NFL Head Coach Power Rankings Heading into Week 2
Welcome to the NFL, fellas.
On Sunday, four men served as head coach of an NFL team for the first time. Three of the four (Doug Pederson of the Philadelphia Eagles, Dirk Koetter of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Ben McAdoo of the New York Giants) won that debut, with only Adam Gase's Miami Dolphins preventing a clean sweep by the new guys.
For those men, Week 1 was a career milestone. For Hue Jackson of the Cleveland Browns, it was a return to the big chair after a long hiatus. For Rex Ryan of the Buffalo Bills, it was the first of many afternoons this year spent in a chair that isn't so much big as it is hot.
And for Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots, Week 1 was just another day at the office.
One week ago, Bleacher Report NFL Analyst Brent Sobleski unveiled his NFL Head Coach Power Rankings. In his words, "Each week, the league's coaches will be evaluated based on the their team's performances and the decisions made during contests. They'll be ranked accordingly."
The esteemed Mr. Sobleski was unavailable this week, so I've come in off the bench to lend a hand and break down how those rankings have changed with one game in the books.
32. Adam Gase, Miami Dolphins
1 of 32
Last Week: 29
Quote of the Week: "Obviously, if we catch it, it's a big play. But one play doesn't make a game. It's the NFL; bad things happen, and you've got to move on to the next play. We can't let one loss become two."
As Scott Johnson of the Sports XChange wrote, that was Gase after the Dolphins fell 12-10 in his head coaching debut against the Seattle Seahawks. It was an ugly game for the Dolphins, defined by a couple of gaffes—Kenny Stills dropping what looked like an easy 80-yard touchdown and a 27-yard blocked field goal.
The good news is that Gase's Dolphins stayed in the game for the entire 60 minutes in one of the NFL's most hostile environments and against a perennial Super Bowl contender.
The bad news is that, just as in the past, the Dolphins couldn't seal the deal.
This isn't to say that the blame lies solely with Gase. But of the new head coaches who debuted in Week 1, Gase was the only one who lost. So he brings up the rear here.
If you wanna move up these rankings you have to earn it.
Now drop and give me 20!
31. Mike Mularkey, Tennessee Titans
2 of 32
Last Week: 28
Quote of the Week: "To have another chance, I am very appreciative. I am very blessed for this opportunity, I really am. And I am excited to see where this goes. It has been a good start. What we built in the offseason, how things went in the preseason, it’s been positive. And I think these guys understand what it takes, and they’re having fun doing it. I really looking forward to getting (the season) started."
So much for that good start.
Heading into Sunday's season opener against the Minnesota Vikings, Titans head coach Mike Mularkey spoke to Jim Wyatt of the team's website about hot starts and gratitude for second (or in his case third) chances.
“I am really thankful, and I always have been. I feel very blessed to be able to do this, for as long as I’ve been able to do it.”
It appeared for a moment that the Titans might just get off to that good start Mularkey mentioned, as the team raced to an early 10-0 lead against a Vikings club still reeling from the loss of starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.
Then the Vikings peeled off 25 unanswered points, and the Titans looked like a team led by a coach with an 18-40 career record.
What a bunch of, as Joe Biden would say....
I can't do it. That joke's too hokey for me even.
30. Mike McCoy, San Diego Chargers
3 of 32
Last Week: 27
Quote of the Week: "We didn’t execute well there when we were up. And those are opportunities that we have to put games away and finish. … We have the opportunity to put these teams away, we have to play better, and we didn’t get it done. We didn’t finish. It’s as simple as that."
There isn't a head coach in the NFL plowing through more Pepto-Bismol than Mike McCoy of the San Diego Chargers.
That's understandable, after the Chargers allowed the biggest comeback in Kansas City Chiefs history. Up 24-3 in the third quarter, McCoy's Chargers proceeded to choke the game away, eventually losing 33-27 in overtime.
It was a backbreaking defeat, made all the worse by the loss of top wideout Keenan Allen to a season-ending ACL tear. And it led Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune to begin the Mike McCoy termination watch:
"McCoy’s job hinges on the results in the weeks ahead, likely the totality of those remaining in the season. The Spanos family generally waits for later rather than sooner when making a move on a head coach.
But in this crucial year for the franchise, they might reconsider. Because, at this point, the only vote that would get two-third approval was one asking whether McCoy should be fired.
"
Pass the pink stuff.
29. Hue Jackson, Cleveland Browns
4 of 32
Last Week: 25
Quote of the Week: “I saw a team that started a little sporadic, and then I saw a team that started to fight and play.”
After getting pasted 29-10 by the Philadelphia Eagles in his debut as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns, Hue Jackson was left searching for positives to cling to, based on his comments reported by Patrick Maks of the Brown's website.
“We’ll get better. We need to keep working,” Jackson said. "I saw signs of things being better, I did, I really did. So we’ve got to take the good and grow from it and eliminate the bad.”
I'll confess: I'm not entirely sure what signs Jackson saw of things being better.
Maybe it was the rookie quarterback for the Eagles moving the ball at will against a porous Browns defense.
Or maybe it was the Browns converting 2-of-10 third downs.
Maybe it was the Cameron Erving snap that sailed past quarterback Robert Griffin III and out of the end zone for a safety.
Or maybe Jackson just needs glasses. Because the Browns arguably looked like the worst team in the NFL in Week 1.
The news gets better, too. As ESPN's Pat McManamon reported, Griffin suffered a shoulder injury in the game that will cost him at least eight weeks and possibly the rest of the season.
Just another year at the Factory of Sadness (contains profanity).
28. Chip Kelly, San Francisco 49ers
5 of 32
Last Week: 26
Quote of the Week: “I don’t really care what people say or blog about. I mean … we don’t sit in our meeting room and say, ‘Hey, somebody blogged about this. Let’s talk about this.'"
Some will no doubt say that the San Francisco 49ers had one of the most impressive wins of Week 1, a 28-0 pasting of a terrible-looking Rams team.
It doesn't really matter, at least in my eyes. The 49ers aren't a good football team. And I don't think Chip Kelly is a good head coach.
I don't like his arrogance, such as his comments to Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times when asked about a report that NFL defenses have figured out his gimmicky up-tempo offense.
That arrogance was on display yet again when Farmer asked Kelly what he was going to do differently in his second stint as an NFL head coach.
“Put a lot more sunscreen on,” Kelly quipped.
When Kelly first took the Niners job, he sang a different tune, talking about an "autopsy" of what went so wrong during his time in Philadelphia.
And yet in the preseason, it was more of the same old offense—an offense the NFL has figured out. An offense that puts his defense in the untenable position of constantly being on the field.
Sometimes the smartest thing an NFL coach can figure out is how little he knows.
From all indications, Kelly still believes he knows it all.
27. Jeff Fisher, Los Angeles Rams
6 of 32
Last Week: 21
Quote of the Week: "I have not placed any demands on our players. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and we shared the same philosophy with the anthem. I understand full well the choices that are made, not only Kap’s choice but the choices that have been made over time. I do have, however, a respect for the anthem and a respect for this country and respect for our flag. I have every right as a head coach and we have a right as an organization to express our feelings from that standpoint."
As Nick Wagoner of ESPN reported, when the Rams opened the season against the San Francisco 49ers Monday, there was a clear expectation from head coach Jeff Fisher on how his players should act during the national anthem.
I'm not going to mount my soapbox over the anthem "controversy." Personally, I'm just glad I live in a country where dissenting or even unpopular opinions can be expressed without fear of being dragged from your home in the middle of the night.
The anthem was the best part of Monday night for the Rams though.
After that the game started.
Somehow, Jeff Fisher and the Rams managed to figure out a way to look worse than Cleveland in Week 1, getting pasted by a bad San Francisco 49ers team to the tune of 28-0.
It just hammers a sobering fact home.
Yes, Jeff Fisher once coached in a Super Bowl. But that was a long time ago. The last century, as a matter of fact.
If that, and the Rams' woeful performance against San Fran, isn't enough to convince you Fisher's best days are long gone, try this on for size.
The Browns have been in the playoffs more recently than Fisher.
26. Ben McAdoo, New York Giants
7 of 32
Last Week: 32
Quote of the Week: “I’m still replaying the game in my head. Sometime in February I’ll enjoy it.’’
It would be understandable if Ben McAdoo was feeling a bit celebratory. After all, not only did his New York Giants emerge from Week 1 with a 20-19 victory, but that win came at the expense of the Giants' hated rivals in Dallas.
Still, McAdoo told Paul Schwartz of the New York Post he wasn't about to let his emotions get the better of him. “My emotions didn’t have much to do with anything,’’ he said. “I was focused on the game.’’
Now, after a one-point win that could have just as easily been a two-point loss if Cowboys wideout Terrance Williams knew how clocks work, it's important not to get too caught up in the satisfaction—just as McAdoo said.
Don't go making those travel plans for Houston just yet.
However, the past couple years in New York were filled with Giants losses in games like this one, with Big Blue coming up just short in the end.
For one week at least, McAdoo appears to have flipped that script.
25. Doug Pederson, Philadelphia Eagles
8 of 32
Last Week: 31
Quote of the Week: “I thought he called a heck of a game, honestly. He went for it on fourth down, and I was able to go out there and make a play. He was aggressive early. The first 15 to 30 plays were very efficient, and it felt like we were on the field the entire game, honestly.”
That was tight end Zach Ertz's review of coach Doug Pederson's NFL debut, spoken to Dave Zangaro of CSN Philadelphia after the Eagles smoked the hapless Cleveland Browns.
As debuts go, there was a lot to like. Pederson called an extremely balanced game offensively, with a run/pass split that was near 50/50. That balance allowed the Eagles to dominate time of possession, with the team holding the ball for over 39 minutes for the first time since 2011.
Pederson also showed faith in rookie quarterback Carson Wentz, dialing up a pass play on 4th-and-4 from the Cleveland 40 in the third quarter of a five-point game.
“Normally in those situations … it kind of takes the wind out of the sails defensively, and you know, I was in that mode of, I wanted to stay aggressive with Carson and the guys, and just dialed it up the next play,” Pederson said.
That call worked beautifully, like most of Pederson's on Sunday. One play later, Wentz found Nelson Agholor for a 35-yard score that blew the game open.
Sure, it came against the NFL's JV squad (the Browns really are that bad), but it's hard to imagine things going much better for Pederson in Week 1 than how they played out.
And with a Monday night tilt next week against a beatable Chicago Bears team, a 2-0 start is a real possibility.
24. Dan Quinn, Atlanta Falcons
9 of 32
Last Week: 22
Quote of the Week: "I felt offensively we were way better equipped to attack and although we didn’t establish some of that down in the red zone, I feel like we are way better equipped to do that. Defensively I feel our speed more. We looked better on third down and that was an area of emphasis for us."
With any postgame press conference, there's going to be a certain amount of coachspeak. But when listening to Dan Quinn's comments, per D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, after his Falcons were beaten at home by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, one might think he was watching a different game from the rest of us.
The Falcons fell apart in the third quarter, with a number of costly penalties that stymied their drives and extended Tampa's advances. And for reasons known only to Quinn and his therapist, when facing a big fourth-quarter deficit, the Falcons continued to huddle up and chew up valuable clock.
Worse, Quinn's revamped defense was outclassed and outcoached in every way.
Quinn did his best to spin what was all-in-all an ugly performance. "There are things for us to be positive about," he said. "The scars that we had today fueled our games going forward in terms of the mistakes we made and until we do that we are going to play as well as we can.”
Wait, what?
A year ago, Atlanta started the season 5-0 and Quinn generated early Coach of the Year buzz. Since then, Quinn's Falcons have gone 3-9. With a brutal stretch coming on the schedule, Quinn may soon be hearing a different kind of buzz.
Buzz about his job security.
23. Rex Ryan, Buffalo Bills
10 of 32
Last Week: 17
Quote of the Week: “Just looking at yourself sometimes, that isn’t it. I’m probably one of the only coaches that will give credit to the opponent, and that defense played extremely well. They’re well-coached, and they got after us.”
While I'm on the subject of long-time head coaches whose reputations are inflated by early success...
Hi Rex!
I will give credit where it's due. Rex Ryan is at least honest, such as when he described how Baltimore completely shut down the Bills offense to Ryan Mink of the Ravens' website after a 13-7 Week 1 loss.
Just as in 2015, penalties were an issue for Buffalo. The Bills led the NFL in called fouls last year and tied for the NFL lead with 143 accepted penalties.
The Bills racked up eight penalties for 89 yards against the Ravens, leaving Ryan in excuse-mode after the game, per Matthew Fairburn of UpNY.com:
"Some of them you can excuse. The one that (Nickell) Robey got, he's trying to make a tackle, and he got the back of the helmet. So that one, I understand. Jerry (Hughes), trying to make a play on the quarterback, he thinks (Flacco)'s running with the football. I can live with that penalty because they're going to full speed. That's what we're trying to do. But there's some that I just can't live with. Like the field goal. You have to be smart there. We know the rules. And there's other ones that are just frustrating.
"
That's the problem with Ryan. At the beginning of the season, there's tough talk and playoff predictions. Seventeen weeks later, there's a list of reasons why it's not his fault he hasn't made it to the postseason since 2010.
If Ryan doesn't get the Bills in the playoffs in 2016, it will almost surely cost him his job.
Given his penchant for talking, it's a safe bet he won't hurt for work—and we'll be seeing him on a pre-game show a year from now.
22. Dirk Koetter, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
11 of 32
Last Week: 30
Quote of the Week: "A lot was said. We were just happy to get that win for our coach. … It was very important for us to make him feel that this moment was very special."
As Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston told Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times, it was an emotional time in the winner's locker room after the Bucs downed the Atlanta Falcons in a game that wasn't as close as the score.
Koetter admitted that it may have gotten dusty in there after Winston presented the game ball to the first-year head coach.
"Yeah, I did. I tend to get emotional," Koetter said. "I'm 1-0. I might retire right now."
Ranking Koetter this high might be getting a little carried away. Drinking a bit too much tangerine kool-aid, if you will.
But the Buccaneers performance Sunday only reinforced my belief that Tampa is a sneaky playoff contender in 2016. The offensive acumen and success with Winston that got Koetter the job were on display in a four-touchdown explosion by the second-year signal-caller.
The performance of Mike Smith's defense may have been even more impressive—his hire could be the real difference-maker for the Buccaneers in 2016. In bringing the former-Atlanta Falcons head coach on board, Koetter made the sort of call that differentiates good head coaches from bad ones.
Know what you don't know, and then go get someone who knows what you don't know...or something to that effect.
It's only one game, and we'll have a much better idea just how good the Bucs are when they travel to face the Arizona Cardinals in Week 2.
But only one team in the NFC South won its first game of the season, and Tampa Bay did so in emphatic fashion.
21. Gus Bradley, Jacksonville Jaguars
12 of 32
Last Week: 23
Quote of the Week: “'Now I think when they’re confident that should be a sign that they feel prepared,' Gus related about his team’s vision of the opener. 'They’re prepared, they understand the task in front of them, the challenges that they’re facing, but they’re clear on it and they know what they need to do. So I think when you’re prepared like that it breeds confidence.'”
In the lead-up to the Jacksonville Jaguars season opener against the Green Bay Packers, head coach Gus Bradley told Sam Kouvaris of News4JAX that he could see the 53 individuals on his roster coming together as a team.
"This group is really into football, really, really into it," Bradley said. "You can tell by how they’re watching film together and they’re doing it as groups rather than individuals, which is cool.”
Week 1 didn't unfold as Bradley and the Jaguars had hoped, with the team falling 27-23 to the Green Bay Packers thanks to a scintillating performance from quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
However, the Jags gave the Packers all they could handle, with Bradley unleashing an aggressive game plan in which Jacksonville went for it four times on fourth down.
“I knew we needed to be aggressive,” Bradley told Ryan O'Halloran of the Florida Times-Union. “This team we were facing was very explosive on offense and we had a plan during the week to be aggressive on fourth down. I’m not saying it’s going to happen every week, but we felt strongly about what we were doing offensively.”
I can't bump Bradley any higher than this. Not until production meets potential and the Jaguars start winning football games.
But make no mistake—Bradley's patient rebuild is showing some fruit, and the days of the Jaguars being a gimme win for opponents are in the rearview mirror.
20. Jim Caldwell, Detroit Lions
13 of 32
Last Week: 24
Quote of the Week: "We practice that situation all the time with no timeouts and our guys are pretty comfortable with that situation. So with three we felt pretty good about it."
With the Indianapolis Colts driving late in Sunday's tilt with the Lions, a question made its way through the minds of fans and pundits alike.
Why wasn't Detroit head coach Jim Caldwell calling timeout to preserve some time for his team if the Colts scored?
Indy did indeed take the lead, leaving the Lions less than 40 seconds to try to salvage a win.
But Detroit also had all three timeouts, which meant Matthew Stafford and the Detroit offense could use the middle of the field instead of having to work the boundary.
Sure enough, the Lions were able to drive into Matt Prater's range, and they left Lucas Oil Stadium with a 39-35 victory.
As Brendan Savage of MLive reported, that's just how Caldwell planned it.
"That's why we were trying to hang onto it (the timeouts)," Caldwell said, "because we knew it was probably going to be somewhere between 25 and 30 seconds when we got it back. So if we had all our timeouts we could move it down the field."
I will freely admit that I've been in the crowd of Caldwell's critics. Between his stoic demeanor and the fact he seemingly never blinks, it sometimes looks like he's daydreaming on the sidelines.
But Caldwell led the Colts to a Super Bowl 10 years ago, and after last year's disastrous 1-7 start, he rallied the troops in Motown to a 6-2 second half.
There are a number of coaches in the NFL with reputations better than their results (see Ryan).
Maybe with Caldwell it's the other way around.
I'm starting to think he's better at his job than we give him credit for.
19. Chuck Pagano, Indianapolis Colts
14 of 32
Last Week: 19
Quote of the Week: “We wanted to get the guys in the huddle and get a play called. Yeah, we can look back and say it would’ve been nice to bleed a lot more time off the clock. Looking back on it, could we have burned more time off the clock? Yeah, but we had some personnel issues. We wanted to get a few other guys, a different personnel group in there, and decided to call a timeout there and regroup and get back to the line of scrimmage."
It isn't entirely Chuck Pagano's fault that, despite Andrew Luck tossing four touchdown passes and the Indianapolis Colts scoring 35 points, his team sits at 0-1 after a wild 39-35 loss at home to the Detroit Lions.
However, Pagano's decision to call timeout with about a minute and a half remaining in the game and the Colts at the Lions' 12-yard line drew fire after Detroit was left enough time to drive into field goal range against Indy's matador defense.
OLE!
As Stephen Holder of the Indy Star reported, Pagano defended the decision.
“We felt like it was more important at that time to get back, get gathered, get a call in and get settled because we still needed the touchdown," Pagano said. "We felt like they still had to go however far they had to go to get in field goal range and we can close it out.”
It's an explanation that would make a lot more sense had the Colts bled time off the play clock and then called timeout, instead of calling it immediately after T.Y. Hilton was stopped for no gain.
It looked like a panic move. A case of the yips.
The defense was even more indefensible. Yes, the Colts were down cornerback Vontae Davis, safety Clayton Geathers and defensive end Henry Anderson. But defense is supposed to be Pagan's specialty, and there was nothing special about how they played on Sunday.
During last year's disappointing 8-8 campaign, there were more than a few grumblings about Pagano's job security. Rumblings that maybe he wasn't as good a head coach as his success in his first few years with the team would indicate.
Those rumblings have begun anew.
18. Jason Garrett, Dallas Cowboys
15 of 32
Last Week: 16
Quote of the Week: “A poor decision. His instincts took over. We’ll all learn from that situation.”
Given that the Dallas Cowboys entered Sunday's NFC East showdown with the New York Giants preparing to start a rookie quarterback in Dak Prescott, Jason Garrett and his coaching staff deserve more than a little credit for how the team performed.
An injury- and suspension-depleted Dallas defense held a Giants team that ranked inside the top 10 in total offense last year to 20 points. Prescott didn't light up the scoreboard in his first NFL appearance, but he also didn't make any backbreaking mistakes.
Terrance Williams, on the other hand, did.
With the Cowboys on the fringe of big-legged kicker Dan Bailey's range, Williams failed to run of bounds with the Cowboys out of timeouts. By the time the Cowboys raced to the line and Prescott spiked the ball, the clock read 00:00 and the Cowboys lost 20-19.
Williams accepted responsibility for the gaffe while speaking with Jarrett Bell of USA Today. "It's still a poor decision for me," Williams said. "It's one of those things that just happened at a bang-bang moment. Just looking back, I'll never do it again.
On some level, it might be kind of unfair to hold Garrett responsible for Williams' boneheaded move.
But it's also fair to ask whether the Cowboys practice these situations—drill it into players' minds to get out of bounds as soon as they make the catch.
You can bet the rent that the Bill Belichicks and Pete Carrolls of the NFL do.
17. Jay Gruden, Washington Redskins
16 of 32
Last Week: 14
Quote of the Week: “He’s a real player's coach, that’s the only way I can describe it. He’s absolutely, 100 percent a player's coach, and everybody on the team frickin’ loves him.”
That's how long snapper Nick Sundberg described Jay Gruden of the Washington Redskins while speaking with Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post.
It's a remarkable turnaround for a coach who won only four games in his inaugural season in 2014. After the Redskins started the 2015 season 3-5, it didn't appear Gruden was long for the nation's capital.
Then, led by quarterback Kirk Cousins, the Redskins caught fire. The team went 6-2 down the stretch, and when the dust settled, the Redskins were the NFC East champions.
That division title has brought higher expectations for 2016. The Redskins spent big bucks in free agency on cornerback Josh Norman, hopeful that an improved defense would help spur a deep playoff run.
However, when the Redskins met the Steelers in Week 1, it wasn't Norman covering star wide receiver Antonio Brown. The Steelers simply slid Brown to the other side of the field, where he matched up with Bashaud Breeland.
Or overmatched.
To the surprise of no one, Brown abused Breeland for well over 100 yards and a pair of touchdown catches in a Steelers rout, and Washington looked more like the team from last September than the one from last December.
It's only one game, but getting embarrassed at home isn't how Gruden wanted to kick off the division title defense.
When Dez Bryant comes to town in Week 2, it might be a good idea for Gruden to consider occasionally matching up his star cornerback on him.
Just a suggestion.
16. Todd Bowles, New York Jets
17 of 32
Last Week: 15
Quote of the Week: "You saw the [plays] before, we took a step backwards. It's better to make the kick as opposed to going for it."
Over his 17 games as head coach of the New York Jets, Todd Bowles has demonstrated time and again that where 4th-and-short is concerned, he is risk averse. Nine times out of 10, he'll take the three points or punt.
And it keeps costing him.
Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Jets had 2nd-and-goal at the one down 20-16. After Matt Forte lost a yard and Ryan Fitzpatrick threw an incomplete pass, Bowles kicked a chip shot field goal to pull within one.
Then, on the next drive, the Jets again had a 4th-and-short, this time needing a yard from the Cincy six.
Again, Bowles took the points.
That two-point lead didn't hold, but after a 23-22 defeat, Bowles told Andy Vasquez of NorthJersey.com he wasn't second-guessing the calls.
"You want to take the lead," Bowles said. "If you have a chance to take the lead, you have to take the lead. We thought our defense would hold up and stop them."
Bowles might not want to second-guess himself, but I have no such reservations.
The Jets barely missed the playoffs last year. A few plays here and there that could have turned the tide for the season.
Like, say, a Thursday night home tilt against the Bills that unfolded eerily like this game. The Jets kept driving inside the 10-yard-line—but rather than rolling the dice, Bowles settled for field goals.
The Jets lost that game too.
15. John Fox, Chicago Bears
18 of 32
Last Week: 15
Quote of the Week: “You don’t do too well with challenges on spots. If it’s not clear cut, it doesn’t get changed.”
Per Chris Emma of CBS Chicago, that was Bears head coach John Fox's rationale for not challenging an especially favorable spot on a sneak by Brock Osweiler in the Houston Texans 23-14 win over the Bears Sunday.
The Texans scored shortly thereafter, taking the lead for good. And in Emma's opinion, Fox blew the call.
"Football is full of what-if scenarios, but this one was cut and dry," Emma wrote. "The Texans would’ve faced a fourth down and likely attempted a field goal, which would’ve made their lead 16-14, not 20-14. As it played out when the Bears were looking to come back in the final minutes, they trailed by two scores instead of one."
The decision was made all the more curious when Fox did challenge an obvious catch by Houston wideout Will Fuller about halfway through the fourth quarter. Fox explained that one away as just getting his defense a breather.
“That was just a long timeout,” Fox said.
Combined with a called-QB sneak behind a rookie center on 4th-and-1 in the first quarter with the Bears leading 7-0, and it's a game that won't go into Fox's "best of" compilation video.
Don't get me wrong. John Fox has had tremendous success as an NFL head coach. He's a member of a very small club of men who have coached two teams in the Super Bowl.
But the NFL is a results business. Fox lost both those Super Bowls, and right now the Bears are not a good football team by any stretch of the imagination.
14. Bill O'Brien, Houston Texans
19 of 32
Last Week: 20
Quote of the Week: "We understand that 9-7 is not the bar. We feel like we’ve made some really good strides here in the past two years with our football team. We’ve overcome some adversity. We have a mentally tough team. We’ve got a bunch of great guys in that locker room but we know that the 9-7 bar is too low."
The Houston Texans were the AFC South champions in 2015, but as the team prepared to face the Bears in Week 1, head coach Bill O' Brien made it clear to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle that nine wins wasn't going to cut it this season.
"We’re very well aware of the fact that we need to go out there and play more consistent, play better than we have in the past," O'Brien said. "But that is in the past. This is a new team and I really like the way this team is practicing. We’ll go from there.”
It wasn't a franchise-defining, dominant performance, but O'Brien's Texans did go on the road and beat the Bears 23-14. The win came in Brock Osweiler's first start for the club and with its best player (J.J. Watt) at far less than 100 percent.
Are the Texans a Super Bowl favorite? No. It's a stretch to call them a serious contender to be the first team in NFL history to play the championship game on their home field.
But the Texans were the only team in their division to win in Week 1, and they appear the most balanced team in the AFC South.
O'Brien isn't racking up style points doing it, but he's having success as an NFL head coach.
Maybe if he has some more, people will actually notice.
13. Jack Del Rio, Oakland Raiders
20 of 32
Last Week: 18
Quote of the Week: "I was thinking that we're here to win; let's win it right now,"
We've just about reached the end of the "movers and shakers" portion of this piece. Most of the rest of the coaches on this list either have Coach of the Year awards, Super Bowl rings or both.
One game isn't going to change their resume much.
But if there's one NFL head coach who deserves a big bump in these rankings based on Week 1, it's Gambling Jack Del Rio of the Oakland Raiders.
Del Rio's decision to go for a two-point conversion with less than a minute left in Sunday's shootout with the New Orleans Saints was a decision that toed the line between gutsy and nutsy. Del Rio would have been excoriated had the Raiders come up short.
Of course, as Paul Gutierrez of ESPN reported, it did work, and quarterback Derek Carr did his best to pretend it was the sort of play call coaches make all the time.
"I just said, 'OK, no problem,'" Carr said. "When I got the call, I took a deep breath, made sure my footwork was right and just lobbed it up for Crab. ... I say lob it up, but obviously trying to put it in a certain spot where he can make a play."
In every NFL season, there are a few defining moments. Plays that set the tone for success or failure.
This was one of those moments—and it was glorious.
12. Sean Payton, New Orleans Saints
21 of 32
Last Week: 8
Quote of the Week: "There will be a lot of things for us to look at and correct when we get to watch the film, but I don’t want to jump to a conclusion and just give an answer before we get to see everything played back. There’s a point where you have to dig down and get off the field."
This ranking might catch some flak from Saints fans. And I'll grant them that Sean Payton is one of the better offensive minds in football—a coach who has hoisted the Lombardi trophy as champion of the NFL. But at some point, a question has to be asked.
How much responsibility does Payton bear for the Saints' horrific defensive play?
According to Payton, via the team's website, the defense wasn't even the problem in a 35-34 loss to the Oakland Raiders at the Superdome:
"Look, in a game like this, conventional wisdom would point to the defense, but I would say that we didn’t score enough offensively. That’s how the game was being played today, and we didn’t do a good enough job of that."
Oh yeah, 34 points is a terrible day for an offense. They should be ashamed.
I know that Payton doesn't coach defense. But he picked the coordinator. I have no doubt he has a large say in personnel decisions. And this is hardly a new problem.
I really hope Payton was just trying to deflect criticism of his besieged defense. Because if he really believes the team doesn't have a big problem on that side of the ball, the Saints are in even more trouble than I thought.
11. Mike McCarthy, Green Bay Packers
22 of 32
Last Week: 11
Quote of the Week: "'BBD,' man. I’m boring by design. My goal in the press conference is to be informative to the fans but at all costs try not to create questions for the locker room. That’s a mindset that I’ve had every time I walk to the podium.”
Mike McCarthy of the Green Bay Packers is a championship head coach. Head man for a Packers team that's annually listed among the favorites to make the Super Bowl. In his 10 years at the helm in Titletown, the Packers have been to the playoffs eight times.
As Jason Wilde of ESPN wrote, McCarthy's also a coach who tries as best he can not to add to the drama surrounding his star-studded team.
“It’s just managing the expectations for your players,” McCarthy said. “These guys have a lot on their plate that they need to do to be successful and [their head coach] making statements that’s going to cause them to answer more questions and spend more time, to me it’s a waste of time."
Now if we could only get McCarthy to stop adding to the drama during games.
Yes, the Packers held on to defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars 27-23 Sunday. But as Nate Scott of USA Today wrote, McCarthy's penchant for playing conservatively kept the game closer than it needed to be.
"McCarthy tried to lose that game about 9 times on Sunday," Scott said. "Each time his defense or Rodgers bailed him out. You can tweak him for clock management or call him out for personnel decisions, but my biggest issue with McCarthy is a simple one: He doesn’t coach to win. He coaches not to lose."
This isn't a new problem, either. McCarthy left more than a few points on the field in the 2014 NFC Championship Game in Seattle. It wasn't the sole cause of the Green Bay collapse in that game, but it contributed.
McCarthy's tendency to play it safe isn't going to keep the Packers out of the playoffs. It probably won't keep them from winning the NFC North.
With Rodgers under center, it may not even keep them out of the Super Bowl, despite the quarterback's apparent displeasure when McCarthy elected to kick a field goal in the fourth quarter Sunday.
But the deeper you get into the playoffs, the slimmer the margin for error.
And the greater the chance that refusing to take a risk will get you beat.
10. Andy Reid, Kansas City Chiefs
23 of 32
Last Week: 12
Quote of the Week: "You see that with the great quarterbacks; they make everybody around them better. You saw that with Alex yesterday. I would match his second half with anybody I’ve been around in this league. He made some phenomenal, phenomenal plays. It’s a tribute to him."
Andy Reid is apparently good at circling wagons.
Last year, it was rallying a 1-5 Chiefs team to 10 straight wins and a playoff blowout of the Houston Texans. Sunday, it was the single biggest comeback in the 55+ year history of the franchise.
Down 24-3 in the third quarter, the Chiefs roared back to tie the game at 27 before eventually prevailing 33-27 in overtime on an Alex Smith keeper.
According to ESPN's Adam Teicher, Reid gave all the credit for the miraculous win to his veteran signal-caller.
“Any time somebody reaches a level they haven’t reached before, it proves to everybody, the whole room, including himself, that nothing is impossible," Reid commented. “(Through) hard work, dedication, you can always better yourself. That’s the way Alex approaches things. Guys see that. Not only does it help him in his game and his confidence, but it also helps the players around him."
The year before Reid arrived in Kansas City, the Chiefs were the NFL's worst team. Since then, they've made the playoffs twice in three seasons, with many expecting a return trip in 2016.
With each win, the odds improve that the Chiefs will be in the hunt when they get outside linebacker Justin Houston and tailback Jamaal Charles back in the fold. And at full strength, the Chiefs are more than capable of breaking another barrier.
Getting Reid back to the Super Bowl.
9. Mike Zimmer, Minnesota Vikings
24 of 32
Last Week: 10
Quote of the Week: “We’ve got to put our nose to the grindstone, we’ve got to get to work, we’ve got to fix the things that we f–that we messed up this week.”
Speaking of circling the wagons, Mike Zimmer did a pretty freaking good job of that himself in Week 1.
It's understandable that Zimmer was fired up after the Vikings came storming back to beat the Tennessee Titans 25-16, per ESPN 1500 in the Twin Cities.
After losing starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to a nasty knee injury and trading for Sam Bradford, a Vikings team with Super Bowl aspirations entered Week 1 awash in doubt. Those doubts were amplified when the Vikes fell behind the Titans 10-0.
But the team rallied in true Zimmer style, with the defense notching a pair of touchdowns while shutting down Marcus Mariota and the Tennessee offense.
There's no time to celebrate, however. Not with a Week 2 showdown against the Packers looming on the schedule.
Will Bradford be ready to make his first start against the Packers, or will it again be veteran backup Shaun Hill under center?
As Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press tweeted, Zimmer isn't telling. "I just think it's be good for sports talk radio,'' Zimmer deadpanned.
He's a coach. He's a comedian. A true Renaissance man, that Mike Zimmer.
8. Marvin Lewis, Cincinnati Bengals
25 of 32
Last Week: 9
Quote of the Week: “It makes you 1-0, which is a good thing. I think it kicks off the season the right way. You focus on this since the schedule came out. It’s an opportunity to get off to a fast start.”
Only one head coach in the National Football League has been at his current post longer than Marvin Lewis. But where Bill Belichick has a handful of Super Bowl rings with the New England Patriots, Lewis is still searching for his first playoff victory.
Given five straight trips to the playoffs without a single win to show for it, the preseason questions lobbed at Lewis were predictably about the big picture.
To his credit, as the statement above—per John Fay of WCPO—shows, Lewis was more concerned about beating a good New York Jets team on the road in Week 1.
Lewis got his wish, with the Bengals eking out a one-point win. It was the sort of gut-check victory that often sets the contenders apart from the pretenders.
Were this any other NFL team, it's a victory I'd hail as a tone-setter. And the Bengals are a legitimate contender on paper—a team that's as deep and talented from one to 53 as any in the NFL.
But until the Bengals can notch that elusive postseason victory, there will always be a touch of the Bungles surrounding them. And Lewis will be an NFL rarity...
A top-10 coach on the hot seat.
7. Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers
26 of 32
Last Week: 7
Quote of the Week: "I think the first game is less about the people that you play, and more about you doing you—us being detail-oriented from an assignment standpoint, playing hard, communicating well, not being highly penalized. I think we all—and when I say we, I mean all 32 teams—really have a similar challenge this week, that we need to be a tough team to beat and the first thing to do that—the first element of that—is not beating yourselves."
Hard as it is to believe, at 44 years of age, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is a grizzled veteran of the coaching game. 2016 marks his 10th season running the show in the Steel City.
Over that decade he's seen the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. He's been to two Super Bowls, lifted the Lombardi trophy and temporarily forgotten he's no longer on special teams.
And as he told Mike Jones of the Washington Post, he thinks he knows what to expect in Week 1.
It looked like Tomlin knew exactly what to expect from the Washington Redskins Monday night. The Steelers stymied the Washington offense, but Pittsburgh had no problems at all moving the ball on their end.
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw three touchdown passes, including two to Antonio Brown. Tailback DeAngelo Williams, subbing for the suspended Le'Veon Bell, rushed for well over 100 yards and a pair of scores in a 38-16 beatdown.
The AFC North is considered by many the toughest division in the NFL. It's the only division in the league with two head coaches who have each won football's biggest game.
Heading into a big Week 2 meeting with the 1-0 Cincinnati Bengals, Tomlin's Steelers look like the class of that division.
6. Ron Rivera, Carolina Panthers
27 of 32
Last Week: 6
Quote of the Week: "I think there's a little bit of prejudice to [the calls]. Again, it's kind of like what happened to Shaquille O'Neal. Here's a big, physical basketball player and he goes to set a pick and a guy falls down and they call a foul on him. He goes to shoot a little layup and he gets hacked and hammered and they don't call it. At least that's the way I look at it."
As Conor Orr of NFL.com reported (h/t Andrew Lynch of Fox Sports), Rivera was none too pleased with the lack of calls made in Thursday's season-opening loss to the Denver Broncos—a loss that featured a number of headshots taken at Panthers quarterback Cam Newton.
It was a game the Panthers looked to be in control of for most of the contest. The Panthers led 17-7 entering the fourth quarter, only to see the Broncos peel off 14 unanswered points to take the lead and eventually win the game.
Of course, had the Panthers gotten some calls or if Graham Gano made a 50-yard field goal attempt at game's end, the Panthers would be 1-0.
And the talk would be centered around whether or not Trevor Siemian is really the answer at quarterback for the Broncos. Instead, we have grumbles about the Panthers squandering a double-digit lead in the final 15 minutes to a quarterback making his first career start.
As ESPN's David Newton wrote, Rivera made no excuses after the defeat. “It's unfortunate," Rivera said. "I thought our guys played well enough. They gave us the opportunity. I liked the fact that Cam quoted me afterwards and that was, ‘Coach Rivera likes to say if you play good, you better be careful because you're good enough to get beat.’’’
5. John Harbaugh, Baltimore Ravens
28 of 32
Last Week: 5
Quote of the Week: “Joe is as tough as a $2 steak. My brother didn’t come up with that, either. It’s from an old western, just for the record.”
The 2015 season was an injury-plagued disaster for the Baltimore Ravens and head coach John Harbaugh. One of the most devastating losses was the torn ACL suffered by quarterback Joe Flacco, who made his return to action Sunday against the Buffalo Bills.
The Ravens squeezed out a 13-7 home win, but it was a win Harbaugh watched through his hands. Flacco took a pretty good beating in the game, with the Bills logging four sacks and nine quarterback hits.
Afterward, Harbaugh made it clear to Ryan Mink of the team's website that the offensive line is going to have to do better moving forward.
“We sure want to protect our quarterback better than that,” Harbaugh said. “When you’re going against this defense, that’s always the number one task. It’s always a challenge. I’m sure there’s plenty of things we could have done better.”
Harbaugh and the Ravens may well be the best team in the NFL that no one is talking about. Last year marked only the second time since Harbaugh took the reins in 2008 that Baltimore didn't win a playoff game.
They're also one of the oldest teams in the league, with a roster full of veteran starters coming off serious injuries.
If those players stay healthy and the Ravens make it deep into the playoffs, Harbaugh will likely be one of the leading contenders to be named Coach of the Year.
But if the injuries start to mount again, the Ravens could be looking at some tough offseason decisions.
4. Gary Kubiak, Denver Broncos
29 of 32
Last Week: 4
Quote of the Week: “I want them emotional. They worked hard to be emotional. They pay the price all week long. You trust them and let them play. Our guys, usually if they’re not talking a little bit, something’s wrong. I want them to be themselves and go play and have fun.”
As Nicki Jhabvala of the Denver Post wrote last week, Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak wanted his team to come out fired up against the Carolina Panthers. He certainly appeared to get his wish.
That's been a running theme with Kubiak's Broncos since winning the Super Bowl—and it appears to be paying off.
Kubiak made the decision to go with the untested Trevor Siemian at quarterback, and while no one is going to confuse Siemian with John Elway or fellow Northwestern alum Otto Graham anytime soon, the youngster did enough to get a win in his debut start.
Kubiak wanted to run his offense in 2016. No more pistol appeasement of Peyton Manning. Very little time in the shotgun. Even the presence of (GASP!) a fullback.
Yes, they still have fullbacks in the NFL.
The Denver run game was the engine that powered the offense Thursday. Against a Carolina team that ranked fourth in the NFL against the run last year, the Broncos rolled up 148 yards on the ground.
And finally, it was Kubiak who decided to ice Carolina kicker Graham Gano prior to Gano's game-deciding 50-yard field goal attempt.
For once, icing actually worked. Gano pushed it left, and the Broncos started their title defense with a one-point win.
3. Bruce Arians, Arizona Cardinals
30 of 32
Last Week: 3
Quote of the Week: “We should have won the game. As poorly as we played, we still should have won.”
As Ryan Hathaway of Boston.com reported, Bruce Arians was not a happy camper after the Arizona Cardinals fell to a short-handed New England Patriots team Sunday night. But the Arizona coach still believed the team was just a few feet from victory.
“We didn’t really play well enough in any phase, special teams, offense or defense, to win this game, although we still had chance and didn’t execute our snap, hold, and kick," Arians said.
However, Eric Edholm of Yahoo Sports saw things a bit differently. In his opinion, "cute" play-calls (including a pass to little-used wideout Jaron Brown) on the final drive cost Arizona valuable yardage on that final field goal attempt.
"Arians is a fantastic coach who is not scared to go against the grain," Edholm said, "and his players love him for it. That gambling style many times gives the Cardinals chances to win the game. But on Sunday night in a game the Cardinals could have stolen at the end, Arians’ error in judgment cost them."
Frankly, they're both right. Once the Cardinals made it to the 33-yard line, it made the most sense to run the ball with David Johnson on 2nd-and-9, especially with the Patriots in the nickel. The worst-case scenario was the Cardinals kicking from where they eventually did. The best case was getting Chandler Catanzaro substantially closer.
But NFL teams should be able to hit 47-yard field goals, and the special teams unit let the club down in a game where the Cardinals weren't at their best.
Arians is a two-time Coach of the Year, so Arizona will probably be fine. But he has some work to do. The Cardinals are a game back of first-place Seattle already, and with the Buccaneers coming to University of Phoenix Stadium on Sunday, getting to 1-1 won't be an easy task.
2. Pete Carroll, Seattle Seahawks
31 of 32
Last Week: 2
Quote of the Week: "He got a sprained ankle and he’s got a little bit of swelling and he’ll make it through. I mean, how could you think otherwise?"
There's good news and bad news in the Pacific Northwest.
The good news is that despite a less than stellar performance, the Seattle Seahawks are 1-0, compliments of a 12-10 win over the Miami Dolphins Sunday afternoon.
The bad news is that during that game, all-everything quarterback Russell Wilson suffered what Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network called a "significant" ankle injury.
Carroll, for his part, told Tony Drovetto of the team's website that he expects Wilson back on the field Sunday in Los Angeles:
"He’s going to make it through it. But we have to take into account that it’s going to be hard, it’s going to be hard for him to practice and stuff like that, so we’ll have to do a few things here. ... He doesn’t care what it feels like. He’s going to go anyway, it doesn’t matter what it is. He was banged up a couple years ago and you guys never even knew it. His teammates didn’t even know it. So he’s a stud.
"
The Seahawks came into the 2016 season with one goal: win Super Bowl 51. And while Wilson hasn't missed a practice (much less a game) in his NFL career, it's going to be an interesting situation for Carroll to manage.
If Seattle had any sort of capable backup behind Wilson, my money would be on Wilson sitting in Week 2. But with rookie Trevone Boykin second on the depth chart, Carroll has a real dilemma on his hands.
Time to earn this ranking, Pete.
1. Bill Belichick, New England Patriots
32 of 32
Last Week: 1
Quote of the Week: “The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I am the master."
OK, so that quote is from Darth Vader in Star Wars: A New Hope. But there's no denying that where NFL head coaches are concerned, none can manipulate the Force with the skill of Darth Hoodie.
That mastery was on display Sunday night in the desert, as Belichick's diluted New England Patriots team upset the Arizona Cardinals 23-21.
No Tom Brady? No problem. Youngster Jimmy Garoppolo completed 70 percent of his passes and converted 8-of-10 first downs.
No Rob Gronkowski? Rob who? The Patriots still managed to lock down the win against a Cardinals team that was 13-3 last year.
Per Jason Cole of Bleacher Report, Belichick was his usual kind, grandfatherly self when discussing Garoppolo's NFL debut:
"'I don't know, there were times when we threw the ball well, we executed crisply. There were times we needed to be more consistent on that, but that's everybody, the offense, the defense,' Belichick said. 'We just gotta…it's early in the year. It was a good win here tonight. We need to play better next week and succeeding weeks. It wasn't perfect though. It was a good performance against a good team.'
"
OK, so he didn't actually mention Garoppolo. But you have to look the bright side.
He didn't Force-choke him, either.
With Brady on the shelf, conventional wisdom said the Patriots just needed to tread water—make it through those four games at .500.
They just won the toughest of the quartet, and the next three are at Gillette Stadium.
Darth Hoodie does not lose at the Death Star.
He's not a chump like Vader.
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