Best Coaches in The NFL Heading Into the 2024 Season
In the NFL, great coaching is at the forefront of any successful team. Unlike many other sports, where coaching is overshadowed by the abilities of the team’s athletes, a team cannot succeed without a good coach in the NFL. Therefore, it is crucial that a team has one of the premier coaches to mentally and physically prepare their team for the long NFL season. Good NFL coaches must have the ability to shift a franchise’s culture, prepare outstanding game plans, and be a leader of men. Therefore, let’s look at the top five coaches in the NFL heading into this upcoming season.
Andy Reid - Kansas City Chiefs
The most creative play-creator in the NFL today. The best coaches in the league are the ones with the creativity to create the best opportunities for their players to succeed. Andy Reid does this to utter perfection. Andy Reid is able to create plays that are extremely demanding from the quarterback position but he can do this because he has the best in the business under center running the offense with Patrick Mahomes. With this duo commanding the organization, the Chiefs are poised to get back to the Super Bowl again this year as they look to three-peat.
2. Kyle Shanahan - San Francisco 49ers
Kyle Shanahan has created the model of what it takes to be a successful coach in the NFL. Shanahan’s coaching tree in the NFL has become expansive, with head coaches like Matt LaFleur, Mike McDaniel, and Robert Saleh all coming from his former staff. His usage of pre-snap motion has revolutionized the league by simplifying reads for quarterbacks and generating defensive confusion before the ball is snapped. Unsurprisingly, the two highest coaches on this list were just in the Super Bowl, facing off against each other as they give their teams a distinct advantage every time they step on the field.
3. DeMeco Ryans - Houston Texans
A young and up-and-coming coach who is expected to lead the Texans as the hype continues to build around them. After a horrible season by the Texans in 2022, where they went 3-13, they would wind up with the second overall pick and would select quarterback C.J. Stroud. With both Demeco Ryans and Stroud in charge of the organization as rookies last year, not much was expected from them. Instead, they put the league on notice. C.J. Stroud lit up opposing defenses as he passed for, on average, 273 yards a game. Demeco Ryans not only prepared the team for each game as they made a dramatic shift in their record as the team went 10-7, but he also completely uprooted the losing culture the Texans have had for years. Creating a winning culture with a franchise that has been losing for years may be one of the hardest things for a coach to come in and do. This season, Ryans will have a new challenge on his hands as he tries to lead a team that now has massive expectations of them to succeed in a tough AFC conference.
4. Dan Campbell - Detroit Lions
The most passionate and emotional coach in the league. When we think about the best NFL coaches who are leaders of men and inspire their players to give their all to everything they do, the first name to come up should be Dan Campbell. He is not the traditional NFL coach, but he has created a culture in Detroit that finally gives fans a chance to believe in their team. He has come in and immediately turned around this franchise all the way through. He is also one of the most aggressive coaches in the league when it comes to fourth down, which may be viewed either as a positive or a negative. Either way, he shows that in those pressure fourth down situations, he believes in his players to go and get the first down. This type of confidence by a coach in his players can be inspirational and has turned the Lions into a serious contender in the NFC.
5. Mike Tomlin - Pittsburgh Steelers
No coach gets more out of their players than Mike Tomlin. He brings a strong culture and toughness that is rarely seen in a modern NFL team. Tomlin has been known to never have a losing season as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers over his 17-year career. Despite Tomlin’s amazing ability to elevate the Steeler’s mediocre talent the past few years, he finds himself on the hot seat entering this season. Tomlin is an outstanding coach and probably adds more wins to a team than any other coach in the league. With that said, most coaches nowadays are offensive-minded and the team may eventually look to go and get one of those coaches if the team doesn’t make the playoffs this season. If the Steelers move off Tomlin at the end of the season, it would be a grave mistake as the Steelers could quickly lose their identity as a franchise and would most likely lose several games a season that they would’ve won if Tomlin had been the coach.
