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  • June 03, 2008 04:23 PM ET

The Best and Worst NFL Head Coaches in the NFL, that currently coach in the NFL. NFL like. All NFLy.

Swayze seeks redemption (75-91-15) vs EagleHater: Goodbye, FN (84-36-3)
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A few criteria must be made in order to not lump the Head Coach simply with his players, his GM, or just his team's winning percentage.

Make a list of the Best and Worst Coaches based on winning, influence over the players, influence over team decisions, Strategy, and In Game Situation Handling. Please Order them.

My Top 5:
Andy Reid - PHI
Jeff Fischer - TENN
Bill Belichick - NE
Mike Holmgren - SEA
Tony Dungy - IND

Honorable Mention: McCarthy - GB, Del Rio - JAX

My Five Worst: (Have had at least one year as Head Coach of a team.)
Herman - KC
Lewis - CIN
Marinelli - DET
Nolan - SF
Mangina - NYJ

Surprise surprise, my top two coaches are not Super Bowl winners. Both Reid and Fisher weild tremendous control over their players, have captained some of the winningest programs, and do this independent of who is on the field for them or against them.

Belichick, Dungy, and Holmgren have near complete control of their front office, are winners year in and year out, and have developed some of the greatest players in the game today.

If you choose to accept this, make a majority of your choices different or do not take it.


Top 5-
1- Tony Dungy- IND
2- Mike McCarthy (look at it this way: He took a 3-13 team with a weak locker room and they were 13-3 two years later.)-GB
3- Bill Belichick- NE
4- Mike Holmgren- SEA
5- Andy Reid- PHI
Honorable mention: Jack Del Rio

5 Worst-
1- Marvin Lewis- CIN
2- Mike Nolan- SF
3- Herman Edwards- KC
4- Norv Turner (before you torch me for this, read my comments in the next paragraph.)- SD
5- Scott Linehan- STL

Now, Dungy has to be #1. To have him 5... waaay too low. He does have a great support system, but he has been successful everywhere and is an all-time great motivator and strategist.
Andy Reid gets props for doing a lot with little front office help. But the best coach in the NFL? I'm not totally sold on him.

Now, for my Turner choice: this is not as of what they did last year only, according to the TD. And by whole career criteria, Turner is AWFUL. Poor winner. He makes bad personnel decisions. Has zero locker room control. Hell, even the Chargers players got a bit rough with each other last year. He fails everyone of your criteria.

And why so harsh on Marinelli and Mangini? Nelli has done decently with what Millen provides & Gini has had 1 good & 1 bad year.


Mike McCarthy has seemingly done a great job and obviously deserves plenty of praise, but if the team goes 8-8 this year, he cant find his starting quarterback, this situation could easily get away from him.

He has done well in his first years, but there is absolutely no track record to go by.

Fisher is the longest tenured coach, I get more help running a football team than he does and all he has done was go to two AFC Championships, and come 1 1/2 yards shy of a Super Bowl win. 115 wins in a small market, enduring a team move, taking over a program as interim coach.

How is it possible to tell if Scott Linehan is among the worst Head Coaches in the NFL? His long history of coaching players off the street? The Rams endured the loss of more than a handful of several key starters and still squeaked out 3 wins at the end of a very long and difficult season. The Rams will likely be this season's most "improved" club. And by "improved" I mean, they will need less than two suites to house their injured players.


True on McCarthy. But on that same note, you call Marinelli, Mangini, and Nolan 3 of the 5 worst head coaches in the NFL, and all 3 have limited experience as head coaches.

And no matter what happens, nothing can diminish what McCarthy did. He revived Favre's career and the Packers. Favre was, let's face it, AWFUL, as were the Pack, right before McCarthy arrived. They were a franchise headed nowhere but down the gutter. But McCarthy tinkered with what Favre was doing and re-did the offense. They improved by 5 wins to 8-8 and McCarthy's first year, and by another 5 last year. 10 win improvement in 2 seasons? That is amazing.
And no one can ignore that Favre likely wouldn't have broken the TD and yardage record if not for McCarthy salvaging these last two seasons.


Now Fisher is VASTLY overrated. His reputation lies on those 1.5 yards he was from winning an SB. But look deeper: The man has a .530 career win percentage. He is .500 in the playoffs. Hardly ideal numbers, and they can't touch the men I have ahead of him. Not to mention that 3 of the 5 I gave have at least one SB win to Fisher's none.


Also, your lack of Norv Turner under worst coaches is INEXCUSABLE to say the least.


A handful of oversights on my part and no desire to argue calls for a forfeit.

Good TD, my first forfeit.

Comments (20) Add A Comment

June 3, 2008  04:42 PM ET
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Good luck!

June 3, 2008  04:44 PM ET
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H8rs, whats up, no hard feelings....... just me being me.

Ready for football or what????

June 3, 2008  04:48 PM ET
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Where is Dick Jaruon?? He should get a honorable mention for not committing suicide

June 3, 2008  04:55 PM ET
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Norv has got to top a list!!!

June 3, 2008  04:58 PM ET
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Lane Kiffin and Little Bum would be on my worst list

June 3, 2008  04:59 PM ET
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Hmm right now vote to Eagle lets see if your argument can change my vote Swayze

June 3, 2008  04:59 PM ET
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I feel slighted: Mike Tomlin is not on, and he led his team to a division title and the playoffs in his first season ever

June 3, 2008  05:00 PM ET
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Hey nick. Don't worry, no hard feelings from before. Just trying to explain my stance. I wasn't hurt.

And hellz yeah I'm ready for some ball! TO all locked up... rookies looking good... Pacman could be back. Life is looking good in Dallas!

June 3, 2008  05:01 PM ET
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Random- true, but he was taking over a team one year removed from an SB as well and lost in the playoffs round 1. I can't make a judgment on a coach after 17 games.

June 3, 2008  05:19 PM ET
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I can't see Andy Reid at number 1, given the way he routinely mangles his clock management.

June 3, 2008  05:20 PM ET
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^
True dat. And one could argue his mangling of the return game situation last year cost them the Packers game. And if they'd won that... Who knows? They might have been a playoff team!

Comment has been removed
June 3, 2008  05:45 PM ET
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Yankee, I considered him. Strongly, actually. But I want to see if he can reign in his players in a big market area for more than one season.

June 3, 2008  06:39 PM ET
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Last year, or all the years overall

June 3, 2008  06:54 PM ET
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Wade Philips....put him on the worst. He's a puppet.

June 3, 2008  07:20 PM ET
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Props H8r for putting the coach of a team you despise on your list. Only a true fan of the game would do that.

June 3, 2008  07:21 PM ET
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Wade Philips....put him on the worst. He's a puppet.

Thomlinson21 | 06/03/08, 06:54 PM

Wade's not bad at all. I don't know any marionette coaches who can take their team to 13-3.

June 3, 2008  07:22 PM ET
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Thomlinson... yeah, 13-3 his first season on a team a Hall of Fame coach couldn't take past 9-7. Man, he must suck.

Jeez... If he were bottom 5, I'd have to make Jerry Jones #1 best overall, since apparently Wade is his puppet. If JJ can go 13-3 through another man... wow!



And LOL, yeah, Oso, it nearly killed me, but I did it.

June 4, 2008  10:35 AM ET
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if Dungy was #1, he'd have been to the Super Bowl more than......once.

 
June 5, 2008  08:11 PM ET
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Jerry Jones spend most of the game standing behind Wade Phillips and watching his every move, and just gave the next guy in line a huge raise so he can stick around long enough for Wade Phillips to get kicked out. I'd say Phillips is a head coach in name only.

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