Ranking (Almost) Every NFL Head Coach

00:00:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where we've never watched game film with Matt Aberflus either. I'm Greg Rosenthal and I'm talking to my friend JP Acosta of sp Nation, and Jp, you made a mistake. You did too awesome of a job last time. You're a fan favorite of the listeners of NFL Daily, so I asked you back real quick, and I'm talking Eberflus because we're talking coaches today. We're going to rank the best coaches in the NFL.

00:00:28
Speaker 2: I hope you're ready.

00:00:29
Speaker 3: I'm ready. I'm ready for it.

00:00:30
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, Matt Eberflus will not be on this list, but I think his beard should be an honorable mm.

00:00:37
Speaker 1: I know it feels like kicking a guy when he's down to call him out. He's a very good defensive coordinator, and his defense in Chicago had an identity and he got it going. So that's one thing I look for in a coaching staff and a head coach especially. I think he'll be good in Dallas. But he's actually someone I was thinking about. And I'm referring to the article that Seth Wickersham wrote about Caleb Williams is actually an excerpt from his book we'll mention that maybe a little later, but just that he was just all.

00:01:06
Speaker 2: On an island.

00:01:06
Speaker 1: No one was watching game film with him. And just thinking about Eberflus makes me think about if we did this exercise a year ago right now, I think there'd be more obvious guys at the bottom. And so that was my overarching thought. We're not going to rank the first time head coaches just because it seems silly, But me and you were gonna go back and forth making picks and just rank them one to twenty nine because there's four first time head coaches, and so we're not gonna mess with with Kellen Moore. It's like, what are we gonna do ranking him? But Mike Rabel, Pete Carroll like they're up for grabs because they've been head coaches before. And my thought was, like, the coaches are pretty they're fine. Like I feel bad for whoever gets ranked twentieth to twenty ninth, or it's like they don't seem like they're bad coaches. I think in general, my overarching statement is the coaches are fine. There's not as big a difference between like a bad coach and a good coach as you think there's a few bad coaches usually, and actually I think right now, like there's not that many.

00:01:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think this.

00:02:01
Speaker 2: I guess who can call it parody among coaching ranks like it? There's a lot of balance around the league, and I think some of it is due to all there's sort of every coaching tree has its own like offshoots where everybody comes from like a Shanahan or McVeigh style offense. So eventually those things sort of kind of work out. But there's so many there's so much balance across the league, like you said, like you said among coaching staffs that it made ranking this really hard because, like like you said, going to like the into the twenties, you're like, oh, like I could see this guy moving up a lot.

00:02:36
Speaker 1: Why they seem like good coaches even whoever's going to be around ten to twelve.

00:02:39
Speaker 2: We'll see what happens.

00:02:40
Speaker 1: I have long had a theory which I would probably tweak now, but it was it was mostly that there's like a handful of really big difference makers on each side of the leisure when it comes to coaches, like on the plus side and on the negative and the rest. It's just like it's about the players, and it's still always about the players, but that there's a big middle class where there's not that much different. So what we're gonna do, like I said, we're gonna rank them in a unique way. It's basically like a draft, but it'll end up being a ranking where we just go back and forth, taking who we think the best coaches left on the board, and we're really evaluating them, not really for everything that they've done or even what's going to happen in the next five years, Like who do you want coaching your team right now? And of course what they've done in the past, you know, comes into that. That's their track record that informs your pick. So I wanted to have you on in part because I was curious who would be your number one coach. So I will give you the first pick here and start out with picking your coach.

00:03:38
Speaker 2: Okay, So the way I kind of thought about this is if I were a team building an expansion franchise, if I'm trying to get a team from the floor up, you know, and that that actually raised a lot of questions about a lot of coaches in the league where you're building something you're trying to grow into a team being a consistent force. I say all that to say my number one pick is Andy Reid still Okay.

00:04:03
Speaker 3: I think Andy.

00:04:05
Speaker 2: Reid is still the best coach in the NFL. I think his ability to maximize everything that he does on the offensive side of the ball as a play caller. But he gives his his players so much confidence and we're going to talk about that a little later with a lot of other coaches, but the confidence that his players play with and the ability for like a Travis Kelcey to catch the ball.

00:04:29
Speaker 3: And then lateral it behind him in a way that I don't.

00:04:32
Speaker 2: Think any other coach in football we don't even have to go to like we can go to like high school levels. No coach is teaching their players to do that. But Andy Reid gives his players this freedom to kind of just be kind of just move freely in the form of an NFL offense or just on both sides of the ball. So I think that freedom and that ability to consistently build something from the floor up, the consistent winning I think Andy Reid still number one.

00:05:01
Speaker 1: I agree he's got everything that you would look for now if it was for the next ten years. Obviously, he's getting up there. Could you say the creativity the last couple years, have we seen it as consistently? I guess that would be a question. I'm just trying to think of any reason you wouldn't. But no, he was my number one because a he builds a great coaching staff, he has the respect of his players, the freedom that the type of place that Steve Spagnola would want to stay there forever. And I know he has Mahomes, but I'm old enough to remember having the take for a long time before he ever won a Super Bowl that he was the second most important, maybe the most important, but the second best coach of this century before he even ever won a super Bowl, because that was the influence that he had on the offensive side, and how he never stopped evolving. And now that he's won all those super Bowls, it's not just about Mahomes for me. He can manage players, but he gives you a schematic advantage, and that's for me, like the ultimate package, the person who can run an entire building in his case, because he's ultimately more important than the GM there too, run a coaching staff and give you a schematic advantage and handle the personality. So I'm with you. I'm going to go with my pick number two. And this was where it started getting tougher for me, at least. I am going to go with Sean McVeigh for similar reasons to Andy Reid in that I think he is a culture in himself. Everyone talks about culture changes for players. I think he is a culture and I think getting him right now and I'm really evaluating on twenty twenty five, I think he's grown in that aspect, how he manages people, how he manages the building, everything that you hear about him. He's won a playoff game half the years he's coached. We've seen him do it with different quarterbacks. We've seen him have to pick new staff in terms of defensive coordinators. All of that has really worked. And yeah, I want a guy who adds a schematic advantage and works with quarterbacks. So it was close to the next handful of picks. I wouldn't argue if someone took ahead, but McVeigh would be my number two.

00:06:59
Speaker 3: I think that point about evolution is so important.

00:07:02
Speaker 2: We talk about Sean McVay because it's important to remember they he's still thirty nine years old, like crazy like, if we're.

00:07:08
Speaker 1: Thinking about sixty seven and those are the two guys, they kind of are comps for me. It's crazy to think of them as comms for they're thirty, you know, years apart.

00:07:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's insane that we think about coaches that we want for the next ten years and we're still talking about Sean McVay and this conversation. But that constant evolution, like you said, going from a Rams offense the first time they went to the Super Bowl that was so hyper outside zone boot action, very traditional like kind of West Coast, the offense that you think of when you think of Sean McVay, and to see it more from that into what they run now schematically with a whole lot more like power counter duo. The way that they've changed that team not only from a philosophical standpoint, but with the body types that they add in. You have to have a lot of trust in your head coach to not only implement that and get to it ahead of time, but have enough trust in him to make sure that you are developing the players to get to that point. And I think player development has been something that the Rams do really well. They pick all these guys late on day three, but they find all the gyms, you know. So I think that's a big reason why McVeigh is. I had him at number two as well.

00:08:19
Speaker 1: Okay, too much agreeing, and that's a good call about developing, about evolving, and I thought even about like just working with everyone in the building like he inherited Lesnie. They've made that really work. Obviously mcmay's the most important guy there. But yeah, he is a pretty strong number two. I'm curious who you go with number three?

00:08:39
Speaker 2: My number three, I I kind of parody myself here, but my number three is Dan Campbell.

00:08:47
Speaker 3: I love Dan Campbell.

00:08:50
Speaker 2: I love everything that he stands for, everything that he has morphed this Lion's team into. When I was talking about a coach that you want to build a franchise from the floor up, the first guy I thought of, outside of Andy Reid was actually Dan Campbell because of his ability to instill a culture. And I know culture kind of gets thrown around like a lot, very buzzworthy around NFL franchises. Ultimately, you have to have good players. But all the players in Detroit believe in Dan Campbell. They have a faith in him no matter what he does. I think he stays on the front foot when it comes to aggressiveness with fourth down calls, with the timeout usage. And I also don't think he gets a lot of credit for what the offense has done in Detroit because Ben Johnson was not his original offensive coordinator. Higher he went out and got Ben Johnson, he went out and kind of helped him become what Ben Johnson is.

00:09:45
Speaker 3: So I think Dan Campbell's awesome.

00:09:48
Speaker 2: You can see the passion and the emphasis all his players have in wanting to play for him, and that's something that I think if I'm building a franchise from the ground up, I want that energy.

00:10:00
Speaker 3: I want that juice in my room.

00:10:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've had the exact same ranking so far. Game management is something that I didn't point out with you know McVeigh or even read because I don't think it's their biggest strength, but that as an advantage. But building a staff is so important for everyone, and I think Campbell just nailed it when he got that job. He knew which guys to get, and yeah, Ben Johnson wasn't there initially, but he made the tough decision to elevate him and recognize talent. I think he's been so good at that. That's why I'm not as worried about the coordinators leaving, because I think he's shown he can identify talent as coaches. But yeah, doing this exercise, I went back and looked at all the records all that stuff, and you know they went from three wins to nine wins, to twelve wins to fifteen wins. And yeah, he's worth a little extra just for the social media content like after the game.

00:10:45
Speaker 2: So I'm with you.

00:10:46
Speaker 1: That was my number three.

00:10:47
Speaker 2: I want him leading me.

00:10:48
Speaker 1: And he's the first guy where it's like, technically he's not providing that schematic advantage, but I think is important. Although he has called plays and I think he has a bigger say in the offense, like you mentioned than other people think. And now this where it's really interesting, and I'm I don't know if if this is a reach or what you'll think, but I'm going KOC next.

00:11:05
Speaker 2: I do believe it.

00:11:09
Speaker 1: This is where I could have gone with anyone in the next like six seven picks, And I think you can make an argument and maybe he's getting an advantage like Dan Campbell that they've only coached for so long and we haven't seen many of the warts, or almost any of them. But in that article I mentioned about Kayleb Williams, like they didn't want to go to Chicago, Caleb Williams, him and his dad at first, they wanted to go to Minnesota because they believed in what Kevin O'Connell is doing so much. Same thing with Brett Favre. I mean with Aaron Rodgers. I mean, Aaron Rodgers is prostrating himself saying he'll take less money, he'll do whatever, he'll be a good teammate because he wants to go for Kevin O'Connell. And I get it. I believe because of him, the combination of him as a person, in him as a scheme guy, in him as a quarterback guy. Man, that is a great place to start. And that's why I just gave him like a little edge of anyone else, because anyone else I just was picking knits that I have a hard time. I don't know where to pick the nets with Kevin O'Connell right now. He's kind of had a charmed life.

00:12:08
Speaker 2: So I actually I had him in my top seven. Okay, I think, I think, But I agree with everything that you said and some of the one year that I think really threw my appreciation for Kevin O'Connell was the last year Kirk Cousins had before he towards Achilles and ended up leaving the Vikings because of how much Kirk had grown as a passer, where he's like stet Holt, staying in there in the midst of like pressure, firing darts over the middle. This is something that I don't think I've seen Kirk Cousins do in a long time. VP candidate Kirk Cousins, I mean, yeah, it was.

00:12:43
Speaker 3: It was insane.

00:12:44
Speaker 2: So I was like I grew my appreciation for Kevin O'Connell grew that year, and then this past year with Sam Darnold, that quarterback in the ways that he's able to maximize his offense around what his quarterback is good at and kind of he kind of masked the inefficiencies of his quarterback within the offense and just turns up all the explosives and all the things that his quarterback is good at, which is something that a play callers should do. But not only that, Like this team is built in Kevin O'Connell's image. They have everything that they want that you look for in a contender in a Super Bowl contender, and I think Kevin O'Connell's ability to remain steady in the force of that. He's always a calm presence on the sideline, which I think really matters and is really going to matter this year when you have a rookie quarterback. Yeah.

00:13:32
Speaker 1: I thought a lot about staffing too, and like they had to change their defensive coordinator and he made that tough decision, and he he on some hand he got lucky that Brian Flores was available, but I appreciated that he respected Flores to bring him in at that point, in particular in Flores's you know, ten year when the rest of the NFL maybe wasn't as high on him and lets him do as thing. The one negative, if I try to think of it, I do worry a little bit about the Quesi adopha mensa thing and his relationship there. It just seems like they not you've heard whispers, they're not totally on the same page, and that's that's tough for a first time head coach. He inherited Questi. It's not like they came up together. So I didn't want to knock him too much. I was thinking if it was my team, who do I want to run a team ideal situation, he would be my pick. But who do you got as your next pick?

00:14:18
Speaker 2: This is number five, So I'm going between two right now, they're my four and five, and I think if I'm going moving forward into the future, I am going to choose Kyle Shanahan. Still he's my nice guy too. I think he is still one of, if not the best play caller and offensive designer in the NFL. It's not just oh he draws up the cool plays, it's the intention with which the plays are always like, play calling is so much less about the design and win to call the right play, and I think Kyle Shanahan has done such a great job of mixing both the design and when things don't work, just hammered, just hammered the thing that does. And I think that's something that Kyle Shanahan has done well. The game management stuff really really scares me sometimes. I remember saying it all the Shanahan McVeigh coaches, if they're like RPG characters. They spend all their points on on intelligence and charisma and none on wisdom when it comes to game management. But Shanahan's ability to also consistently find good hires on both sides of the ball.

00:15:30
Speaker 3: You know, he found Mike McDaniel.

00:15:33
Speaker 2: I think the defensive coordinator hires outside of the weird Nick Sorenson Brandon Staley amalgamation that they had last year, have all been good. So I'm I'm still a fan of what Kyle Shanahan does. I know, for a weird reason, there's always been like the well Kyle Shanahan get traded or is guy? Are the Nyers gonna fire Kyle Shanahan, And I'm just like that None of that makes sense to me, ever, because I still think he's one of the best coaches in the NFL.

00:15:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, their question with him, he was next on my list too, because ultimately I was thinking about I was sort of thinking about this year, like whod I want and the ceiling is so high, that's what I want. In terms of he might be the best play color. He's won multiple playoff games in four of his eight seasons, so not just making the playoffs, not just winning one playoff game, but winning multiple games. Half the season. Now the other half he's lost double digit games, and so that sort of it does make you worry about how does he handle the rest of it, the emotions of it, all the ups the downs, handling the front office side of it, where he's you can tell he's the big voice there. It reminds me a lot of his father, who I think ultimately was the best play color of his generation. But all the rest of it, like kind of the human side of it, got in his own way over and over again. And so he's a high risk, high reward pick. And yet I would take him, And I got to say, the next name that I wrote down is.

00:17:00
Speaker 2: Also from that coaching tree.

00:17:01
Speaker 1: But then I would realize that we would have taken four of the McVeigh trees guys in the top six. So just because I now feel differently, I'm actually gonna take John Harbaugh because push comes to shove, I'd rather have a scheme guy. And that's why even on my initial list, I have the other you know, McVeigh tree guy. You can guess who it is that's still sitting out there. But he's done it with two quarterbacks. He's done it over twenty years. He is excellent at handling all the other parts of the job in terms of the media and getting the building all on the same page, and man can he hire like he has gone through so many different staffs over the years, and ultimately they've all been going in the right direction. I think he's in a good spot in Baltimore with the gms that they've had and everything like that. But you can only evaluate what he's actually done. And I just feel good after you just took a big swing on Shanahan. I just feel like John Harbaugh to me, is a safe and an underrated and a good pick.

00:18:01
Speaker 2: I think John Harbaugh is one of the faces of stability when it comes to an NFL franchise. You always know what John Harbaugh as your head coach, you are going to at least make the divisional round of the playoffs. Now, whatever happens after that is like weird. Every Ravens like divisional round or AC championship game gets really weird. I don't know what happens there, But like you said, the ability to consistently make good hires and the ability to understand when something isn't working, you know that untethering from Greg Roman who had been like been his guy.

00:18:36
Speaker 3: It's something that has to be commended.

00:18:38
Speaker 2: So I'm a big fan of John Harbaugh still as a coach, and like what he brings to a franchise.

00:18:44
Speaker 1: How he manages people is really important to me. I'll never forget how he managed Lamar's rookie year and how steadfast he has been since day one when Lamar took over. How I think he has just managed that relationship and under stood Lamar's greatness and how to work with him so well from day one. And I think, I mean, look, he's grateful to Lamar because he helped save his job. That was in the twenty year run. You know that Harbors had about that. There was about a two three year run there where it was getting a little rickety. But yeah, I think the emotional intelligence is sneaky high there. All right, you're up with our next pick.

00:19:21
Speaker 2: What are we at? Number seven?

00:19:22
Speaker 3: Here?

00:19:23
Speaker 2: I'm going back to the unction. I'm going Sean Payton. And Okay, I think this past year with how he handled bo Nicks, made me appreciate Sean Payton a lot more because I know it's very like, oh, obviously it's really hard getting a rookie quarterback acclimated to the NFL. And what he did with kind of not forcing him, I think early in the season, they tried to force him to do a lot of the big boy quarterback stuff and then realizing that this just isn't going to work, This isn't going to be sustainable right now. It's something that I had a big take away from from watching the NFL's past season is just getting your quarterback, your young quarterback in and doing what he does best right now while you just sprinkle in things that you want him to improve on. You sprinkle in all the difficult stuff. You're not going to ask your rookie quarterback to come in and do master's level quarterback stuff. You just have him do the beginner stuff and then sprinkle it in as he grows over time. And I think that growth is something that I really appreciated from Sean Payton's offense. I think the position coaches that he hires are really good, especially their offensive line coach who has helped develop that offensive line into a really, really good unit. I do think the vance Joseph like just kind of lett advance Joseph hang around still is like, Oh, that's really smart. Letting that guy who coaches a really good defense stay around is a good idea. But what Sean Payton has done to maximize his rookie quarterback while not asking.

00:20:52
Speaker 3: Him too early to do too much.

00:20:54
Speaker 2: It's something that I really appreciate, and I think that's something that's going to really kind of despite his age, I would still want him as like in a one game sample size, I would still.

00:21:04
Speaker 1: Sure, or even a one season I look, I thought going into last year, I'll admit I was wrong about the Broncos and I thought he was giving some parcels vibes that it was getting towards the end, and you know, maybe he's not as detail oriented at as he was with the Saints, because that's one thing you always heard about the Saints and the second he left, like you saw the difference, like he sees the whole picture. He he like the way their teams drill and situational football and not making mistakes and line play and obviously quarterback play. He really makes it happen. You have to give him credit, like the way he could win games without Drew Brees after he left. Like to me, was impressed in the impressive the way he's done it with Nick. I think you get a little bit of drama if we were in this hypothetical world. We're ranking, we're not pretending we're NFL owners and giving us billions of dollars in our pocket. I would be as an owner a little like more anxious about Sean Payton because I think there might be like a little bit more like drama behind the scenes and some he's like a little bit of a diva maybe compared to some of these other coaches. But you know what, He's earned it, so he wasn't too far down my leay.

00:22:10
Speaker 2: He was only a couple more down my lists. So I like that.

00:22:13
Speaker 1: I'm going Matt Lafluir now since I didn't last time. Like he's sixty seven and thirty three as a head coach. His worst season as a head coach is eight wins. He obviously can work with different types of quarterbacks and kind of make the system work to you. The Malik Willis couple games was just like awesome and showed his like was a way for him to flex, but didn't surprise me just because of the way that I saw him improve Aaron Rodgers, the way Jordan Love came out as a pro in terms of as a starter. I don't know if he like I just said, Sean Payton like really sees the whole picture in a way that maybe no other coaches. I think that was probably a shortcoming for Lafleur, like when he started and he doesn't need to be the GM or anything in Green Bay, and he doesn't, you know, it's not all about relationships. But I think he's grown into that kind of like mcvagh. Not as high level as Sean McVay, but I think he's a better coach than he was when he started out. So he's giving you that schematic advantage. I think he's been through some wards and man, he's won a lot.

00:23:10
Speaker 2: That stretch where Jordan Love was hurt and Malik Willis played is some of the best coaching I thint of the season. And just not only were they able to hold water offensively, they were still generating explosives in the run game. They were having like they were running like darn near like Paul Johnson, like triple option stuff at Georgia Tech in the NFL.

00:23:33
Speaker 3: And I thought that ruled I would.

00:23:35
Speaker 2: I love Matt Lafleur's design and play calling offensively, he was one of the guys I was thinking about picking. But I think a little bit of my shortcomings with him comes from the game management. I still think that kind of Again, he's the Shanahan McVay tree where you spend all the points in drawn plays and really nice edge ups when it comes to the beard. But I think the game, the game management still has to improve. But like you said, if it's a one game or one season sample size I'm taking, I would really like Matt m Floor as my head coach.

00:24:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, he also maybe hung on to his defensive coordinator too long before you know, I was. I was rewarding some coaches for making a switch. Is that entirely his decision or not?

00:24:21
Speaker 2: I don't know.

00:24:23
Speaker 1: It depends on the organization. But look, he's he's kind of established as himself as a guy. All right, JP, you are up next with the ninth best coaching.

00:24:33
Speaker 2: Oh man, I'm trying to decide between the unction again, are going to a new generation? I'm gonna take a swing here. I'm gonna go with Demico Ryans.

00:24:46
Speaker 1: He was next on mine too. Man, we were two on board the same way.

00:24:49
Speaker 2: I had to Miko Ryans on this list, and it's sort of it was sort of contingent last season on what would he do with Bobby Slow? It because that offense just completely sputtered out. It looked like slow. It could kind of run out of answers with that offense, and the offensive line play was god awful as we all saw. But Demiko Ryan showing that ability to self scout and go all right, this isn't working, we got to get him out of here was a really big feather in his cap. But I also think the big thing is just how he's managed and grown that defense. That defense is still incredibly young, but could be one of the best defenses in the league this upcoming season.

00:25:26
Speaker 3: And again I'm a big fan of.

00:25:28
Speaker 2: You see the passion and the energy that the guys play with because of him, because of that growth and that faith that he puts in a lot of those young guys on the team. Like this, I think the Texans being good so quickly his sort of mass fact that they are still a very young team, sort of like with Matt Lafor's Packers. They've been the youngest team in the NFL for the last couple of years, but the Texans are right behind them. So I think what Tamiko has done with such a young team so quickly makes him my pick here over guys who might be a little older, who done it more. But I'm taking a swing on Demico and what he's able to do.

00:26:05
Speaker 1: Yeah to me as as a prospect as a choice in this draft, and I had him in exactly in this spot. Actually, you're taking a bigger swing, you know. I'm trying to think of like who he would be as a prospect that like, maybe there's some downside like a Drake may or something like that, but he's got every tool that you want in two years. Look, he's won a playoff game in each year with a team that the three years previous to him coaching there had won to combine ten games, So I do think that matters. Now he's only had two years, but he combines what we've liked about a lot of these top coaches, especially like a McVeigh. To me, I think he has that sort of ceiling where I think he kind of can be a culture unto itself. I don't think he's getting involved in the front office as much. But he's also providing a schematic advantage and that's really important for me if I'm going to pick a defensive guy, because there's only so many defensive guys that you can see their imprint and it's consistent. Defense is less consistent in general, and you've seen it as a coordinator and now you've seen it as a head coach. That is a demico Ryan's defense, and he got them going right away. His game management is definitely a downside of where he's at, So you hope that he gets better. But I admit I'm being a little ageist here and I think you are too in that with like the tie went to the young guy, I think because I think they can grow into the job a little bit. All right, I'm going to make the tenth pick here. It's it's kind of sad that he's sat here this long, but I'll go Mike Tomlin. It is about respect a little bit, because like, ultimately I do want a more offensive minded guy, and I don't know why they haven't been more aggressive about fixing the quarterback situation, but in the end, they are more than the.

00:27:56
Speaker 2: Some of their parts.

00:27:57
Speaker 1: Like it's facts that he reaches these players on a level that's like hard to completely quantify, and that he is a great defensive mind, and he's a frustrating coach I think for Steelers fans right now because of the ceiling, and that's why he fell this far, because look, he could have had an argument some years to be in the top two or three in terms of what he has done. Obviously we know like you're gonna have a good record when you have him, but the fades at the end of the season are a little bit of a detraction. And yet when it comes down to it, and I looked at the rest of the names on this list, like I do want Mike Tomlin, Like we'll figure it out, bro, Like I'm gonna help you out, get you figure out how to higher coordinator. That's probably like the number one thing that he has not been able to do offensively.

00:28:43
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, I think, And Mike Tomlin is one of the guys I was considering with Tamiko Ryans is he's always going to get you to a point where you can compete for a playoff spot, and you will be in the playoffs. What happens when you get there, you might just run out of gas because the all doesn't have enough juice. But Mike Tomlin has become sort of this like Steelers fans want him to be fired, and every fan outside of Pittsburgh is like, no, that would be so stupid because he brings this consistency, like we said with John Harbaugh, the consistency that he brings to a franchise in just we are going to play a certain style, We're going to play a certain type of way, and it's going to get us this far.

00:29:30
Speaker 3: I can appreciate that.

00:29:31
Speaker 2: I can appreciate getting to the playoffs, getting to the wild card. As a Jaguars fan, I can appreciate making the wild card every year because most teams would wish for that level of consistency from their head coach. But like you said, the coordinator stuff has been just it's been the reason they've fallen apart at the end of seasons and then the game management leaves you wanting a little more. But at the end of the day, he's gonna get you to He's gonna get you to the playoffs.

00:29:59
Speaker 3: He's going to get you to that point. He's sort of he's sort of similar.

00:30:03
Speaker 2: I know that they have Spolster has won more, but I think where Air is with the heat and where Mike Tomlin is what the Steelers are sort of similar. Where the talent on the team is not the same, It's not the same level as when they were super highly considered like one of the best teams of the twenty tens. Obviously, but you always want that guy as your coach because he's going to get He's gonna make you competitive, he's going to get you.

00:30:31
Speaker 3: He's gonna get you to the playoffs.

00:30:32
Speaker 2: What happens when you face a more talented team who knows, but he's gonna get you to that point every year.

00:30:38
Speaker 1: He's a little like Belichick, and that like Belichick needed Brady to unlock how special of a coach on some level as a head coach Belichick was. It doesn't mean that Belichick wasn't special. If you dropped a great quarterback into Tomlin's lap the last six years, like we'd be talking about him differently. But I do think think that's the reason why it's okay that he fell this far, because ultimately, I think the coaches that do help out their quarterbacks are more valuable. And this was the first pick that I made that I almost immediately regretted that I actually felt in my heart it was my team. I do think there's maybe a name or two we haven't gotten to that maybe if I was making the decision, I wouldn't. But I'm just like, I'm afraid of Mike Tomlin. He you know, just I respect Mike Talmin and I couldn't let him fall anymore. All Right, we will be back.

00:31:26
Speaker 2: We have not drafted the Super.

00:31:28
Speaker 1: Bowl champion head coach that was our top ten. We'll be back in a minute, back on NFL Daily. I can already hear the complaints from some fan bases. Maybe from our producer Eric Roberts, you might complain. Eagles fans might be complaining.

00:31:54
Speaker 2: We've gone through the top ten quarter coaches in the league.

00:31:57
Speaker 1: Who will you stop the slide? It's interesting we're combining on this list, so some of these coaches, it's like it's up to us to stop the side if we want. You have the number eleven pick here.

00:32:07
Speaker 2: I will not be stopping to slide. I'm going back to the unction. Give me Jim Harbaugh.

00:32:11
Speaker 1: Yeah right, he's next on mine too. We're too similar.

00:32:14
Speaker 2: I love I love Jim Harbaugh, not only because like he is he's so much of the raw, raw run the football guy that it's just like it makes you kind of think, like, oh, he's just a meathead.

00:32:27
Speaker 3: But the way that he kind of helped Justin.

00:32:31
Speaker 2: Herbert grow a little bit where he kind of Herbert has always been like a football cyborg, where he's gonna get from one to two to three and always play getting from one to two to three. Jim Harbaugh kind of helped them like loosen up a little bit, play a little more out of structure. And we saw a lot of growth from Justin Herbert in that area. So I take a lot of that into stock and picking Jim Harbaugh here. The reason I picked him earlier was largely because of like Greg Roman. Like the attachment to Roman were like, if I'm starting a franchise and I'm thinking about hiring Jim Harball, is he going to bring Greg Roman along with him? But you also think about I know he did it in college, but hiring Jesse Mintter and bringing him to Los Angeles. Jesse Mincher looked like one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL. So it's just kind of that back and forth with Harball. But that ability to take a Chargers team that looked like the roster had completely been stripped to parts and take them to the playoffs is something that I think I really appreciate with Harball.

00:33:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you think about even with Greg Roman, like the offense did improve. It was twelfth in DVOA last year. It was coming off a pretty rough year, so it was efficient. He is the guy I think this might be kind of the end of a tier that I immediately regretted taking Tomlin over. And to be real, if you had taken him as high as four or five, I'm not gonna hate it because he He's proven it. He is a culture changer being around like as someone that's you know, gone to training camp with the charge and stuff like it's like the difference between when Brandon Staley's coaching the team and Jim Harbott, Like he came in there and he makes like he makes them a real franchise in a way that they just didn't feel and that that's pretty invaluable. So to me, any of these guys from about four to to this spot, like you could shake him up and I wouldn't argue too hard. All right, I'm gonna go next, and again I'm going off my board slightly. It is interesting you when you actually get on the clock, you you realize how you really feel. And I don't think Sean McDermot should slip any further, and so I'm taking I'm taking him now. And here's why I've always thought he was underrated in that he provides a really clear schematic advantage defensively. Now it hasn't been very good in the playoffs. It it just hasn't. But we're talking about like the whole, the whole thing. He he did help change the culture with Brandon Bean. He brought Brandon Bean there. Josh Allen obviously is the most important person in that organization, but they went back to the playoffs before they got Josh Allen, and they have been the most consistent defense in the NFL since he got there. They have an identity. They've actually gotten a little more creative and in terms of what they do defensively lately, and they just rack up the wins.

00:35:28
Speaker 2: And there's.

00:35:30
Speaker 1: You know, you don't like love how tight he seems to get, and you don't like love the image of him giving that nine to eleven speech and thinking, Yeah, if there's one coach in the NFL that I can imagine doing that, it is Sean McDermott. And that's why I like he's not number one or two, but I do think he really he knows how to do the job of being a head coach, and he gives you a pretty clear defensive schematic advantage that to me is proven, and so that's why I'm taking him here.

00:35:57
Speaker 3: Sean McDermott exists in kind of a weird space when it.

00:36:00
Speaker 2: Comes to NFL coaches, where it's like he's a great, he's a good coach. Also has Josh Allen, but he also helped build that defense, but the defense also falls apart. It's like the Kombucha Girl meme where it's like, oh, the team always does great in the regular season, and the defense falls apart.

00:36:17
Speaker 3: In the postseason.

00:36:18
Speaker 2: Ah, the offense a great, got Josh Allen, but it's like he's good. He just again, with some of these coaches, it's just haw to beat the Chiefs in the playoffs, like it's just unfortunate.

00:36:31
Speaker 1: But he is eighty six and forty five, and he has found the right coaches around Josh Allen. Now, Josh Allen is helping to make those coaches, but I do give him some credit. I actually want to bring in Eric Roberts.

00:36:44
Speaker 2: It's rare.

00:36:45
Speaker 1: I know Eric doesn't like to talk too much on the show. He's been killing it lately. Just the best editor in the game. But I am just curious. It's been a long time with Sean McDermott. Obviously he helped you guys out. I'm wondering how you feel about him. How do you think the average Bills fan feels about him too?

00:37:04
Speaker 2: Well? I like him the average Bills fan.

00:37:06
Speaker 4: I mean, there are plenty Bills fan facebook groups and forums.

00:37:10
Speaker 2: That want him fired every other week. But I mean he does great.

00:37:15
Speaker 4: But like JP pointed out, you run into Patrick Mahomes every year, it's gonna happen. I mean, I said this when they beat us again this year, it's like, you're great.

00:37:26
Speaker 2: We're in the playoffs every year. You can't complain it.

00:37:29
Speaker 4: Just it's at a bad time to be good in the AFC because you have the giant in Kansas City that you just can't get past.

00:37:35
Speaker 1: He's like the Jerry Sloan if you know who Jerry Sloan is, the old Utah Jazz had good. He's won a playoff game Sean McDermott five straight years, at least one.

00:37:43
Speaker 2: It's trust me.

00:37:44
Speaker 4: I lived through the drought, I live, but I lived through JP Lossman, I lived through Trent Edwards. You know, Josh Allen is a big piece of this, and McDermott's just there with him, and it's I compare we're doing basketball prepers. I compare him Lob City Clippers back when the Golden were They're fun. Yeah, dunks made it in the playoffs. Couldn't get past the Warriors. Just can't get past Kansas City. I don't want him fired. What are we going to get? The thing is too with these coaches. People want fired. Who we bringing in? What are we going to change? You know?

00:38:13
Speaker 1: Right if it went south like it was, it was getting close there in that year where he made the speech and then they turned around. I think twelve is a is a perfect spot for him. But this is where I decided to just stop the slide. I felt like it was too disrespectful for him to go any any lower than twelve, because I thought he's always been just like a tick underrated Trent Edwards, by the way, I drafted way too high in a Dynasty League fantasy draft like a long long time ago. All right, let's go to pick number thirteen here at JP AM I.

00:38:43
Speaker 2: About to clear out the entire AFC West. I think every AFC West coach. I'm not going to stop here going full aunction. I'm a big believer in Pete Carroll. I know he's coming out of the front office back to head coaching. I don't think, but I think don't think that gap between him coaching versus him being in front office is too far. I think his prowess and sort of his adjustments defensively don't get talked about as much when we talk about the Legion of Boom and how that defense shaped the NFL, and then how his defense has evolved to what they've become now. He's always consistently made great defensive HighRes I think the work that he did with the offense too, until like the Russ stuff at the end of the Russ tenure got really got weird. But I'm still a believer in what Pete Carroll does and what he brings in terms of a floor razor to an offense. The only reason he's not getting picked higher here is he's seventy three. Like if we're taking like if we're taking a coach for the next few years, Pete Carroll might not be your guy, but in a one game and a one season where you're just trying to get you're trying to get a team off the floor.

00:39:58
Speaker 3: I think God fit keep Carol.

00:40:00
Speaker 1: I love him for the Raiders job. This is the first time we've disagreed. I had him much lower ultimately, like I had him below twenty because I still think there's a lot of guys who bring certain advantages and his defense to me just wasn't good enough for too long at the end of his Seattle run. But as a guy for the job that he was hired to do and and sort of how you evaluated on some level, which was like an expansion team, I do think he he's great for that. But do I really I don't know if I believe he brings enough kind of scheme and he certainly you know, doesn't seem like offensive minded. At this point, I am I'm gonna go with dan Quinn okay next, And part of it is I think, man, actually I should have just taken.

00:40:45
Speaker 2: Syriana because Eagles fans are gonna look crazy.

00:40:48
Speaker 1: But I'm given a lot of credit to the second time around theory that dan Quinn has talked about, and that I believe that he learned about what went wrong for him the first time around. Number one, and then number two. I think he's evolved schematically to in a way that is intriguing.

00:41:10
Speaker 2: Now.

00:41:10
Speaker 1: Their defense had a lot still left out to be desired a year ago, but I think he did learn a lot, and he is in that mold of a Dan Campbell or a Mike Tomlin or a John Harbaugh that I think is going to get an entire organization on the same wavelength, even if you're not hiring him just for scheme. Obviously he's coming off of a great year, but it's everything you heard about him as an assistant too in Dallas. I don't think they should have let him go. So if it was my team, he is the guy i'd want running my team next on this list.

00:41:43
Speaker 2: I have a lot of questions about Dan Quinn, especially for being a defensive coach. The defense sort of like the defense wasn't that good in Washington this first year. But where I give dan Quinn a lot of credit is the coaching hire off coordinator higher. He saw that what Jane Daniels did at LSU, and he brought in Cliff Kingsbury.

00:42:05
Speaker 3: To kind of help him do that same thing.

00:42:08
Speaker 2: While like we said about Sean Payton helping him grow as you continue to add stuff into the offense instead of throwing everything in the book at him from day one. So I give dan Quinn a lot of credit there. I just I worry a little bit about the defense. But on the brea on if we're spin zoning this, there wasn't there wasn't a lot of his players on that roster yet. So it's also Washington, like I do.

00:42:34
Speaker 1: I did give extra credit for guys that were in I think entering tougher situations, and I think that was that was what he did as opposed to the guy we still haven't taken who won the Super Bowl And so who's kind of in the perfect situation? Are are you going to just get him off the board here? We're at We're at yeah, fifteen, Okay, he was next on my list too. I stuck to my list. I kind of regret not going off of it and just taking him there.

00:42:56
Speaker 3: But well, I'm going to take Nick Sirianni here.

00:42:59
Speaker 2: And the way I describe Nick Siriani to a lot of people who don't really follow football is he is the perfect coach for the Philadelphia Eagles because he is such a Philadelphia like he if we're talking about a culture coach. He is Philadelphia as a head coach, He's gonna rub people the wrong way a lot. He's gonna make his own fans want to fire him. He's gonna make his own fans like yell at him during games, which tappened during the season they won the Super Bowl.

00:43:30
Speaker 3: The players were fighting on the sidelines.

00:43:33
Speaker 2: But at the same time, like his ability to rally this team and the ability to continue to get this team to a certain level of play. Is it because the team has built an incredibly stacked roster. Sure, but he has a say in building said roster. I know we gave Howie Roseman a lot of credit, but Siriani also has a play in building that roster and then the quarter.

00:43:57
Speaker 1: Though test I don't know, man Man, I don't know if he has.

00:44:01
Speaker 3: I mould say the coordinaty stuff gets weird because like it's just it's just tough.

00:44:09
Speaker 2: Because Steichen and Jonathan Gannon obviously great hires both of them to be head coaches. Then Brian Johnson and the unholy alliance of Matt Patricia and Sean Decai did not work. So you go out and get Vic Fangio and Kellen Moore, who were both sort of already established names as coordinators, and.

00:44:29
Speaker 1: Elewnership I think gets them, and that gets kind of gets to the trick with Theoryane. He's like a system coach, you know, like you have system quarterbacks. I think they've made it clear that the front office is more important there. So in this evaluation where we're kind of trying to divorce the coach from the situation, I think it's totally fair to put him where where we did. You could argue he could even be lower because some other guys have done other stuff.

00:44:57
Speaker 3: Look.

00:44:57
Speaker 1: I was listening to the pha Ypi cast last week and Bo Wolf Zach Berman. They were talking about how I think it was after the Cleveland game. They remember they were two and two and then he did something I forget which off field, you know, distraction, like whether it was yelling at the fans or what it was that Sirianni like, you know, and that was to get them to three and two. And they believed that there was a legitimate chance Sirianni was not gonna make it through the season, that this was getting untenable and it wasn't just about wins and losses, and it wasn't and they weren't just saying that like they think that, Like I think that was a conversation that was happening in the Eagles building. And now they won the Super Bowl, and I think the players love him and that's why he goes number fifteen. But the fact that that's where he was at like five weeks Anyway, this is.

00:45:51
Speaker 2: Too long on, Sirianni. I'm sorry, all.

00:45:54
Speaker 1: Right, number sixteen.

00:45:55
Speaker 2: Man. This is where it gets tough.

00:46:00
Speaker 1: This is where it's tough because I like the next eight or nine coaches and it's really tough to separate them. And I think I'm gonna again go off my board. I'm really not a disciplined drafter. I'm gonna take Kevin Stefanski here. It goes to what I was saying about the organization that I give him a lot more credit for winning two Coaches of the Year trophies in Cleveland.

00:46:29
Speaker 3: Yea.

00:46:30
Speaker 1: And I don't think he's been handed a full deck in terms of his front office or ownership. I think he can coach offense. And we're getting to the point of the draft is like, what do I know you can do? And I think he can coach offense. I think he can coach quarterbacks. I think he can help the offensive line. I don't think he's taken anything away as like a leader of men or anything like that. And so I just feel good about him. He's sixteen. He actually he makes a lot of sense to me, as like right in the middle, you.

00:46:58
Speaker 2: Know, this is actually going to be my next guy, Kevin Okay, And again I put a lot of stock into winning two Coaches of the Year, not only at Cleveland, but one of those Coaches of the Year you won with Joe Flacco playing quarterback, Like this is not a team that has had like a bevy of talent on the offensive side of the ball, like just this overwhelming number of good quarterback play, but he's been able to get them to at least a solid level when running his offense. Now, you can make the argument last year that he wasn't running his offense because of the worst quarterback in the NFL, But it's I think when he gets to when he's running his stuff when he wants, when he's doing his stuff offensively, the offense looks good. He has a vision and he has a plan for what he wants to do. I think, like you said, this is the perfect spot for him where it's like, I know what you can do.

00:47:50
Speaker 3: It's just about like the Cleveland tax.

00:47:53
Speaker 1: Right, great, great Beard and yeah, like now, Baker has played well in in Tampa, but a lot of the other quarterbacks in Cleveland other than Watson, played their best ball ever with Stefanski, Like Jakoby Brissett played his best ball ever with Stefanski. He's done that repeatedly. Jim Schwartz was a good hire. Ultimately, I just think he's a really solid head coach. All right, you're up number seventeen.

00:48:16
Speaker 2: I'm sort in the same boat as you, where I'm trying to evaluate, evaluate what you can do for me if you can provide a schematic advantage. This is probably the first one where I have a little bit of regret. I'm gonna go Mike McDaniel. Okay, so I'm gonna go Mike McDaniel here because I at least know what.

00:48:39
Speaker 3: That offense is going to do for me. I know what he's going to bring to an offense.

00:48:44
Speaker 2: And I think when that offense was fully up and running and they were healthy, that offense still was one of the more impressive units in the league. I think he has shown that he has the ability to adapt and grow his offense. But my biggest issue with Mike McDaniel is, for the last three years they've been one of the worst short yardage teams in the NFL. Eventually, that's got to come back to you and eventually, like the offense is going to have to find a way to be sustainable in the cold. In the cold, it's gonna have to You're gonna find a way to be sustainable in playoff level, playoff scenarios if you want to be taken more seriously as an NFL head coach. So I have a lot of questions there. I think the hires, I mean, he calls playoffs plays on offense, but the defensive highers have been all right. I think Anthony Weaver was I think I actually think Anthony Weaver did a pretty good job as deef to cornatd first year. The Fangio thing just did not work. I don't think that worked at all. But I still believe in what he can bring, like you said, and I think he's gonna bring an offense that I know what I'm gonna get.

00:49:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, like Stefanski, I think he's in a tough situation, and he does have a clear skill set, not for nothing. He's got twenty eight and twenty three and three years for an organization that has not been very good, and so it's not like he doesn't have some some pelts on the wall in terms of actual production. Yeah, I only had I had two guys ahead of him, because you are worried about like is he a system coach if you put him into the right situation, like if he's the Eagles, you know coach, if you put him in there, if he if he was a successor to Andy Reid in kansasity, like I would love him in a situation like that, And so I think he could succeed. Can he succeed everywhere? Do I think that this might totally crumble? Because he is not the Sean Payton type that can handle the entire building, Like, yeah, that could happen, but that's happened to basically every Dolphins head coach, so that might be more about the Dolphins. I will go with the Patriots head coach here, Mike Rabel. To me, he is like the coach pick of looks good getting off the bus, like literally, but also like he builds his team that way, and he's just like in front of the podium, everyone believes. I think he's gonna get buy in in a way that dan Quinn does, so like to me, they were kind of similar options. Second time around. He's got to show me it and dan Quinn already did, but second time around, and he was better than dan Quinn the first time around. Fifty one and forty five in Tennessee, like, those are all positive. There's a lot of reason to believe that it could go really well and that he could be like a top ten, top twelve type of guy. The downside is he's a defensive guy who just has proven he doesn't add a schematic advantage to his defenses. He's been average at best, a little below average on average, and then he.

00:51:34
Speaker 2: Gets in.

00:51:36
Speaker 1: Fights with his coworkers a little bit like he's just there's just been office drama. And I did take that into account, he'd probably be three or four spots higher. And maybe that's not on him, maybe it is, but there's been like palace intrigue that's kind of followed him around, and I think that's important, I really do. I think that's part of the job, being able to manage all of that, like the power dynamics, and I'm not sure that's a strength of his.

00:51:57
Speaker 2: I feel like, if we're again, if we're putting this scenario of building expansion franchise and you want to hire Mike Rabel, I feel like as a GM, as an owner, you have to like physically best Mike Rabel for him to respect you. You have to like win an arm wrestle against him. You gotta like him run the show.

00:52:14
Speaker 1: I think he's old school, where like he sort of has to be the dude, and you're signing up for that with its pluses and its minuses, you know.

00:52:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you have to let him have the control. I think that's something that kind of failed him in his last in Tennessee. But to his credit, it's really hard to get the number one seed in Tennessee. It's really hard to get that home field advantage, and he did that through a roster that he built. I think some of the game management stuff is actually pretty good. Yeah, yeah, that's a plus build. But I think it's a plus for him. But again, like you said, outside of the Matt l Floor, offensive higher Arthur Smith was pretty good for him as an offensive higher.

00:52:52
Speaker 3: It sort of, it doesn't look that great for him, so it went on.

00:52:57
Speaker 2: It went off the rails.

00:52:58
Speaker 1: The defense thing, too, is the thing that to me a little bit that they put a lot into that defense, and it was always just like, eh, it's okay.

00:53:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, it went off the rails a little bit.

00:53:07
Speaker 2: But I think Rabel's a really solid pick in this area because he's gonna bring at least he's gonna bring.

00:53:14
Speaker 1: A culture, good value, good value, good value. Who you got number nineteen.

00:53:19
Speaker 2: So the margin between my nineteen and twenty is super super small. And at this point, I'm kind of thinking, if I need one game, can I get a guy who gives me a schematic advantage. I think this might be a little bit of a reach, but I'm gonna go with Mike McDonald. Wow, Okay, this might be because I am such a huge believer in Mike McDonald's defense. I'm a big believer in what he's done to build out the defense and get his guys maximized.

00:53:54
Speaker 3: I think when you look at what.

00:53:55
Speaker 2: Boye Mafe did last year with Derek Hall and being too starting quality edge rushers, the stuff that he's done with Devin Witherspoon has been incredible. I think it's been awesome. And then again, the moving of Kobe Bryant from nickel to safety has really worked out for his career, getting Julian Love to a Pro Bowl caliber level as a safety. I think that defense, if we're talking about one game sample size, I want to believe in Mike McDonald's defense that gives me him the advantage over guys like Todd Bowles.

00:54:27
Speaker 3: So I think is a great defensive guy.

00:54:29
Speaker 2: But he's the next pick, my next pick. Yeah, the game management sort of comes and goes, but I just want to see more from his offense or the offense that he wants to run. But again, the feather in the cap forum is seeing that it didn't work the first year and was like, Okay, scrap it, we got to go do something different. So yeah, I think.

00:54:50
Speaker 1: It's a good high upside pick. His defense came together. I want to see proof of concept from a coach. What is it that you're bringing to the team. You absolutely saw it the second half of that season. I had him ranked a handful of spots lower. Mostly I think just because it's been one year and some of these other guys just like have proven it. But I think he's got a higher ceiling than the rest, probably a higher ceiling than Todd Bowles, who is my pick. And this is interesting with us going back and forth ranking it like this, sometimes we'll have guys that were up higher for some reason. I jumped Vrabel over him, but like on my initial list, actually had him fifteen or sixteen, and he's going at twenty here because he's had really high highs as a defensive play caller. In a one game scenario, he's dangerous. It's not always consistent. Defenses aren't in general. But I think he's a very smart defensive mind. There's obviously no question about it. He's a defining defensive coach of the last fifteen years. And look, they've won plenty of games. He's done a good job hiring coordinators. I think he's a good value here. Like I said, doing the math again, actually had him fifteenth on my board and he falls to twenty here.

00:56:01
Speaker 2: I think he's a good coach.

00:56:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think with Tod.

00:56:05
Speaker 1: Though terrible, it's like evaluating how important is that? It's just yeah, it's terrible.

00:56:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, you gotta take the ups with the downs in this range.

00:56:12
Speaker 2: And for as bad as Todd Bowles is with game management. If you want one guy to call a defense for you for an entire game, Todd Bowles is like one of the guys where I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna let you just cook on this.

00:56:25
Speaker 3: I think the biggest examples are the things that he's.

00:56:27
Speaker 2: Done to the Eagles, like he's done like he's put that offense in a blender for most of the time that they've played Philadelphia's So that ability to get the most out of your defensive guys. I think some of the issues come from just their personnel's gotten hurt. But like you said, not only has he coached really good defenses that can call really good defense, He's also hit a lot of home runs with his hires on the other side of the ball. So I think that's something that you have to take into account with Todd Bowles. It's just how high can you put him while also acknowledging he might lose you a game when it comes to game management.

00:57:05
Speaker 1: The crazy thing though, is if Todd Bowles is the twentieth best coach in the league, like we're doing pretty good. I know he wasn't like inspiring with the Jets and actually his record with the Bucks is only three games over five hundred, so it's not like regular season he's been amazing, but he's a pretty good coach to be twentieth here. All right, we will wrap up our final ten just after the break. And yes, by the way, you mentioned the Eagles. They are headed back to Tampa Bay again at the same time of the season, week four, one thing we didn't mention in the schedule release show. So I'm very intrigued to see if Jalen Hurts will finally solve them all. Right, back with the final coaches right after this back on NFL Daily. I misspoke a little earlier. I said there's four first time new head coaches. There's actually five. Liam Cohen, Kellen Moore, Brian Schottenheimer, Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn. They're not getting ranked today, so we're ranking twenty seven coaches that have actually coached at the highest level in the NFL. We're up to twenty one.

00:58:14
Speaker 2: JP. It's your pick, so I'm going to pick Jonathan Gannon here was my pick too, and pick two. I think he's sort of become like I think he got memed into hell when he first got the job, but it's done a good job with this Cardinals team, and I think it starts with his hires on the on both sides of the ball. I think Nick Rowlis has done an amazing job with that defense and what he's done without the surefire personnel up front, some of the stuff they do schematically. I love going back and watching the Cardinals defense because they just throw different stuff at you. It's so many different cool looks. And then it's complimented by Drew Petts on the other side of the ball that runs this version like monster ball that they like to run with all the twelve and thirteen personnel and everybody on the field is like six to four and above except for Kyler Murray. So I think it's super cool what he's done with his hires. I think the management stuff is cup has been pretty good. It's just about getting over the hump at this point, and can he get over the hump? Yeah.

00:59:21
Speaker 1: The two Seattle games late last year were like, oh, Okay, they're not ready. Yeah, they just had moments where it was like, oh, but going into last year they had a six and a half.

00:59:33
Speaker 2: Over under win total.

00:59:34
Speaker 1: They won eight games. I thought they were much better than their four and thirteen record the year before. I thought they were feisty. You know, they were maybe expected to be the worst team in the NFL and they could have had more than four wins. So I just I watched them. I think they're a really well coached team. Like he's creative. You mentioned it with the Highers, good stuff.

00:59:52
Speaker 2: That was.

00:59:52
Speaker 1: That was who I had. Next two, I'm gonna go with his old buddy, Shane steichen Oka is the Colts coach in seventeen in his two years. Again, if this is the twenty second best coach in the league, like we're we're in pretty good shape here. I think he has a clear style, like you know what a Shane Stike in offense looks like. He held on to Gus Bradley too long. I guess that's on him. He kind of inherited him. He did pull off like a winning record with Gardner Minshew. I mean, I'm giving him some credit for that. He hasn't been able to develop Richardson. That's on him. That's on Richardson. And I still have hope. You know, I think at this point in the coach's draft, he hasn't shown me to be like a huge negative in any way.

01:00:37
Speaker 2: So I think he's solid. The QB management really gives me some pause when it comes to stike In, not only just like the Richardson lack of development. It's the putting Richson in, pulling him back out, puting in Jill blackout, pulling him ba out.

01:00:51
Speaker 3: Putting Richardon back in.

01:00:52
Speaker 2: It's all these different like all these different quarterbacks coming in, and you never can really.

01:00:57
Speaker 1: Could have been ownership putting their thumb on the ski. In fact, that's the suspicion, you know. So, And that's tough. That's a tough situation with the Colts.

01:01:05
Speaker 3: It is tough.

01:01:06
Speaker 2: But I think Stichen's a good value pick here because I just I think the offense is good. I think the offense has shown they can be good. They almost made a Playoffs with Gardner Minshew at quarterbacks. So I'm buying in there. All right, twenty three, you're up.

01:01:19
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go with Dave Canalis here.

01:01:22
Speaker 1: Man, we are really disrespecting someone will get to it's tough.

01:01:27
Speaker 2: I think what Dave Canalis did at the end of the season with his QB development of Bryce Young, I think that has to play a lot in here. I think I would like to see the Panthers win more games now that they have their full belief in Bryce Young and that offense is sort of that offense is starting to take take a shape that looks like what Dave Canallis wants it to be. So I'm excited to see what they do this upcoming year and then continuing to hold on to Idiro. Everro, who I think is a good coordinator, is still it deserves a lot of feather in his cap as well, but I think I just would like to see them win more games with some weight to them for him to move up.

01:02:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, the development he has had with Baker Mayfield. You know, you're not gonna give him too much credit because I wasn't as a head coach, but you know he helped do it, and just his spirit and he's trying to be Pete Carroll two point zero. He's open, He's open about it. That's his mentor. I had him at twenty five, so a few spots lower just because he hasn't done it yet, but it was promising. It was good to see something in his first year, like like I kind of said with Mike McDonald, like you saw the canals imprint on Bryce Young and that was awesome. I'm going to take Zach Taylor now, just so I don't get labeled Zach Taylor hater anymore than I already am. I think I used to describe him that he was just like a polo shirt of a coach. You know, I'm wearing one right now. Nothing against polo shirts, like, but they're just you know, they're just you put on a polo shirt and you're not going to get too much tension for it. It's not too good, it's not too bad. And that's Zach Taylor. I just think players matter, and I'm not totally sure if you dropped him into different situation how well it goes.

01:03:12
Speaker 2: Now.

01:03:13
Speaker 1: I do think he manages his players pretty well in terms of I do think they like Zach Taylor like I think he manages personalities. Okay, but they're forty six and fifty two. You got to count those first couple of years, and when Joe Burrow has started games the last two years as just one year, they're fourteen and thirteen, and so that's malpractice from an organization. And I think he's fighting up hill like some of these other coaches in terms of the organization. But ultimately, I'm not sure what I really have with Zach Taylor. So he's twenty four, so I hey, look, if you're gonna come at me Bengals fan, I actually just bumped him up ahead of Raheem Morris, who I actually had written above him. But I'm gonna put him twenty four just because it feels bad him goes state.

01:03:58
Speaker 3: On things that I agree with you on.

01:03:59
Speaker 2: SA Zach Taylor, it just feels like he's not running the offense that we thought he would coming from the McVeigh offense. It feels like the Bengals are like, and you have Joe Burrow and you have t Higgins Lamar Chase. You're not going to run wide zone every play, you know, But it doesn't feel like the offense has his imprint on it.

01:04:21
Speaker 3: It feels like it's a Joe Burrow offense.

01:04:23
Speaker 2: But isn't that?

01:04:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, just to look, he's twenty fourth. That's where I had him too, So I'm not disagreeing with you, but you could make the case. Look, you got to meet the players where they are. Joe Burrow has a very specific style that he clearly wants to play, and I think it's you know, to Taylor's credit on some level to get the best version of that offense out there. But you're right, kind of an awkward fit. Probably the best moments just of his career, like as a coach. Other you know, they did almost win the Super Bowl. That's that's pretty good for the twenty fourth best coach. And like I was when he was winning games with Jake Browning and putting up some offensive numbers, that was pretty good. All Right, you're twenty five. We only have three left.

01:05:02
Speaker 2: Oh man, I'm gonna go with Brian day Ball here. Okay, poor Raheem.

01:05:08
Speaker 3: He won a playoff game, like.

01:05:12
Speaker 2: He has won a playoff game, no matter what happened in the in said playoff game, he manages that team to get to a point where you won a playoff game.

01:05:21
Speaker 3: He won a playoff game with Daniel Jones at quarterbacks.

01:05:24
Speaker 2: So I think his offenses like it's it's tough because you want to say that this team hasn't had a lot of talent on the roster, but he also plays a part in acquiring and developing talent, so which is why he's twenty fifth here. But I I guess I'd go with him over the last two guys, because you know he's had experience in the playoffs.

01:05:47
Speaker 1: He's not a bad coach. That's what I was getting at, where like I don't know fifteen to twenty five, even twelve to twenty, Like, I don't think he's a bad coach. The reason I had him so low, I actually had him twenty six was ultimately I went to Pro Football Reference and he has run an offense either as a coordinator or a head coach, eleven times, and his Bills teams with Josh Allen were in the top ten three times out of his four years in terms of points. Otherwise, he hasn't been over fourteenth once. And you can go look at those Miami and Cleveland team like they're bad quarterbacks. I get it. But over the non Josh Allen seasons, JP his teams have averaged twenty fifth in points scored. So you're an offensive guy. I don't know if he has the big picture. I thought the upside for Rahiem Morris was higher because I do believe somewhat in the raw ros stuff for lack of a better word for like the team building, for the getting everyone on the same page, kind of like a Dan Quinn. He needs to prove it. You know, they went eight to nine last year. That's probably about right for the talent that they had. They were twenty ninth in defensive DV away. But you hear from his players and people that have coached with him, They swear by him, and I think second time around he could be a good coach. So I think he actually has a higher ceiling than a Canalis or Tailor, maybe not Canalys but Dable. But you know, we're just we're splitting Harris again. The fact that he's twenty six is a good sign for the state of NFL coaching.

01:07:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a great sign. I believe in what Maraheem Morris is doing. Culture wise, I think that the players obviously love him. I do want to see what the defense looks like when he's running his defense, because it felt like Jimmy Lake last year was running Jimmy Lake's stuff, and then after Jimmy Lake was fired, he was like this.

01:07:32
Speaker 3: This is now the Raheem Morris defense.

01:07:34
Speaker 2: And we've already heard and seen players like Matt Judon like say like, I did not like running that defense because why am I always dropping in the coverage, So I want to see what he does with his defense now and his players in there.

01:07:49
Speaker 3: So I'm a little lower going forward, but I.

01:07:52
Speaker 2: Do like what he's done to kind of change the culture of that team. Right.

01:07:56
Speaker 1: I am glad he brought up Judon because I was the highlight of the twenty twenty four Patriots season other than landing a great franchise quarterback. I suppose that's number one. Number two is getting a third round pick for Matthew Juden. All right, Last up is Brian Gallahan. I can make the pick for you because he's the only one left, and it's just kind of like, I don't know what you thought about him, but it was more just like it's incomplete. What are we gonna do at this point?

01:08:20
Speaker 3: It's incomplete.

01:08:21
Speaker 2: I honestly did not think he would make it through last season. I thought he was gonna be a one and done because man, there's not a lot that inspired you when it.

01:08:31
Speaker 3: Came to watching Tennessee.

01:08:33
Speaker 2: But I also can say that Dinard Wilson and that defense they had, there's talent on the defensive side of the ball. There's not it's not like overwhelming, but you have some guys there that you can build off of, and now you have cam Ward number one pick. It's let's see, let's see it now, like we I would like to see that offense be a little bit better, and I think the Bill Callahan like floor raizer for the offensive line should help out this upcoming season. But I'm a little less optimistic about how I did.

01:09:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, does does he get credit for bringing his dad along? I'd say yes, because that should help him and it only helps so much last year. But I think their offensive line is the right direction. I'm more on the incomplete, like, I have my doubts. I know he got picked on once or twice. We're being a little like emotional behind the podium. I actually think if you watch his press conference and hear him speak, it's in his favor. I think he I think it comes across as an intelligent, like well thought out head coach and he's just got to prove it. He was in a tough situation. It's incomplete. I think any and everyone else on this list has shown just a little more. We did it, We figured it out.

01:09:42
Speaker 2: JP.

01:09:42
Speaker 1: We did not disagree too much either. I got to say I was wondering, like if you were just going to take some some coach that I wasn't that big a fan of at number four, and I was like, then it'll just be there for for all time, because we're gonna do this every year. We're gonna take We're gonna take a look and see see how this how this thing changes. I appreciate you JP.

01:09:59
Speaker 3: Of course, thank you for having me on.

01:10:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, check out JP his latest thing on Espianation. I believe it was it was your girlfriend that helped rank the schedule release videos and you're putting her to work.

01:10:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, I outsourced this story.

01:10:16
Speaker 2: I got my girlfriend to help me rank the schedule release videos because as much as I love her and as great as she is, she does not have a lot of knowledge about sports. So one of the quotes in there is who is Ai speaking about the video that featured Alan Iverson?

01:10:32
Speaker 3: So I had to explain that bit to her.

01:10:35
Speaker 2: But she's awesome and she helped me build that list that I think is one hundred percent correct.

01:10:40
Speaker 1: Shout out to her, And yeah, that Bill's Ai video got got attention for some other reasons, if you know, you know, but I think the Titans won that one. You might have come in last place in this coaching rankings, But my choice was the sky Rizzy Titans one that was having me and my.

01:10:58
Speaker 2: Son Walker just crack up.

01:11:00
Speaker 1: We will be back on Tuesday. You know what it is. It's the see you Next Tuesday crew, it's Colleen Wolf, it's Jordan Rodrigue. Really looking forward to that one. Thanks again to JP and uh yeah, when when we're making Bengals fan and Zach Taylor fans mad again, like you know, football scat