive coordinator: 7 | Last year: 3
This is the lowest I've ranked the Chiefs in awhile — it's their first time outside the top tier — but there's still plenty to like.
Andy Reid is a legend, DC Steve Spagnuolo always seems to get the defense peaking at the right time late in the season, and specialists like OL Andy Heck and ST Dave Toub add hidden value every year.
Still, it's a bit disappointing that Reid finally moved on from Matt Nagy and brought in an old retread assistant in OC Eric Bieniemy. True, the Chiefs offense was far better under Bieniemy, but Reid is the playcaller and this offense has gotten stale and outdated.
This was the chance for Reid to try something new and different, to move forward with the times as the Chiefs offense has stalled out under Patrick Mahomes the last few seasons.
Instead, it looks like more of the same — that's a bit of a bummer.
6. Seattle Seahawks
Head coach: 4 | Offensive coordinator: 29 | Defensive coordinator: 1 | Last year: 10
Seattle has been surprisingly low in the rankings so far, in part because we haven't gotten to the defensive side of things, but also in part because it's been the coaches that have elevated a roster that's otherwise not necessarily the most talented in the league.
It all starts with Mike MacDonald at the top.
MacDonald went 10-7 his debut season and only missed the playoffs because of some wonky tiebreaker rules, and now he's a Super Bowl champion in year two. He's the best defensive playcaller in the league, leading a nasty defense that thrives in chaos, and he's immediately given this franchise culture and identity.
The team will miss Klint Kubiak, though. New OC Brian Fleury is a relative unknown, and it appears he's an attempt at some continuity to Kubiak's scheme, but it's the biggest uncertainty in these rankings so far.
ST Jay Harbaugh might already be the best special teams coach in the league. You know anyone with Harbaugh in their name is going to be good at special teams, and Harbaugh's unit mastered the new kickoff rules last year and constantly gave the team a field position advantage.
7. Jacksonville Jaguars
Head coach: 12 | Offensive coordinator: 5 | Defensive coordinator: 11 | Last year: 21
Jacksonville might be the first real surprise on the list so far — and I was a bit surprised too, if we're being honest.
Perhaps it's a bit early to be this far in on Liam Coen's staff after just one year on the job, but there's just no clear weakness on the staff.
Coen found immediate results as a head coach with 13 wins in his debut, and that for a Jaguars franchise that had badly lacked culture and identity for years. Coen's offensive playcalling has been elite in both Florida stops — Jacksonville and Tampa Bay — getting the best we've seen from Trevor Lawrence and Baker Mayfield. His next job is to find a rushing attack.
DC Anthony Campanile is also a name on the rise. His defenses have been elite against the run, first in Green Bay and now in Jacksonville, and it's a great sign that he seems to maximize LB play at every stop since that's his specialty.
Add in walking-top-10 ST Heath Farwell and there's just a ton to like on this staff, and no real weakness. This is not the most talented roster in the league, far from it, really.
These coaches are what made last year's magic happen.
Tier 3 — Two Strengths, One Weakness
We're still safely near the top in definitely good territory, but this is the tier where we start to see weaknesses slip in — usually one for each team.
Still, these staffs have proven reliable and winning year after year.
8. Minnesota Vikings
Head coach: 13 | Offensive coordinator: 13 | Defensive coordinator: 3 | Last year: 7
I'm a Vikings fan and it's always tough to separate fandom from ratings, but it feels like Minnesota's coaching staff is a touch overrated by the national media — ESPN did this exercise last fall and put Minnesota right at the top at No. 1.
Everyone loves head coach Kevin O'Connell, and it's pretty wild he coaxed last year's team to a 9-8 record, arguably without an actual NFL QB on the roster. Minnesota is 43-25 in four years with KOC, especially good when you consider the quarterbacks on the team — though that season with Sam Darnold looks a bit less impressive now that he won a ring after leaving.
O'Connell has the Vikings winning a bunch of games, and his playcalling often cracks top-5 on rankings. That feels pretty aggressive to me. Minnesota did win more games than it lost last year, but can you guess where the Vikings finished the season in Offensive DVOA?
29th.
That's fourth worst in the league! And that's hardly even an outlier.
O'Connell's other three seasons leading Minnesota have seen the offense finish 20th, 23rd, and 15th. There are 14 playoff teams in the NFL; KOC hasn't even had a playoff offense yet in four seasons, and his average Offensive DVOA is practically bottom 10.
Numbers aren't everything, but four years of data is hard to ignore. O'Connell has struggled to find a run game, though the addition of Frank Smith to the staff has seemed to add a spark.
There's little left that needs to be said about Brian Flores and the defense. No defense is aggressive as his, which often means high highs and low lows, but expect plenty of turnovers, sacks, and big plays.
If the offense ever truly catches up, the Vikings could be special.
9. Denver Broncos
Head coach: 9 | Offensive coordinator: 22 | Defensive coordinator: 6 | Last year: 12
With Mike Tomlin out of the league, it might be time for the Sean Payton streak.
It's not quite .500, but Payton has 7+ wins in all 18 seasons as an NFL head coach, a pretty solid floor. He's also won 11 or fewer games in 12 of those 18 though — not so great when you think of all those Drew Brees Saints teams.
Payton does enough good things that you barely need to hear them at this point, but it does feel like there's been a bit of a glass ceiling on his offenses. That's why it's intriguing that Payton finally moved on from longtime assistants Joe Lombardi and Pete Carmichael and turned over the keys to the offense to 31-year-old Davis Webb.
Webb was still playing QB just four years ago so this is a rapid rise, but he's had a big hand in Bo Nix's success. Webb will actually call plays, not Payton. That represents some risk and unknown, but it could mean a new ceiling for Payton's team.
Like with Flores, not much needs to be said about the other side of the ball. Vance Joseph's defense has been elite the last couple years, though his style can be volatile and go south in a hurry when the personnel doesn't line up.
10. Houston Texans
Head coach: 11 | Offensive coordinator: 28 | Defensive coordinator: 2 | Last year: 8
Houston's weakness is pretty obvious, and glaring.
OC Nick Caley's offense was awful again last year, like usual. Houston can't run the ball at all, can't block, and isn't giving or getting any answers from C.J. Stroud.
I had some hopes for Caley coming into last season. He has roots in the McVay, Shanahan, and Josh McDaniels trees, so there's a lot to like there. Maybe he can find some answers with a second year and slightly better line play?
DeMeco Ryans has been superb as a head coach. In three seasons with the Texans, he's won 10, 10, and 12 regular-season games, plus a playoff game each year, and his defense ranks near the top of the league every season.
There are no questions there, nor with the winning culture Ryans has established, but we have to question his hiring and staff development at this point, and his conservative decision making on and off the field leave easy stuff on the table.
11. Green Bay Packers
Head coach: 8 | Offensive coordinator: 8 | Defensive coordinator: 28 | Last year: 6
Matt LaFleur is now 76-40-1, averaging just 5.6 losses a season. He routinely competes up in games his team has no business hanging around in, particularly when Jordan Love is out, and his offenses continue to push for the top 10 year after year.
One knock on LaFleur is that he's perhaps better at play design and scheming than he is at play sequencing.
In other words, LaFleur sets a great game plan and does a superb job getting his team ready for Sunday, but the actual plays themselves often leave something to be desired — too slow and too conservative, when he usually has a QB and an offense with more answers than it's using.
Jonathan Gannon is the new DC in Green Bay, and that's the obvious weakness for now.
Gannon was not particularly beloved during his DC stint in Philadelphia, and it's easy to see how much better that defense has been since he left. His system tends to be passive and vanilla.
12. Indianapolis Colts
Head coach: 14 | Offensive coordinator: 6 | Defensive coordinator: 27 | Last year: 18
I kept wanting to rank the Colts a touch higher last fall than they ended up, and Indianapolis immediately proved my instincts right.
The Colts started 7-1 and Shane Steichen had this offense absolutely whirring — best in the league and putting up historic numbers, all with Daniel Jones running the show.
Steichen has won nine, eight, and eight games with the Colts so he hasn't gotten much national attention yet, but go look at the QBs Steichen is working with during that stretch and suddenly that looks pretty good. His aggressive in-game decisions typically maximize win probability, and his play scheming and sequencing have both been great.
Steichen routinely creates an elite run game, thanks to a great offensive line his playcalling helps to elevate, and that in turn sets up his heavy playaction and deep shots that fill out the offense.
The weak spot here is DC Lou Anarumo, who still gets some credit for that Bengals run to the Super Bowl awhile back, but the metrics have never been in Anarumo's favor. His in-game adjustments in big spots have hit, but you'd love to see more consistency and a higher floor.
Tier 4 — Let’s Piss Some People Off
Well, we're probably not going to make many friends in this tier.
Three of the four teams in this tier would probably like to see themselves in the top 10, considering they've either been a 1-seed or gone to the Super Bowl in the last few years.
And one in particular will not enjoy being directly behind a division rival — I swear, that's what the numbers said!
13. New York Giants
Head coach: 7 | Offensive coordinator: 32 | Defensive coordinator: 25 | Last year: 31
The Giants make the biggest leap on the board, from 31 all the way to 13. And that's almost entirely John Harbaugh.
Harbaugh was my No. 1 head coach last season, and it's clear that has to drop after Baltimore thought it was time to move on.
Still, there's a lot to like about Harbaugh. He has a great history of hiring and developing assistants, and he's done a great job staying up to date with the times, showing flexibility to fit the talent on the roster.
Harbaugh has an excellent track record with analytics and in-game decisions. He's also a near guarantee for terrific special teams play, prioritizing it everywhere he goes, and sure enough stud ST coordinator Chris Horton is here to lead the charge.
So why aren't the Giants even higher?
DC Dennard Wilson has had some success with defensive backs in Philadelphia and Baltimore, but he still needs to prove himself as a defensive playcaller. The offense could be a real problem, though.
I don't have anything nice to say about new OC Matt Nagy. His presence completely tanked the Chiefs from its usual self the last three years, and Nagy was even worse calling plays in Chicago.
Even worse, Nagy brought Greg Roman and Brian Callahan with him — all three names I've staunchly downgraded with coaching staffs in recent years.
With 32 teams and three coaches per team at HC, OC, and DC, the Giants OC would probably rank dead last (96th of 96), heading into the season.
Can those guys at least create a palatable floor for this offense, or will they drag the whole thing down?
14. Philadelphia Eagles
Head coach: 15 | Offensive coordinator: 30 | Defensive coordinator: 4 | Last year: 15
Philadelphia fans will probably never be happy with a ranking, but this is right about where I've had the Eagles for a few years now.
What's left to say about Nick Sirianni? He's the Russell Westbrook of NFL coaches.
He has an 11.8-win pace through five years, plus two Super Bowls and a ring, but also — well, you know, all the Sirianni stuff! You get all the good and all the bad. And you're stuck with it.
DC Vic Fangio is a legend and gives this staff a pretty stable floor. The defense has been great, and you wouldn't be 4,000 words deep into a coaching staff column unless you knew about Fangio's work already.
Outside of Fangio, though, Sirianni's hiring history has been a real roller coaster — and also appears to have cost the Eagles legendary OL coach Jeff Stoutland to early retirement, a big loss for this squad.
This is four straight years with a new OC for Sirianni, and I'm just not sold on Sean Mannion. Most expect a Shanahan/McVay-derived scheme from Mannion with lots of pre-snap movement and attacking the middle of the field.
Innovation can be a good thing, but that puts an awful lot on a QB that hasn't proven he can handle those things. If Jalen Hurts can't figure it out under Mannion, it could finally be the end for Hurts, Sirianni, or both in Philadelphia.
15. Detroit Lions
Head coach: 10 | Offensive coordinator: 18 | Defensive coordinator: 30 | Last year: 23
The last couple years, Dan Campbell was everyone's favorite and, perhaps, a bit overrated.
Now public opinion may have gone too far the other direction. Campbell is a likable leader and a great culture guy, and how quickly we forget just how forlorn this franchise was for decades before Campbell turned them around.
Still, Campbell needs to prove he can do it without Ben Johnson — that didn't happen last season. Success in the NFL typically means coordinators getting hired away, and Campbell has struggled to replace Johnson or fill out his staff.
John Morton was a failure last season, and new OC Drew Petzing was once a hot name but has not had a ton of success, especially once Klayton Adams left his Arizona teams.
DC Kelvin Sheppard hasn't proven much either. Campbell needs to find the right assistants.
16. New England Patriots
Head coach: 16 | Offensive coordinator: 15 | Defensive coordinator: 26 | Last year: 24
New England obviously just won 14 games and made the Super Bowl one year after winning only four games, and Mike Vrabel gets credit for that.
Vrabel is a clear culture setter and floor raiser, but last year's team needed a floor raiser — this one has higher hopes now, and that's not been Vrabel's specialty.
He's too conservative with his old school understanding of football and that consistently leads him to hire outdated assistants.
Vrabel is definitely good, but I'm not sure he's great — and that's about what I've always thought of OC Josh McDaniels, too.
DC Zak Kuhr had some great success taking over midseason and into the playoffs, but add in all the potential Vrabel off-field distractions and this is just a solidly average staff.
Tier 5 — We Got Next
Back up in Tier 2, you saw three coaching staffs in just Year 2 or 3 already ranked that high.
The right staff can swing things in a hurry, and in a year where we've got a lot of very green coaching staffs around the league, these are three I've got my eye on.
I'm typically slow to adjust year-over-year in an effort to not overreact too quickly, but all three of these staffs have top-10 potential by year's end if things fall into place.
17. Baltimore Ravens
Head coach: 22 | Offensive coordinator: 21 | Defensive coordinator: 5 | Last year: 2
Technically we've already done one of the 10 new coaches in John Harbaugh, but this is my first brand new coach, with a staff I'm super excited about.
No matter how good you feel about a new hire going into the season, you still have to start with a baseline below average — it would be silly to think someone brand new is just automatically better than say Mike Vrabel — but I think Jesse Minter can get there quickly.
Minter was the hot name in this year's coaching cycle, this year's Mike MacDonald. The Ravens let the last Mike MacDonald walk out that door two years ago, then saw him win the Super Bowl in February, and I'm convinced they were not letting it happen a second time with Minter.
This is the guy everyone wanted, a CEO and culture setter who, like MacDonald, comes with a super resume calling defensive plays.
I'm almost as excited for new OC Declan Doyle, too.
Doyle was technically Ben Johnson's OC last year in Chicago, and though he didn't call the plays, that still means a ton of involvement with schemes and game plans, and we know how good those results were.
Doyle also worked under Sean Payton for years and, like Johnson, was a tight ends coach. Tight ends have to do a bit of everything — blocking, catching, in-line, out on the edge — and we're seeing more TE coaches these days take all that versatility and put it to use in great offensive schemes.
It will be Doyle's first time calling plays, so you never know how that will go, but he should get a boost from new OL coach Dwayne Ledford, who did great work elevating Atlanta's line.
This is by far the new coaching staff I'm most excited to see at work this fall.
18. Dallas Cowboys
Head coach: 20 | Offensive coordinator: 7 | Defensive coordinator: 21 | Last year: 32
Dallas had a new staff last fall, and suffice to say, it was not a staff I was excited about.
I ranked the Cowboys dead last in this article one year ago, and I have to admit, I got it all the way wrong on Brian Schottenheimer.
Schottenheimer is good! Maybe even better than good. He's been part of some really successful offenses now, and he has a knack for great play designs that unlock YAC for this guys — first helping CeeDee Lamb breakout, now George Pickens.
Schottenheimer also gets a ton of help from OC Klayton Adams, who doesn't call plays but does design one of the league's most creative rushing attacks, a premiere, gap-based downhill attack that makes life easy and fun for his offensive linemen.
The big change this year is new DC Christian Parker, a hot young name that's been bandied about for years. Parker is a defensive backs coach in the Fangio tree, so he's played a significant role in the development and success of many of those great DBs in recent years with the Eagles and Broncos.
Parker is a huge swing from Matt Eberflus last season, both in scheme and upside. The Fangio tree hasn't always clicked around the league, but this team has Super Bowl upside if the defense takes the leap the offense did last season.
19. New Orleans Saints
Head coach: 21 | Offensive coordinator: 11 | Defensive coordinator: 10 | Last year: 26
The Saints are another second-year staff that had surprising success last fall.
New Orleans is one of only five teams that ranks top 12 in both OC and DC, and the other four teams are in my first two coaching tiers above. This might quietly be one of the best playcalling duos in the league.
On offense, that means HC Kellen Moore, a creative playcaller who uses a ton of motion and tempo to keep defenses on their heels. Moore has had success everywhere he's gone, and though it's a bit early to declare him a successful head coach, things are trending in the right direction.
DC Brandon Staley is another one of those guys who totally flamed out as a head coach just to settle back into doing what he does best: scheming up defense. He was once a rising name and looked the part last year, with a radical scheme that often invites the run to a fault, leaning into analytics and leaving wonky but workable results.
The Saints are a popular sleeper pick as the season kicks off, and if they really make a big leap, it'll absolutely be because of this rising coaching staff as much as any other reason.
Tier 6 — Fine, Thanks For Asking
Not every coaching staff can be great, and if we're fair to the numbers, 20-to-22 isn't exactly average either.
We still haven't gotten to 8-of-10 new head coaches either, some of whom will quickly move up the list and potentially pass some of these teams. Still, these coaching staffs are fine, thanks for asking.
20. Carolina Panthers
Head coach: 17 | Offensive coordinator: 14 | Defensive coordinator: 17 | Last year: 20
With as much coaching turnover as there was around the league, the Panthers were my favorite team to research.
They're basically returning the entire staff, and we sort of know what to expect — a perfectly average staff.
HC Dave Canales has had enough success — a division winner! — and is a quality playcaller, and DC Ejiro Evero has been solid defensively.
This is a perfectly fine staff, and that's a win for a franchise that hasn't had that in a long time. Next!
21. Washington Commanders
Head coach: 18 | Offensive coordinator: 23 | Defensive coordinator: 23 | Last year: 16
I've never been much of a Dan Quinn guy.
Quinn is a fiery presence and clearly gets his team ready for game day, but there's a lot of smoke and mirrors with all that fourth down stuff — he's just not a top pick for me.
That said, I'm pretty intrigued by the assistants on this team.
You may remember new OC David Blough from a one-off Thanksgiving start at QB for the Lions not long ago, but at age 31, he represents addition by subtraction replacing Kliff Kingsbury.
Kingsbury has up-and-down success, but now Blough will marry some of the Kingsbury tactics with what he learned from the Lions and Ben Johnson tree, and that's pretty intriguing for Jayden Daniels.
Then on the other side, it's DC Daronte Jones, another first time playcaller. He's a former Vikings DBs coach, which means he likely brings with him the uber-aggressive coaching style in the tree of Brian Flores, Mike Zimmer, and Vance Joseph. We've seen how good that can be at its best, but it can also go very sideways when the talent isn't there.
Add in the best special teams coach in the league, Larry Izzo, and Washington could be very intriguing if David Blough and Jones hit.
22. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Head coach: 23 | Offensive coordinator: 17 | Defensive coordinator: 8 | Last year: 27
Todd Bowles rightfully gets a lot of crap as a head coach, but it's worth noting that his Bucs have won 8-to-10 games four straight times.
Bowles leaves plenty to be desired with his in-game decisions, but he's routinely been a top-10 defensive playcaller, and he's done a pretty good job lately hiring assistants.
Dave Canales and Liam Coen left for head coaching jobs. Last year's replacement, Josh Grizzard, wasn't as successful, so now Bowles turns to his fourth new OC hire in four years, Zac Robinson.
Robinson joins after a couple quietly successful years with the Falcons, who had a really nice offensive setup and quality underlying numbers despite never having a reliable QB in those two years.
Robinson is from the McVay tree along with the Mike Gundy Oklahoma State attack, so he has a high-scoring background.
Tier 7 — Whole Lotta New Head Coaches
Only 10 coaching staffs are left now, and eight of them are led by a new head coach — and all of those eight are together in this tier.
It's usually best to be skeptical — or at least cautious — with a new staff until we see more, but that doesn't mean I love throwing them all together like this. That's not a preferable outcome, but the truth is that 10 new HC jobs was simply too many, which meant some pretty off-the-wall choices along with a few boring retread options — plus some imbalance in coordinator hires, too.
These eight basically all grade out close to even in my ranking system, so for just this tier, I'm simply ranking these teams exactly in the order I like them.
Tier 7a — Hey, I Know Him!
Let's start with five new staffs led by a head coach whose name you definitely recognize.
Whether that's good or not is another question.
23. Las Vegas Raiders
Head coach: 26 | Offensive coordinator: 10 | Defensive coordinator: 32 | Last year: 14
The Raiders are my favorite group of the bunch, and that's mostly a vote of confidence in Klint Kubiak.
I have no idea if Kubiak is ready to be a head coach, but he has plenty of background and family ties to get him ready, and we already know his offense should be very good.
Kubiak has been a massive floor raiser for both the Saints and Seahawks offenses the last two years, emphasizing the run game and making life easier on the offensive line, and that's going to sound so good for Ashton Jeanty.
Kubiak also makes life easy on his QBs, and both Kirk Cousins and No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza seem like absolutely perfect fits for the Kubiak offense.
It's worth noting that Kubiak's offenses have been somewhat found out in each of the past two seasons, so there's some concern there, but that same offense also won the Super Bowl so it was obviously doing something right.
Somebody's gotta rank 32nd in each group, and new Raiders DC Rob Leonard is my unfortunate pick for defensive playcallers. Leonard is a holdover assistant from Patrick Graham, who did well with this unit, but this will be Leonard's first time calling plays.
24. Atlanta Falcons
Head coach: 19 | Offensive coordinator: 20 | Defensive coordinator: 18 | Last year: 25
Kevin Stefanski is a two-time Coach of the Year winner, but he and the rest of this Atlanta staff routinely grade out in the "fine, thanks for asking" level of coaches for me, somewhere in the 18-to-22, slightly-below-average range.
That includes OC Tommy Rees and DC Jeff Ulbrich, and that likely means a perfectly fine NFL staff with proven coaches who have done it before, but it feels uninspiring to run it back with perfectly fine retread choices when there are a thousand other options out there.
25. Buffalo Bills
Head coach: 29 | Offensive coordinator: 16 | Defensive coordinator: 22 | Last year: 5
Buffalo decided it was finally time to move on from Sean McDermott, and fair enough, but why make a huge change like that and then just keep it in-house with Joe Brady?
Brady is a strange and uninspiring choice. He called plays the last few seasons for what was obviously one of the league's best offenses, but how much of Brady's reputation can simply be chalked up to Josh Allen and LSU Joe Burrow?
Brady's playcalling skews very run-heavy, an odd choice when you have the best QB on the planet but don't unleash him until absolutely necessary in the second half.
If that conservatism is on Brady, it's hard to get excited about him as a head coaching candidate.
There's a lot of buzz around new DC Jim Leonhard, who did a great job with Denver DBs and brings a bunch of college experience as well.
Leonhard will bring a very different style of defense to this roster, much more attacking than McDermott's relatively passive system, but that system fit the players brought into the roster and gave this defense a high floor for a long time.
Can Leonhard really improve on that? Buffalo better hope so, because it's never a great sign when you drop from 5-to-25 in the coaching rankings.
26. Miami Dolphins
Head coach: 28 | Offensive coordinator: 19 | Defensive coordinator: 16 | Last year: 17
What an odd hire Jeff Hafley was for the Dolphins.
Hafley has been a head coach before, which is more than some of these new hires can say, but he wasn't exactly successful or even notable at Boston College, leaving his role for an NFL assistant role.
That was calling the defense for Green Bay, and I'm not even convinced he was particularly successful at that either. The Packers had one "good" defensive season when they racked up turnovers, but the underlying metrics were rotten and proved true when the turnovers disappeared, and so did the good run defense once Anthony Campanile left.
Believe it or not, I might actually be most optimistic about this team on the offensive side of the ball, even though new OC Bobby Slowik and assistant Kevin Patullo are enough to give any football fan PTSD.
Slowik was panned for limiting Houston's offense, but hindsight paints a very different picture as that was really C.J. Stroud's only remotely successful career.
Slowik's good with the run game and creates efficient passing, and now he learned under Mike McDaniel and brings some continuity here too. At the very least, Slowik could add a solid floor to this offense.
Miami did snag ST Chris Tabor, a top-5 special teams coach in my book, so that always helps.
27. Pittsburgh Steelers
Head coach: 24 | Offensive coordinator: 24 | Defensive coordinator: 13 | Last year: 13
If you've been watching football for a few years, you can probably close your eyes and picture The McCarthy Face.
Mike McCarthy is a Super Bowl champion, but that was a long time ago, and we've seen an awful lot of The McCarthy Face since then as he constantly flubs in-game decisions. He is just an epically bad decision maker.
McCarthy's teams also tend to skew too pass heavy, and that matters since he'll call the plays here.
DC Patrick Graham is a rising name that's had quality success, and folks are excited about his potential with the talent on this Steelers defense, but do you really think someone's going to come in and find more defensive success here than Mike Tomlin's staff could?
McCarthy has had plenty of success in his career, but he's also had Aaron Rodgers and Dak Prescott for most of it.
This version of Aaron Rodgers is nothing close to those two, which means that long streak of .500-or-better coaching outcomes may finally be over in Pittsburgh.
Tier 7b — And For That Reason, I'm Out!
We've got three more new coaching staffs to go, and these are by far my least favorite.
It would be impossible to imagine 10 new head coaching hires working out, and these are the three crews I'm out on until proven otherwise.
28. Arizona Cardinals
Head coach: 27 | Offensive coordinator: 26 | Defensive coordinator: 19 | Last year: 19
You know when you go to the store and can't quite afford the brand name, and you're pretty sure the store-brand version will be just as good and no one will even notice?
Welcome to the Mike LaFleur experience.
LaFleur was a surprising choice at the end of a long, strugglebus hiring process that sure didn't seem to leave the Cardinals with many choices, and he brings precious little experience to the table. He's never been a head coach at any level and has only called NFL plays in two doomed Zach Wilson seasons with the Jets.
LaFleur will also call plays here, taking on double duty and two jobs he really doesn't know how to do, but I supposed that's better than new OC Nathaniel Hackett doing so.
If Hackett were calling plays, they couldn't invent a ranking low enough. He's been so bad at his last few NFL stops that I have to downgrade any coach dumb enough to hire him.
Arizona did retain DC Nick Rallis, and he's young and intriguing, trying all sorts of unique, funky fronts and looks in defense. Seems like a good decision to retain Rallis as the defense adds talent, but if you're going to keep him, why not just promote him to HC?
There's a faint whiff of looking at a resume, seeing the name LaFleur and a touch of McVay tree background, and just pulling the trigger.
29. Cleveland Browns
Head coach: 30 | Offensive coordinator: 12 | Defensive coordinator: 31 | Last year: 22
It's hard to imagine an NFL franchise looking at 60-year-old Todd Monken, who has never been a head coach at any level, and deciding this would be the time to give him a shot.
Monken has been a career journeyman coach, bouncing around with brief 2-or-3 year stops one place after the next, installing a new offense, then burning it out and jumping to the next destination just as quickly.
And in his defense, many of those offenses have been good, even great!
Monken is a really creative playcaller and hard to pin down stylistically in a good way, versatile enough to cater a scheme around the players and skill sets in front of him. He built an all-time great Ravens offense, but he also ran out of answers when that offense got stuck, and that's a familiar experience with Monken.
DC Mike Rutenberg is a first-time playercaller cut from the Robert Saleh and Gus Bradley tree, and as you're about to read, that doesn't fire me up a whole lot.
Monken just doesn't seem cut out to be an NFL head coach at this point. This hire absolutely reeks of desperation.
30. Tennessee Titans
Head coach: 31 | Offensive coordinator: 25 | Defensive coordinator: 14 | Last year: 30
It's genuinely hard to imagine an NFL coaching staff composing itself of three main components I hate more than this Tennessee staff.
This is The Unholy Tri-dumb-verate of coaches.
I've spent years fading any NFL team attached to any one of these three coaches — and now by some awful act of God, they're all on the same staff together.
That starts with Robert Saleh at the top, who was a perennial First Coach Fired bet until he finally hit for a forlorn Jets regime. Saleh has been a good defensive playcaller, but nothing about his time as head coach went well on or off the field or ever made you feel like putting him in charge was a good idea.
As for the defense, that will be led by DC Gus Bradley, though Saleh will call the plays.
Saleh has seen solid defensive results at times, but the two typically scheme up a similar stye with predictable fronts and vanilla schemes, relying on talent and often taking time to find itself. Bradley's history is a low-blitz high-zone setup, and modern offenses are just too good for that style of passive defense.
And then there's OC Brian Daboll, who has over a decade calling plays in the NFL without producing anything even remotely good outside of two years of Josh Allen.
In 12 years calling plays as OC or HC, Daboll's offenses have finished 20th or worse in both points or yards eight times. They've both finished above average in just those two Allen years.
Everything on this staff is over-conservative and outdated, a run-forward offense paired with a passive defense straight out of yesteryear.
These guys are veterans for a reason, and even a staff this disgusting still brings some floor-raising value from what Tennessee had last year, but it's genuinely hard to imagine liking a new NFL staff less in 2026.
Tier 8 — Wait, How Do You NOT Have New Coaches?!
Hold on.
We hired a record ten new NFL coaches around the league, with all those names above, and the two remaining teams were not among them?!
No one would have batted one eye if either of these coaching staffs were relieved of their duties last winter, and yet here we are — right down at the bottom of the ranks.
31. Cincinnati Bengals
Head coach: 25 | Offensive coordinator: 27 | Defensive coordinator: 29 | Last year: 28
Zac Taylor is somehow eight years into his tenure with Cincinnati despite a record of 52-63-1. Even since the team drafted Burrow, Taylor is just 50-49-1, and he's missed the playoffs in 4-of-6 seasons. That should never cut it with a QB that talented, injuries or not.
Taylor is still calling plays with OC Dan Pitcher around, and this offense just doesn't do anything to make life easy for itself. There are no easy buttons, no creativity, little motion or modern concepts.
There's also famously very little under-certain offense, though they swear it'll be different this year and did start their preseason game as such. The rushing attack also found its legs late last season as the offensive line gelled, so if you squint, maybe this offensive playcalling can get closer to something like just below league average.
DC Al Golden brought a fresh voice and some great success at Notre Dame, but this defense was horrendous in his debut year so it's hard to get too excited at this point until we see more. ST Darrin Simmons is a longtime great and just about the only silver lining on this staff.
I really want to be in on the Bengals this year, but it's just never going to be because of this coaching staff.
32. New York Jets
Head coach: 32 | Offensive coordinator: 31 | Defensive coordinator: 20 | Last year: 29
I've never been much of an Aaron Glenn believer, and it's hard to have much belief after how badly everything went in his debut season.
Glenn had little control of the locker room and the results reflected that, and it feels like the only reason he's still around is because he fired both his coordinators and hoisted all the blame on them.
This season, Glenn will call the plays defensively, which he refers to as his "superpower." His results in Detroit would beg to differ, and he has a lot less talent to work with in New York.
And then there's OC Frank Reich, a shocking hire that it sure felt like the NFL left behind years ago.
Reich was an absolute disaster his last time in the NFL with the Panthers, and his tenure ended pretty poorly in Indianapolis, too. Both the Panthers and Colts saw dramatic improvements offensively immediately after Reich left, never the thing you want from the guy in charge of your play calling.
If I were making the odds for First Coach Fired, it would be hard to get away from Aaron Glenn. The Jets were just always going to be last in any exercise like this.
Betting Takeaways
1. All these coaching changes sure makes it feel like things are wide open.
There are seven outstanding coaching staffs in my top two tiers, then five more I feel really good about. That's 12, and that's about where my confidence ends, which leaves a whopping 20 teams with major question marks and significant unknowns.
Put differently, that leaves a lot of room for optimism and sleepers.
Rankings 13-to-32 are so close together that it's easy to imagine being really wrong about a coordinator or HC ranking, which could easily see one staff jump from a tepid 24th or 28th ranking right now up to league average or better and swing the season.
2. Division outlooks are looking pretty bleak for the Cardinals and the Titans.
Arizona and Tennessee have new staffs, so it's hard to know just how good it'll be. But the Cards and Titans both ranked bottom-3 among the 10 new coaching staffs and bottom-5 overall.
That's bad news, but take a look at the division competition around them.
The rest of the NFC West is all the way back at the top of the rankings — 1st, 2nd, and the defending champs all the way down in 6th. It's not quite as bleak in the AFC South but not too much better, with all three Titans opponents in the top 12 and seemingly on the rise.
It's hard enough to overcome a talent deficit as the worst roster in the division. It's even harder without a coaching staff to help, when those already talented rosters ahead of them are also getting such a strong force multiplier effect from the coaches.
3. On the flip side, two divisions have coaching staffs clustered very closely together: the NFC South and NFC East.
It's kind of perfect and telling that the entire NFC South sees its coaching staffs ranked between 19th and 24th, effectively all tied together just below .500. That division would have it no other way.
All that coaching parity could leave the division close and winnable again — and if a rising staff like the Saints takes another step forward, it could really have an advantage.
The NFC East all ends up between 13th and 21st in the rankings, with a surprising name at the top in the Giants.
This looks like a serious red flag for one team in particular: the Eagles.
The Giants and Cowboys are the two biggest risers in the ranks, from bottom-2 a year ago to 13th and 18th, respectively, with Dallas finding early success with its staff and New York hiring a serious floor raiser in John Harbaugh. Even Washington is lowest of the quartet but has some intrigue with its new coordinator hires.
With the rest of the division looking at upside, it feels like all downside for Nick Sirianni and the Eagles. If Sean Mannion struggles or that staff takes a step back again, this could easily end up the worst coaching staff in the division.
And if that's the case, that could finally be the end for Sirianni in Philadelphia, no matter how much he's won in the past.
4. Three of this year's biggest fallers are replacing longtime successful coaches: the Ravens, Steelers, and Bills.
We just mentioned this year's biggest risers, the Cowboys and Giants. Jacksonville is another big riser, from 21st to 7th, with Liam Coen joining Ben Johnson and Mike MacDonald as head coaches quickly on the rise.
It's no real surprise to see the biggest fallers involving teams finally moving on from John Harbaugh, Mike Tomlin, and Sean McDermott after a combined 46 years leading their franchises. Still, it's a bit shocking seeing just how far these teams are falling.
Baltimore drops from 2nd to 17th, but could bounce back quickly if Minter and Doyle live up to expectations.
Pittsburgh falls from 13th to 27th, perhaps not quite as precipitous a drop since Tomlin's staff had declined a touch in recent years already.
The biggest drop here is Buffalo, from 5th all the way to 25th. Sean McDermott gave the Bills a clear floor and a consistent winning mentality.
If Joe Brady can't replicate that and Jim Leonhard's defense doesn't find its way early, this could be a dramatic drop-off for a presumed Super Bowl contender.
5. Even with the Ravens falling off, there's still sneaky reason for optimism — but the same reason portends caution for the Lions.
Any team dropping from 2nd in the ranks to outside the top 10 is worth noting, though that staff had clearly dropped outside the top tier by season's end anyways.
Still, 17th is a pretty good start for a brand new staff, and Minter and Doyle could sneak back into the top 10 soon enough if things go well.
But there's another reason for optimism with the Ravens. Even at 17th, Baltimore is still 10 spots higher than anyone else in the division.
Pittsburgh and Cleveland have two of the less exciting new staffs in the league, and the Bengals are all the way down at the bottom. Even a new staff in Baltimore still looks like a real advantage.
The team on the flip side of that equation is the Lions.
Detroit ranks a respectable 15th, above league average, but that also happens to be last in the NFC North — pretty clearly, in a division featuring Ben Johnson, Matt LaFleur, and Kevin O'Connell.
The Lions already ranked last in the division at QB too, and they're second-to-last in offensive line ranks.
Probably not great to be bottom of your division in arguably the three most important rankings, especially when you're the division favorite!
