play2:03Rex Ryan has some high praise for Mike VrabelThe “Get Up” crew lauds the job Mike Vrabel has done in turning around the Patriots.
play2:22Orlovsky loves Ben Johnson’s offseason mindset for BearsDan Orlovsky, Ryan Hawkins and Mike Greenberg discuss Ben Johnson’s mindset heading into the Bears’ offseason.
play0:35Colts to retain Steichen, BallardStephen Holder breaks down the Colts’ decision to retain GM Chris Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen.
play1:58Stephen A.: Absolutely the right decision for Raiders to fire Pete CarrollStephen A. Smith and Dan Orlovsky agree with the Raiders’ decision to fire Pete Carroll after one season.
play1:44Was it a mistake for the Broncos to go for it on fourth down?Dan Orlovsky and Rex Ryan question Sean Payton’s decision to go for it on fourth-and-1 in the second quarter.
Orlovsky’s favorite NFL coach hires so far (1:51)Dan Orlovsky tells Pat McAfee why he is a big fan of the Giants’ and Falcons’ head coach hires. (1:51)
Rex Ryan has some high praise for Mike VrabelThe “Get Up” crew lauds the job Mike Vrabel has done in turning around the Patriots.
Orlovsky loves Ben Johnson’s offseason mindset for BearsDan Orlovsky, Ryan Hawkins and Mike Greenberg discuss Ben Johnson’s mindset heading into the Bears’ offseason.
Dan Orlovsky, Ryan Hawkins and Mike Greenberg discuss Ben Johnson’s mindset heading into the Bears’ offseason.
Colts to retain Steichen, BallardStephen Holder breaks down the Colts’ decision to retain GM Chris Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen.
Stephen Holder breaks down the Colts’ decision to retain GM Chris Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen.
Stephen A.: Absolutely the right decision for Raiders to fire Pete CarrollStephen A. Smith and Dan Orlovsky agree with the Raiders’ decision to fire Pete Carroll after one season.
Stephen A. Smith and Dan Orlovsky agree with the Raiders’ decision to fire Pete Carroll after one season.
Was it a mistake for the Broncos to go for it on fourth down?Dan Orlovsky and Rex Ryan question Sean Payton’s decision to go for it on fourth-and-1 in the second quarter.
Dan Orlovsky and Rex Ryan question Sean Payton’s decision to go for it on fourth-and-1 in the second quarter.
So I’m going one through 37 and ranking those coaching hires. Performance and playoff success obviously matter most, but I’m also trying to look for evidence of the impact these guys have had as coaches. Do they do a good job of managing fourth downs and late-game situations? Have players who were already on the roster improved after their arrival? Have free agents added from other teams excelled after joining the lineup? And do their draft picks routinely exceed expectations?
Where the team succeeds also matters. For coaches with an offensive background, I’m going to give more credit if the team is thriving by virtue of that side of the ball, as opposed to being carried by the defense (such as Matt Nagy during his debut season with the Bears). And, of course, being great on both sides of the ball is a big positive.
Put it this way: If you had to predict a single hire from the past five years to still be in their current job 15 years from now, who would you pick? My choice would be Campbell, who has become the face of the franchise in Detroit.
Sirianni is by far the most difficult coach to rank on this list. His résumé is comfortably the best of any coach over the past five years. He took over a 4-11-1 team and immediately coached it to the playoffs, where it has been each of the past five seasons. The Bills are the only other team to make it to the playoffs every year over that span. Sirianni has made two Super Bowls and won one. No other coach on this list has won a Super Bowl, although that will change two weeks from now.
There’s no arguing that the highs under Sirianni have been spectacular. But the lows have been wildly frustrating, including a defense that forgot how to play football in 2023 and an offense that hopelessly banged its head against the wall for most of the 2025 season. Sirianni has to own both. But his floor is nine wins and a playoff appearance, and his ceiling has been the Lombardi Trophy.
It’s impossible to know how much Macdonald figured into the decision to hire offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak and essentially swap Geno Smith for Sam Darnold at quarterback this offseason. But after deploying a frustrating offense in Year 1 of Macdonald, the Seahawks have gotten enough on that side of the ball to make the Super Bowl this season.
The only hole I can poke in Macdonald’s coaching is his habit of being too conservative on fourth down. But given the defense he wields, you can understand why he trusts it. The Ravens got the next best thing by hiring fellow former Michigan assistant Jesse Minter as their head coach, but Baltimore general manager Eric DeCosta & Co. have to wish that they found a way to keep Macdonald in the building two years ago.
Vrabel’s game management and ability to stretch the rulebook in New England’s favor have also helped the Patriots hold on to their many leads this season. And while the defense didn’t rate out well by advanced metrics during the regular season, it has been absolutely dominant so far in the playoffs.
The “Get Up” crew lauds the job Mike Vrabel has done in turning around the Patriots.
Ryans took over a Texans team that had won three or four games in each of the three seasons before his arrival. It has won 10 or more games in each of his first three years at the helm, adding a playoff victory in each of those campaigns for good measure. Ryans has been one of the league’s most conservative coaches on fourth down, which has been a liability at times, but you can understand why given the struggles the Texans have had running the football.
There’s no doubting that O’Connell is a good coach, having put together 13- and 14-win seasons over his first four years in Minnesota, but we can poke a few holes in that record. One is the Vikings’ performance in close games. They are 25-12 in one-score games over that span, and while O’Connell does a solid job of managing late-game scenarios, the wild fluctuations in their record in those games from year to year suggest their record in close games is more randomness than a sustainable skill.
The driving force for the Vikings over the past three years has instead been their defense. If this were a list of best coordinator hires over the past five seasons, Minnesota’s Brian Flores might be at the very top.
The prodigy. Bears fans treated Johnson like a superstar addition when they landed the Lions’ offensive coordinator as their next head coach, and so far, he has generally lived up to the hype. There have been game management issues, especially early in the season, but Johnson quickly built one of the league’s best run games and helped refine quarterback Caleb Williams’ game.
The Bears benefited from excellent timing and good fortune late in games in 2025, which might not stick around, but I’m not sure you can find a single Bears fan on the planet who is upset with the decision to hire Johnson after one season.
Orlovsky loves Ben Johnson’s offseason mindset for Bears
What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, Quinn was fresh off a trip to the NFC Championship Game, having won as many playoff games in his first season with the Commanders as the franchise had claimed over the prior 30 years. Jayden Daniels’ fantastic rookie campaign played a significant role, but Quinn nailed his fourth-down decision-making to help the offense blossom, and the former Falcons coach got the most out of the many veterans added to his roster by GM Adam Peters.
Things have changed. Daniels struggled through an injury-hit 2025, but Quinn’s defense completely collapsed in Year 2. The Commanders ranked 30th in EPA per play and points allowed per drive, as they were easily stretched by any offense with a pulse. Quinn wasn’t able to fix the problems during the season, and the Commanders shook things up by moving on from offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury and defensive coordinator Joe Whitt.
Quinn deserves more time to prove that 2025 was an anomaly, but Falcons fans will point out that their former coach peaked early in his Atlanta tenure and never reached those heights again.
Taking over for the retired Bruce Arians after winning a Super Bowl as Tampa Bay’s defensive coordinator, Bowles has kept the Bucs atop the NFC South for most of his tenure. He was able to transition the Buccaneers from the end of the Tom Brady era to the start of Baker Mayfield’s tenure at QB smoothly, and Tampa has been solid in the postseason, blowing out the Eagles and playing the Lions and Commanders tough in competitive losses.
After the Bucs blew a 6-2 start to this season and missed the postseason, though, Bowles has understandably faced some criticism. Tampa Bay fired offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard after one season, meaning Mayfield will have his fourth coordinator in four years with the Bucs. Bowles’ defenses have also struggled to live up to what they were doing while he was focusing exclusively on that side of the ball, as Tampa Bay has ranked 11th, 16th, 18th and most recently 16th in EPA per snap.
I still think Bowles is a good coach, and he has improved his late-game decision-making after being too conservative earlier in his tenure, but 2026 seems like a make-or-break year for his future in Tampa.
The results just weren’t where they needed to be, sometimes as a product of bad timing. Tagovailoa missed the end of the 2022 season because of an injury, and when backup Teddy Bridgewater went down shortly thereafter, the Dolphins had to start third-stringer Skylar Thompson in the postseason. In 2023, a late-season collapse cost the Dolphins the AFC East and sent them to frigid conditions in Kansas City in the wild-card round.
McDaniel struggled to find the right balance on defense, and it seemed telling that the organization basically fired Vic Fangio after one year in town, leaving the veteran assistant to go to Philadelphia and win a Super Bowl. McDaniel did enough to eventually earn a second head-coaching opportunity elsewhere, though he’ll take 2026 to recharge his batteries as the offensive coordinator with the Chargers.