Ranking the NFL's Top 5 Coaching Staffs Entering 2023 Season
Coaches may not mean as much as the on-field talent in the NFL, but a good coach knows how to get the most out of their players.
A great coach may not make the league's worst roster a playoff contender—nor would a poor coaching staff completely sink an elite squad—but with talent levels relatively equal across the league, the great ones do end up making a real difference.
Some coaching staffs stand out as a cut above the rest. Whether they consistently find a way to overcome adversity, reach the playoffs with more regularity than their peers or craftily scheme up systems that consistently outfox their counterparts, these staffs clearly elevate their lineups more than the others.
With that in mind, read on for a ranked look at the five best coaching staffs the league has to offer right now. Rankings are based on both career and recent success as well as coordinator talent.
No. 5: New England Patriots
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Head Coach: Bill Belichick
Coordinators: Bill O'Brien (offense), Jerod Mayo (defense)
It would be impossible to leave Bill Belichick off any list of the NFL's top coaches, even after a down year.
The New England Patriots head coach is widely regarded as one of, if not the best to walk the sidelines. He will remain firmly entrenched in the league's upper echelon of active coaches until he decides to end his decorated career and gets enshrined in Canton shortly after.
While the Patriots failed to make the playoffs for the second time in three years, they still managed to hover around .500 and were in contention for much of the season. They accomplished this despite a woefully inept offense, one that was clearly being mismanaged by Matt Patricia and Joe Judge after they returned to Foxborough ahead of the 2022 campaign.
Belichick was quick to rectify the mistake, bringing in Bill O'Brien to take over play-calling duties. He'll assume the same offensive coordinator title he vacated following the 2011 season, a year in which the Patriots generated an impressive 6,848 yards of offense and scored 513 points. He'll be New England's first offensive coordinator since Josh McDaniels held the role before departing to become Las Vegas Raiders head coach last year.
Belichick has still declined to name an official defensive coordinator, although Jerod Mayo appears to be the de-facto choice for most of the duties while earning an assistant head coach title. He's been a key part of the team's defensive play-calling and scheming—alongside Belichick's son, Steve—over the last four seasons.
Mayo's unit scored more defensive touchdowns than any other team and had the second-most takeaways last year.
No. 4: Jacksonville Jaguars
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Head Coach: Doug Pederson
Coordinators: Press Taylor (offense), Mike Caldwell (defense)
Doug Pederson made it abundantly clear how much of an upgrade he represented over a bad NFL coach in 2022. After Urban Meyer turned the Jacksonville Jaguars into the league's laughingstock during his short-lived tenure at the helm, Pederson was brought in to change the culture and guide the organization back to respectability.
The head coach succeeded by any measure. The Jags transformed from a hapless 3-14 squad to a dangerous one that finished the regular season with a 9-8 record, the first winning season for Jacksonville since 2017.
By guiding his side six wins in the last seven weeks—including five consecutive victories to close out the campaign—Pederson also got the Jags back into the playoffs for the first time since their AFC Championship appearance a half-decade ago. Their season-ending win over the rival Titans earned the club just its fourth AFC South crown since the franchise's inception in 1995 and second since the turn of the millennium.
Making the playoffs wasn't all Pederson was able to accomplish in 2022. His team pulled off one of the largest comebacks in league history during the Wild Card Round, overcoming a seemingly insurmountable 27-0 first-half deficit to win by a 31-30 margin on a last-second field goal. While the Jags would go on to fall to the Kansas City Chiefs the following week, they put up a tough fight against the eventual Super Bowl champions.
Pederson showed he's truly a quarterback whisperer in the process. Trevor Lawrence shook off an ugly rookie season to make a Pro Bowl appearance, likely the first of many for 2021's No. 1 overall pick. Pederson's play-calling and offensive coordinator Press Taylor's game-planning skills should help the signal-caller elevate to a perennial MVP candidate in the coming years as well.
Defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell still has some room to grow after a decent first season on the job. Although they only gave up 20.6 points per game—the 12th-best mark in the league—the Jaguars ranked in the bottom 10 for yardage allowed last year.
With some of the young pieces getting more experience and several solid veterans joining the roster in free agency, this unit could make a leap in 2023.
No. 3: New York Giants
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Head Coach: Brian Daboll
Coordinators: Mike Kafka (offense), Wink Martindale (defense)
Brian Daboll may be new to head coaching, but he's already proving to be one of the best in the business at performing the role.
The New York Giants hit a home run with his hire last offseason, a decision that resulted in the team ending an era of ineptitude that saw Ben McAdoo, Pat Shurmur and Joe Judge all fail to restore this franchise to glory following Tom Coughlin's resignation in 2016.
While Daboll's Giants didn't set the world on fire during the regular season—they only finished 9-7-1—they vastly outperformed modest expectations. It was a performance that not only brought the G-Men back to the postseason for the first time since an ill-fated 2016 appearance, but it also resulted in their first playoff victory since a Super Bowl XLVI championship run over a decade ago.
Before Daboll was brought in, it appeared starting quarterback Daniel Jones could soon be busting out of the league. The coach and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka revitalized the 2019 No. 6 overall pick's career, resulting in Jones earning a massive four-year, $160 contract extension in free agency. Star running back Saquon Barkley also had a resurgent campaign following several injury-ravaged seasons, helping New York grind out several close wins as its offensive lynchpin.
One of the more underrated personnel moves of the 2022 offseason was New York's tapping of Wink Martindale to take over the defensive coordinator job. The Giants capitalized on the Baltimore Ravens' decision to part ways with the defensive guru despite plenty of fine seasons, bringing him in to bolster Daboll's staff. Martindale helped improve New York from the No. 23 defense in 2021 to No. 18 in 2022, a promising showing with plenty of room to improve this coming season.
With Daboll already earning the NFL's Coach of the Year honors in his first season, it's clear the G-Men are in good hands and set for the future with the 48-year-old holding the reins.
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No. 2: San Francisco 49ers
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Head Coach: Kyle Shanahan
Coordinator: Steve Wilks (defense)
Kyle Shanahan may not have a Super Bowl ring yet, but it feels like it's only a matter of time before his San Francisco 49ers finally break through.
After some lean years following his appointment to his first head coaching gig in 2017, his brilliance began to shine through when he crafted one of the league's most unique and effective offenses in 2019.
Since that season, the 49ers have gone 42-24 in the regular season and 6-2 in the playoffs. They've reached three of the last four NFC Championship Games and appeared in Super Bowl LIV, narrowly losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in that contest.
Shanahan has managed to keep his Niners ranking in the league's upper echelon despite lacking a star quarterback to execute his offense. Jimmy Garoppolo never lived up to the hype after he was traded to San Francisco, but the coach hid his limitations to reach two conference title games and a Super Bowl.
The play-calling head coach didn't let injuries to Garoppolo and prized 2021 first-round pick Trey Lance slow this club down last year, seamlessly inserting Brock Purdy—the last selection in the 2022 draft—into the starting lineup.
With Purdy at the helm, the 49ers won all five of his regular-season starts and two playoff games before he went down with an injury of his own that cost the squad dearly in the NFC Championship Game. It was a masterful performance from Shanahan, who has shown he can maximize the talents of seemingly any NFL quarterback. Once he finally gets some stability and star power under center, the rest of the league should watch out.
San Francisco's defenses have also been great during much of the Shanahan era. He's made great hires that have resulted in two coordinators recently getting promoted into head coaching roles after Robert Saleh joined the New York Jets and DeMeco Ryans landed with the Houston Texans. Steve Wilks will now oversee the unit after being hired this offseason to replace Ryans. He'll inherit a roster that rated No. 1 in both total and scoring defense, so he shouldn't have much trouble succeeding in this spot.
No. 1: Kansas City Chiefs
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Head Coach: Andy Reid
Coordinators: Matt Nagy (offense), Steve Spagnuolo (defense)
It shouldn't come as a shock that the NFL's reigning dynasty has the league's best coaching staff. While the Kansas City Chiefs obviously have some of the game's top talent at key positions—most notably employing a generational talent in quarterback Patrick Mahomes—a large reason for this organization's sustained success is the creativity and consistency that Andy Reid brings to the table.
Hiring Reid in 2013 was a transformative decision for the Chiefs. While things were a touch rough at the onset—including blowing a massive playoff lead against the Indianapolis Colts in his first season at the helm and missing the postseason entirely in Year 2—it's been smooth sailing since 2015. That marked the first of eight consecutive playoff trips, a stretch that now includes five consecutive AFC Championship appearances, three Super Bowl berths and a pair of rings.
Reid's teams have been downright dominant over the last half-decade. Kansas City boasts an incredible 64-18 record since the start of the 2018 campaign, a full 10 wins ahead of the No. 2 squad on the list. The team has gained the most all-purpose yards and scored nearly 300 points more than the next closest squad in that span.
This offensive superiority has allowed the Chiefs to thrive despite being an inconsistent defensive team. Steve Spagnuolo has done well enough since taking his current role in 2019, though, and should continue faring well enough to keep Kansas City in contention for the 2023 campaign and beyond.
It does remain to be seen how the club will handle the switch from Eric Bienemy to Matt Nagy as its offensive coordinator. Although he wasn't the team's playcaller—and Nagy won't be performing that role, either—Bienemy had been Reid's right-hand man since he was promoted to the role from running backs coach in 2018. While his absence may be felt during game-planning, the venerable Reid should keep this squad on track for plenty more success.
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