When I first came up with this idea, I thought it would be kind of easy to pick 10 coaches. Turns out that it wasn't. To begin with no coach in the NFL is a bad coach or they would have never been in the NFL to begin with. Not only are there no truly bad coaches in the NFL, determining a fair criteria in which to judge them is about impossible. Sure you could go with Super Bowl wins, but that cuts out any coach that hasn't made it and there are some very good coaches without a Lombardi trophy. I thought about ranking according to innovation but that leaves out some conservative but extremely capable coaches. In the end I decided to use a combination of things rated 1-5 then give each coach a total score and boom I wound up with my top ten coaches. I have listed my criteria and rational for it below.
The Criteria:
Level of Success:
All coaches in the NFL are judged on their success. However, not all teams are created equal in the NFL so judging solely on success is not very fair. Just because a team is successful does not mean it is all because of a coach. Also just because a team does poorly does not mean it is all because of the coach either.
Innovation:
Football is a game of innovation and the best coaches innovate the game in some way. While some coaches tend towards the tried and true method of coaching, others are on the edge of the game changing how things are done on a weekly basis. It would be nice if innovation was the best measure of a coach, but just because a man is willing to throw the old way of doing things out the window doesn't mean he is a good football coach. Yet, while innovation is no promise of success, a lack of innovation can be the death of a coach. In the end I feel innovation is an important aspect to ranking a coach.
Adaptability:
Adaptability is the difference between Bill Belichick and the Patriots going 11-5 without Tom Brady, and Jim Caldwell loosing all but one game without Peyton Manning. A team changes week to week and there is no predicting a key injury or how a particular player will perform and the best coaches not only know this, but they change their game plan accordingly.
Game Management:
Game management is the head coaches bread and butter and those who manage a game well tend to have good results. Each team in the NFL is a very complex organization and when you add in the game itself things only get more complicated. Some of the most improbable come from behind victories have happened because of great game management and some of the most puzzling defeats have occurred because of a lack of it. There is no doubt game management is crucial to a coaches success.
Something Extra:
I couldn't think of a better term for this aspect of coaching so bear with me. What I am talking about when I say "something extra" is that thing that makes a particular coach special. Whether it is John Gruden running down the sideline shouting "Boom Baby" or Chuck Knolls completely droll personality, successful coaches had something that set them apart from everyone else in some way.
