NFL head coach rankings for the 2024 season are starting to be published. Where does Lions coach Dan Campbell belong?
All aboooooard!
Next stop on the Disrespect Express, as it pulls into Allen Park for the start of OTAs, is the ranking of Dan Campbell among NFL head coaches by football personalities Mina Kimes and Kevin Clark . Earlier this week, Trevor Sikkema, Pro Football Focus’ lead NFL Draft analyst created a list of the top quarterbacks in the league and put Jared Goff at 16th among the 32 current starters . The reservations people still have about Goff are understandable, including Sikkema’s comments—“Unfortunately, Goff’s play under pressure and outside of structure continues to leave a lot to be desired when compared to other top NFL quarterbacks”—but at this point, they’re overstated. So long as Goff has talented skill players around him, he’s established a long enough track record of success to be viewed as more reliable and dependable than not.
The discourse surrounding Goff has changed drastically since being traded from Los Angeles to Detroit. Once being viewed as the anchor in a deal that needed a second first-round pick added to entice the Lions front office to part with their own franchise quarterback of over a decade, it’s important to remember someone who thought Jared Goff was “good enough” to lead his football team.
Today’s Question of the Day is…
Where does Dan Campbell rank among best NFL head coaches?
So on the latest installment of “The Mina Kimes Show ft. Lenny,” she and ESPN’s new addition Kevin Clark got together to share their top-10 NFL head coaches and playcallers ahead of the 2024 season—and revisit their lists from 2023. Both of their lists from a year ago included legacy names like Bill Belichick—who Clark had ranked 2nd, undoubtedly his biggest whiff—and Pete Carroll, while Kimes’ inclusion of Nick Sirianni seems like her biggest miss.
Neither of them included Dan Campbell on their 2023 list, but both of them put the Lions coach at seventh on their respective lists. Kimes put Andy Reid, Kyle Shanahan, John Harbaugh, Mike Tomlin, Sean McVay, and Matt LaFleur ahead of Campbell—Clark had the same group of coaches in a different order.
Andy Reid, Kyle Shanahan, and John Harbaugh are no-brainers to me. They’ve done enough over the duration of their careers, and as of late, to be in the top five. Tomlin has had an incredible career, but it’s been some time since he’s led a really good football team deep into the playoffs (four straight one-and-done playoff appearances since 2017, the last conference championship game was a blowout loss to the Patriots in 2016). McVay has taken two different quarterbacks to the Super Bowl in a shorter timespan and deserves to be in the top five, but I’m not sure if anyone else belongs ahead of Campbell outside of those four: Reid, Shanahan, Harbaugh, and McVay.