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WHO ARE THE FIVE BEST COACHES IN THE NFL TODAY? HERE'S MY HUMBLE OPINION By CHARLES JAY, Editor/Publisher, TotalAction.com July 14, 2000 What do I look for in a head coach? Well, let's say right from the top that a guy doesn't necessarily HAVE TO win a Super Bowl to score high in my rankings. If we could just list the guys who have won, or appeared in, the most Super Bowls in order, that would be easy, wouldn't it? Unfortunately, it's not that simplistic. Of course results are important. No coach can survive without them. But I like to measure the job a coach does relative to what I feel he has to work with in the first place. If a coach has 15 Pro Bowlers on his roster, he SHOULD get to the Super Bowl. Anything less would be a severe under-achievement. What I like to see are teams that consistently perform better than expected, that demonstrate the ability to handle adversity, and who seem well-prepared going into games, because those things all revert back to good coaching. On the personnel side, coaches need to know how to handle their quarterback situation; they need to employ and game plan that minimizes mistakes without becoming predictable. And those coaches who can find "diamonds in the rough" and implement them correctly gain a lot of points. So do coaches who know how to pick the right assistants. That was one characteristic of guys like Jimmy Johnson and Bill Walsh, for example - the ability to delegate responsibility to the right people. And one thing that impresses me is the ability to come in and turn situations around quickly - and if a guy can do that in more than one place, and can manage to sustain the success, more power to him. The guys on this list all score high in at least one of these areas - many of them in multiple areas. And this is not a "nostalgia" list; we're concerned about the here and now, not what happened 20 years ago. All that having been said, here they are: 1) MIKE SHANAHAN, Denver -- Looking at it from a handicapping standpoint, if I were on the opposite side, Shanahan is probably the guy I'd be most worried about going against, because of his fertile offensive mind and ability to put together an effective game plan. Shanahan strikes me as a guy who is less of a steamroller and more of a scholar. Sure, Shanahan has won a couple of Super Bowls, but I feel he may have done one of his best coaching jobs last season, when, racked by key injuries and sitting without any real hope of a playoff berth, he had his team playing tough as nails in the second half of the season. After getting over the initial shock of losing guys like John Elway (to retirement), plus Shannon Sharpe, John Mobley, Terrell Davis, etc. to injuries, then having to endure a) the development of raw Brian Griese at quarterback and b) a rather divisive Sports Illustrated cover story, the Broncos hunkered down and became one of the tougher teams to beat coming down the stretch. I give much of the credit to Shanahan for shepherding that kind of performance out of them. There was nothing phony about it; fans usually know when players are not trying as hard as they should, and I can assure you that a skilled handicapper can tell. 2) MIKE HOLMGREN, Seattle -- Holmgren, who comes from a similar background as Shanahan, knows how to put together a system and implement it. Like everyone else on this list, he scores highly in terms of relating to and motivating players. Although his team's late-season swoon was not pretty, he got more out of his people than predecessor Dennis Erickson. Holmgren is an offensive mind, with a little discipline thrown in; he exercises the right level of control over his quarterback, which promotes less turnovers. Just look at how out of control Brett Favre was at times last year when Holmgren wasn't around to pull in the reins a little. What I see in Holmgren is part of what has made Phil Jackson a success in his new job with the Los Angeles - the ability to come in, sell the players on the fact that his way constitutes the best chance to win, and get them moving in the same direction. It will be interesting to see the evolution of his program in Year Two with the Seahawks. 3) JEFF FISHER, Tennessee -- What I like about Fisher right away is the fact that his team always seems to be on the same page as him. The Titans are the toughest team, mentally, in the NFL, and that is a collective characteristic that simply speaks to good coaching. Tennessee, under Fisher's stewardship, has also been a tough team to beat on the road - once again, part of that has to be attributed to Fisher. Here's a guy, during an era where everyone wants to fill the air with footballs, who's not afraid to go ultra-conservative in the post-season; part of it was the fact that the Titans just didn't have the explosiveness in their passing attack. But the success his team had with that kind of approach is a testament to their level of preparedness with Fisher and his staff at the helm. When you looked up and down the Titans' roster, it didn't look like they had any business at all beating the St. Louis Rams, Indianapolis Colts, and Jacksonville Jaguars (three times), much less getting all the way to the Super Bowl. And they got within an eyelash of taking home the whole prize, after falling 16 points down late in the game. But then, overachieving has been the order of the day for Fisher-coached teams, who, even during .500 seasons, played much tougher than anyone figured they had a right to. 4) TOM COUGHLIN, Jacksonville -- Yeah, his Jaguars came up empty in three meetings with Fisher's Tennessee Titans last season, and that probably cost him a trip to the Super Bowl. But one thing you've got to say about Coughlin - he got his team to a high level of competitiveness very early on in their history, and he's managed to keep them there. That doesn't happen by accident. And it's in stark contrast to his expansion contemporary, Dom Capers, whose Panthers fizzled out after getting close to the pinnacle very early. Ironically enough, it's was the outstanding hiring of Capers as defensive coordinator last year that helped bring the Jags closer than they've ever been to the very top of the NFL. That's because Coughlin recognized a need on the defensive side of the football and took a bold step toward addressing it. And that's part of the coaching process - filling your staff with the right assistants. Coughlin has shown an ability to utilize personnel very effectively, and has usually been able to put together the right kind of offensive balance. His methods are a little different than the other guys on this list - Coughlin comes from the Bill Parcells school of stern discipline. Of course, there's a flip side to that coin. "His ways as a disciplinarian work fine when you're winning," says one NFL exec, who declined to be named. "But when you start to lose a little, things can go downhill quickly with a guy like that. I think there have been times in the past when his guys quit on him." 5) BOBBY ROSS, Detroit -- To some fans, Ross may come off like Gomer Pyle, but make no mistake; he's deceptively sharp. There's a common thread that has run through Ross' entire coaching career - he has continually demonstrated the ability to turn around situations - at Maryland and Georgia Tech (co-national champion) in college ball, and with the San Diego Chargers, and now, the Detroit Lions, in the NFL. While it's true that the Lions didn't get any farther last season than in some of their other playoff teams in recent years, so have to use the right perspective. In his first season at the helm, Ross made the bold decision to jettison Scott Mitchell and bring in unsung rookie Charlie Batch at quarterback, a move that has proven to be far from a mistake. Last year he had to endure Barry Sanders quitting on the team on the eve of training camp (leaving Ross with little opportunity to make alternate plans), then the subsequent talk from some fans and media members that if he were fired, it might be enough to bring Sanders back. Throw in a few key injuries, especially in the secondary, and it indeed seems remarkable that the Lions made it into the playoffs at all. Success is no accident for Ross; he probably has a higher work ethic than any coach in the NFL, and may be the best organized. Perhaps no coach maximizes his talent better. I know he took a lot of flak for the "extra-point flub" against Arizona, but I'll take Bobby's word for it that there was a method to his madness. He's earned it. Honorable mentions: GEORGE SEIFERT, Carolina -- Seifert might never be given enough credit for stepping in from behind the shadow of Bill Walsh and winning a Super Bowl with the 49ers. It's not the easiest thing in the world to do, especially with the immense pressure surrounding that high profile job. Seifert did not luck into the San Francisco job; he was one of the more respected assistants in the league for years. Handicapped by not having enough in the way of personnel last year, he nonetheless had the Carolina Panthers competing for a wild card spot until the final week, where his team lost tie-breakers to the Cowboys and Lions. Of course, in the minds of many, Seifert may not be considered a truly great head coach until he's able to take a situation from scratch and build it into a consistent winner. BILL COWHER, Pittsburgh -- A couple of years ago, he might have been in the top five on my list. For years, he managed to survive and even thrive, year in and year out, despite his front office's inability to hold on to star players. That gave him big "adaptability" points. But he's lost ground in my book over the last couple of years, not necessarily because his Steelers have been losing, but because he has not recognized quickly enough that his quarterback situation, with Kordell Stewart, is not going to get him over the goal line, so to speak. Will he recognize it, eventually? DENNIS GREEN, Minnesota -- Green may be the most daring coach in this group. He's not afraid to do anything, including handing his offense over to a perceived over-the-hill veteran (i.e., Randall Cunningham, Jeff George) in mid-stream. Green gets points for this, as well as for pushing forward on the Randy Moss situation (even though he took some abuse for Demitrius Underwood). He's big on preparation and work ethic, and is a class act all the way. TONY DUNGY, Tampa Bay -- During that period of time when Dungy was mentioned for what seemed like every head coaching opening, an ex-NFL player told me it was mostly because Dungy had unusual skill as a political animal. But since he's had an opportunity to prove himself, I don't think that explanation sticks. Warren Sapp pointed out very adamantly that his team was not able to turn the corner until it agreed to buy completely into Dungy's philosophy. From that point on, it was onward and upward. But Dungy, to get into the stratosphere, must demonstrate a willingness to employ an offense that moves at more than a snail's pace. We'll see if Keyshawn Johnson makes all the difference. That's one player who may have the potential to make Dungy a better coach. DAN REEVES, Atlanta -- You can't argue with the success Reeves has had in bringing three different teams into the playoffs (Denver, Giants, Atlanta). But one of the things that keeps him out of my top five also illustrates a fundamental difference between a guy like Reeves and guy like Shanahan. Whereas Shanahan embraced John Elway and recognized that he was going to be the dominant force behind any Super Bowl run, Reeves continually feuded over philosophy with Elway, leading to a chilly relationship with the quarterback. Not only do you NOT want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg, you don't even want to slap it hard. JIM MORA, Indianapolis -- One must recognize that Mora has turned around two previously moribund franchises - New Orleans and Indianapolis. Critics may point out that he's stubborn and conservative, and that the Saints got only so far under him, then hit the brick wall. Indeed, Mora has not had any success at all in the playoffs. But with the Colts, he has at least partially shed his "ultra-conservative" label by adapting well to the hand he was dealt, which included an outstanding quarterback, outstanding running back, and outstanding wide receivers. As they say, "he no stupid". Also, recommending Peyton Manning over Ryan Leaf has to earn him some bonus points. The "Comers": BRIAN BILLICK, Baltimore -- I'm fairly confident he'll make it into my top five list eventually. There's something I like about Billick; certainly part of it is that he seems to have a interesting offensive approach. But maybe it's something I saw in a feature piece ESPN did on him last year. Billick was talking about his reliance upon computers and digital video in devising and presenting a game plan. He seemed to know exactly how the technology had the potential to benefit his team. He said he hoped someday to have the entire game plan put on a CD-ROM, and give every player a laptop so they could go home and study it. I like that kind of progressive thinking. And believe me, not every coach thinks that way. This year, he's got some offensive parts; it will be interesting to see how well he can make the engine run. DICK JAURON, Chicago -- What I found interesting about the Bears in Jauron's rookie season is that they used three different starting quarterbacks (Miller, Matthews, McNown), and moved the ball better than expected under each one of them. That tells me there's some good offensive preparation. Jauron, who is as far as I know the only Yalie with an NFL head job, is no doubt a sharp cookie. He deserves the opportunity to make his mark. MIKE RILEY, San Diego -- Won two Grey Cup titles in the CFL, and somehow managed a 5-6 season with traditional Pac-10 doormat Oregon State in 1998. Then he came to the NFL and somehow managed an 8-8 record with a banged up bunch in San Diego last year. And the Chargers, if not for a mid-season swoon, may have challenged for a playoff spot. "He's very sharp, very bright, and got a lot out of what he had, which was essentially nothing," says one NFL insider, "and he was born in the huddle", referring to Riley's pedigree: his father, Bud, was a long-time CFL coach and executive. Top Dog Emeritus: BILL PARCELLS -- It's not likely Parcells is ever going to coach again, but if he does, put him right at the top, and move everyone else down a peg. Want to give ME some coaching? charlesjay@totalaction.com |
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