Ranking every NFL division by head coaches
By Andy Davies
The NFL has been spoiled with a collection of some great head coaches.
Whether this is Vince Lombardi and Don Shula in the early Super Bowl era, the 1980’s dominance of Bill Walsh, the 21st century success of Bill Belichick or Andy Reid and Sean McVay in today’s climate, the league has been glittered with some great leaders.
There is an array of excellent head coaches in the NFL in 2025, with five first timers preparing for their first years in their respective roles. Seven of the current 32 teams have a head coach who has won a Super Bowl, with four other teams having ones who have lost one.
Here is a ranking of each division’s set of head coaches, from eighth to first.
8. AFC South (DeMeco Ryans, Shane Steichen, Brian Callahan, Liam Coen)
By a hair length, the NFC South edges out the AFC South.
DeMeco Ryans having less division titles than Bowles, Liam Coen’s first year in a head coach role and Callahan’s three wins in 2024 puts this division bottom of the list.
For Shane Steichen, he has done an admirable job with the Indianapolis Colts considering what he has been given to work with. However, Steichen was in the draft room when the organisation drafted quarterback Anthony Richardson fourth overall in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Richardson has struggled in the two seasons that have followed and Steichen will be tied to Richardson. This has caused him to be on the hot seat going into the 2025 season.
Liam Coen has yet to be involved in a regular season as an NFL head coach and is largely unproven in the role. Meanwhile. Callahan only managed three wins in his rookie year as the Tennessee Titans head coach last season, which earned the franchise the first overall pick for this year’s NFL Draft.
7. NFC South (Todd Bowles, Raheem Morris, Dave Canales, Kellen Moore)
The NFC South is seen as one of the worst divisions in the NFL, and the head coaches have just as many question marks.
Kellen Moore was highly revered as an Offensive Coordinator, working with the Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles in the role. It would be with the latter where he would have the most success, as they would win Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.
Moore stayed in Louisiana as he was hired as the New Orleans Saints head coach this offseason but is going into a concerning situation at a team that many are predicting to be a contender for the number one pick in 2026.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles is the standout of the four, after three division titles in his first three years with the team.
He has done an excellent job to repair the reputation he set up for himself as the head coach of the New York Jets.
However, Raheem Morris’ Atlanta Falcons had a collapse down the stretch last season, which allowed Bowles and the Bucs to snatch the NFC South division crown.
The improvement of the Carolina Panthers and quarterback Bryce Young under head coach Dave Canales has a part to play in the NFC South being the worst ranked division in the NFL for head coaches.
6. AFC East (Sean McDermott, Mike Vrabel, Mike McDaniel, Aaron Glenn)
It has been a dominant period for the Buffalo Bills and their head coach, Sean McDermott.
Since 2020, the Bills have won every AFC East division title available to them, receiving the baton handed to them by Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
McDermott has not only overseen the development of Josh Allen into the quarterback we all know today, but he also helped guide the Bills to their first playoff appearance in 18 years back in the 2017 season.
The Bills will go into their Sunday Night Football clash with the Baltimore Ravens as one of the favourites to win Super Bowl LX, with McDermott likely to be a big factor if they are to hoist their first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.
Mike Vrabel was harshly fired by the Tennessee Titans, after a spell where he guided them to a place in the AFC Championship game in the 2019 season and the number one seed in the conference two seasons later.
He will go into the 2025 season as the new head coach of the Patriots, a franchise he won Super Bowls with as an offensive lineman in the early 2000’s.
The struggles of the Miami Dolphins under head coach Mike McDaniel playing against teams in hot weather or against teams with winning records, along with Aaron Glenn in his first year in this role, puts this division low down in this ranking.
5. NFC East (Nick Sirianni, Dan Quinn, Brian Daboll, Brian Schottenheimer)
There is a very top-heavy feel to the NFC East. Two of its four head coaches have made Super Bowls, one is on the hot seat and one is in their first season in the role.
Brian Schottenheimer gave a good account of himself in the Dallas Cowboys’ defeat to the Eagles in the Thursday Night Football season opener this week.
The team ran the ball well and could have even beaten the Eagles had Lamb caught just one of his three dropped passes.
Nick Sirianni was the coach on the opposite sideline, and he goes into the 2025 season with some real swagger after guiding the Eagles to their second Super Bowl in franchise history, two years on from coming agonisingly close to beating the Kansas City Chiefs at the same stage.
Dan Quinn knows all too well about the feeling of agonising Super Bowl losses. Whilst the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, he oversaw the biggest collapse in the history of the Super Bowl, losing to the Patriots in overtime despite being 28-3 up in the third quarter back in February 2017.
Fast forward to 2024 and he did an excellent job during his first season as the Washington Commanders head coach. Despite the hiring being dismissed by many, they shocked the NFL world by making it all the way to the NFC Championship game. This came after beating the number one seed Detroit Lions 45-31.
Jayden Daniels become a superstar under Quinn’s watch. Despite this, Quinn’s struggles towards the end of his time in Atlanta stops this division from being higher.
4. AFC North (John Harbaugh, Mike Tomlin, Kevin Stefanski, Zac Taylor)
The Modus operandi of this division is consistency, which is defined by Mike Tomlin still yet to have a losing season since being hired in 2007.
Tomlin bought the Pittsburgh Steelers to a Super Bowl in 2008, as Santonio Holmes’ toe-tapping excellence saw them beat the Arizona Cardinals. He almost bought them to a seventh Lombardi Trophy, if not for the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers/
Recent struggles to get past the Wildcard Round have haunted Tomlin’s past few years with the Steelers and some are predicting 2025 to be his final season in the role.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh has also won a Super Bowl whilst being criticised for stagnating, but for different reasons to Tomlin.
Harbaugh has won Wildcard Round games, and even Divisional Round matchups but has struggled with the hoodoo of making it back to the Super Bowl.
Whether this is the run game letting him down in an AFC Championship defeat at home to the Chiefs, or Mark Andrews’ dropped touchdown reception against the Buffalo Bills in the Divisional Round, there is a growing sense that Harbaugh and quarterback Lamar Jackson can’ t get it done.
Zac Taylor is seen as being on the hot seat should the Cincinnati Bengals fail to make the playoffs once again whilst having the offensive trio of Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
They reached Super Bowl LVI but were beaten by the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium. Whilst they reached the AFC Championship a year later, they have failed to get back to the big game, with some viewing Taylor to be holding the team back.
Whilst Kevin Stefanski has yet to reach a Super Bowl, he has managed to earn two Coach of the Year awards. After the Cleveland Browns’ 18-year playoff absence, he has brought the organisation two postseason berths since being appointed as head coach in 2020.
He is still seen as someone on the hot seat and would be one of the first people appointed to a new role given the job that he has done in Cleveland.
The question marks around all four of the division’s head coaches prevents it from being higher in this list.
3. NFC North (Matt LaFleur, Kevin O’Connell, Dan Campbell, Ben Johnson)
If this article was ranking head coaches for their entire careers, then the NFC North would be below the AFC North. However, the division features some of the brightest minds in the current NFL landscape.
In the Green Bay Packers, they have a head coach in Matt LaFleur who has reached the playoffs in five of his six seasons since being hired in the role in 2019.
With three NFC North titles and four double digit win seasons, the Packers have been a figure of consistency under LaFleur, with a 67-33 record in his tenure.
The same can be said for Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell, who has guided them to two winning seasons in his first three years in the role.
O’Connell has fast become one of the best minds in the NFL, with a clear excellence working with quarterbacks, and the story of Dan Campbell with the Detroit Lions has captured NFL fans’ hearts everywhere.
His Offensive Coordinator Ben Johnson is now the Chicago Bears head coach, with a lack of experience in the role bringing the division down to number three.
2. NFC West (Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Jonathan Gannon, Mike McDonald)
Whilst Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon and Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike McDomald have a very small sample size, the coaching careers of Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan put this division high in this list.
Between McVay and Shahahan, they have four Super Bowl appearances between them as head coaches, with the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers respectively.
Whilst they are 1-3 in these Super Bowl appearances, McVay and Shanahan have been some of the most dominant forces in recent years.
1. AFC West (Andy Reid, Sean Payton, Pete Carroll, Jim Harbaugh)
With three Super Bowl winning head coaches in this division, the AFC West ranks top of this list.
In the Kansas City Chiefs’ Andy Reid, who also reached a Super Bowl with the Eagles, they have the man in charge of the dynasty of this decade.
With three Super Bowls as Chiefs head coach, he has gone from being someone who people said could not win the big one, to a first ballot Hall of Famer.
Sean Payton found success in New Orleans, where he won seven NFC South division titles, one Super Bowl and earned a 152-89 record.
Since being appointed Denver Broncos head coach in 2023, he has guided the team back to the playoffs for the first time since they won the Super Bowl in the 2015 season
Pete Carroll saw performances declined towards the end of his time with the Seattle Seahawks, but this still resulted in back-to-back 9-8 records.
Carroll spent three seasons as head coach of the Patriots between 1997 and 1999, where he has back-to-back playoff seasons.
He was appointed as the Seahawks head coach in 2010 after his time in college with the USC Trojans. In his 14 years in the role, he had 10 playoff campaigns.
This includes some iconic moments, such as the Marshawn Lynch Beast Quake game against the Saints or the Legion of Boom led defense that reached two consecutive Super Bowls (winning one and losing one). He joined the Las Vegas Raiders this summer, as he hopes to turn the franchise round.
Finally, Jim Harbaugh may have not won a Super Bowl, but he did reach one whilst in charge of the 49ers, as he came up short against brother John and the Ravens in the Blackout Bowl.
He was hired as the Los Angeles Chargers head coach in 2024, and took them back to the postseason. Quarterback Justin Herbert had just three regular season interceptions under Harbaugh and that he can continue on from this in 2025.
ANDY DAVIES
NFL ANALYST
ANDY IS A SPORTS JOURNALISM GRADUATE WITH OVER FOUR YEARS EXPERIENCE OF NFL WRITING AND PODCASTING. ANDY HAS BEEN TO EVERY NFL STADIUM AND IS THE HOST OF THE ACROSS THE POD PODCAST. HE HAS PRESS PASS EXPERIENCE AT THE LONDON GAMES AND MANY OTHER NFL BASED EVENTS SUCH AS THE SUPER BOWL, HAVING INTERVIEWED THE LIKES OF AARON RODGERS, JASON BELL, OSI UMENYIORA, PATRICK MAHOMES, TRAVIS KELCE, DERRICK HENRY, SAQUON BARKLEY AND JALEN HURTS.