Rotoworld

They rank Bruce Arians as the #5 head coach in the NFL.


I'm done with that website forever. I don't play fantasy football but they've long been one of my favorite sites to read. That's just ridiculous, though. You lose all credibility with me when you rank a coach with two playoff appeareances and one playoff win as a top five head coach.


Fyi, Rivera is ranked 9th, which I think is also too high.

 

I like the draft content.

 

That does seem absurd, but there are embarrassingly few good head coaches in the league right now.

 

Yeah, I agree with that part.

 

Yeah I like them overall, but Ive made it point to distance myself from the Bruce Arians fan brigade.

 

Don't totally disagree with you there. He's always been talked up

 

If the NFL did a fantasy draft for head coaches and the Panthers drew Bruce Arians, I'd be pretty happy. I think he's a good head coach. I just don't see any evidence of him being an elite one. To this point, he's pretty much a deluxe Mike Smith.

I guess if I had to rank my top 16, which was the only point of me starting this thread, I'd go like this:


The Alpha Bull

1) Bill Belichick
Even with the cheating, he's far and away #1 - which is sort of what's tragic about the cheating. It's the reason why I'll probably always place him right behind Walsh as the GOAT.


The Bulls

2) Pete Carroll
Very impressive work in Seattle. I don't think they have a good GM. He's a talent maximizer.

3) Mike Tomlin
Him and Pete are probably interchangeable. He's never been worse than 8-8. That's an impressive floor in the NFL.

The Pretty Damn Good

4) Andy Reid
I agree with rotoworld's assessment of Reid, but I can't put him above Tomlin. You still gotta wonder how fucking hard it is for a seasoned HC to manage the clock. He's kind of the Rain Man of head coaches.

5) John Harbaugh
I don't think he's been the problem in Baltimore lately, but he does need to settle on an offensive coordinator/philosophy.


I'll take it

6) Mike McCarthy
Ugh. I hate putting him this high, but they haven't missed the playoffs since 2008. They have a ring. In a league with more good coaches, he'd be around the middle. At least some of the blame should go to Ted Thompson, who has done good job overall, but probably should force the issue more often in Free Agency.


7) Marvin Lewis
I always rate him much higher than most. Marvin made them into a credible brand, something no other coach - except for maybe Belichick - would have done. The playoff doughnut is pretty damn ugly, but luck hasn't been on their side very often either.

8) Ron Rivera
Jesus Christ, Collin was right. There is a big dropoff after the first few coaches. He does own the second best record in December since 2012. He's the only coach to ever win the NFC South consecutively, and only one of five active coaches to win a division thrice in a row. He's the only coach ever to start 14-0 in the NFC, and only one of seven in NFL history to win 15 games in a season. He's worked with two really crappy general managers. Even with bookending 6-10 seasons on his resume, I think the Panthers overachieve a little more often than they underachieve. Plus, I made him.


9) Bruce Arians
You can swap him with Ron if you'd like, but Ron kind of owns his ass head to head. How he handles a declining Palmer will prove his worth. David Johnson and their defense provide a nice foundation to rebuild upon. They could be back soon.

10) Sean Payton
I'd still be happy to have him despite the lack of recent success. They did have some really bad luck in close games last year, as they were essentially two returned blocked FGs from the playoffs.

Tier 2

11) Jason Garrett
He's mostly a reflection of the players you give him, but I think '16 was a legitimately good coaching job.

12) Adam Gase
I'm pretty bullish on Gase, but I need to see it for more than one year.


13) Bill O'Brien
Three straight winning seasons without a quarterback is impressive, but JJ Watt has probably had something to do with that.

14) Dan Quinn
No pro sports team will ever give away a World Championship the way that Quinn's 2016 Falcons did. It's not fair to judge a man on one half of one quarter of one game, and he's done a lot of good things in two years, but you don't let your OC give away that game.

MEDIOCRE!!!!

15) Mike Zimmer
He almost looked like the next big thing.

16) John Fox
I almost forgot he was still coaching until I read this list. John Fox is what he is. Give him a great quarterback, he'll have a great record. Give him Jake Delhomme, he'll have a solid record. Give him Jay Cutler/Brian Hoyer/Matt Barkley, he'll have an awful record. It cracks me up that he's been a head coach every year since 2002! If you have kids, don't teach them to reach for "excellence". Teach them to be like John Fox - make connections, be affable, wear great stuff on your wrist, and you'll always have a job.

 

The top five college head coaches are definitely better than the top five NFL head coaches, which is bizarre. McCarthy isn't even good, you just have to rank him highly because Aaron Rodgers has given him such a good record and the alternatives are so lackluster.