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Jack McKessy
USA TODAY
Jan. 7, 2026,
11:22 a.m. ET
All 14 NFL
teams in the playoffs made
it this far, in part, because of the leadership of their head coaches. Who among the 14 head coaches
in this year's postseason field is
the best of those strong leaders?
It's not an
easy question to answer. Each one of the head coaches to make it this far has
an argument for why he deserves a shot at the top spot in the power rankings.
A couple of
first-year head coaches have accomplished major turnarounds to bring their
teams from among the league's bottom-feeders to division titles. Some others
have years of playoff – and Super Bowl – experience under their belts.
USA TODAY
Sports has power ranked the head coaches of the 14 NFL playoff teams entering
the looming six-game wild-card weekend. Here's how it went:
NFL head coach power rankings: Wild-card round
1. Mike Vrabel, New England Patriots
The top spot on the list goes to the coach that
executed the biggest one-year turnaround of any head coach in 2025. Vrabel
inherited a Patriots team that had just gone 4-13 in back-to-back seasons and
didn't have much of its roster figured out outside of upstart quarterback Drake
Maye. In Vrabel's first year in charge, he brought back offensive coordinator
Josh McDaniels for a third stint and led the Patriots to a 14-3 record that was
tied for the league's best.
2. Liam Coen,
Jacksonville Jaguars
The second
spot on the list goes to the coach that put together the second-best one-year
turnaround of any head coach this year. Like Vrabel in New England, Coen
inherited a Jaguars team that
had just gone 4-13 one year prior and turned them into a contender for the
AFC's No. 1 seed as late as Week 18. The offensive-minded, rookie head coach
also helped get quarterback Trevor Lawrence playing more like the top prospect
he was promised to be.
3. Mike
Macdonald, Seattle Seahawks
The Seahawks have one
of the best home-field advantages in the NFL with their "12s" among
the loudest fanbases in the sport. Yet Macdonald, in his two years as head
coach in Seattle, has his team playing better on the road. The Seahawks are
17-2 on the road over the last two seasons with just one loss as the away team
in each of the last two years.
Macdonald,
who was formerly a defensive coordinator, has also molded Seattle's defense
into the top scoring defense in the league, something the Seahawks haven't been
since the "Legion of Boom" era in the early 2010s. That strong
defense, along with the work offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak did with
quarterback Sam Darnold and the offense this year, pushed Seattle to the No. 1
seed in the NFC.
4. Kyle
Shanahan, San Francisco 49ers
Shanahan has
long been considered part of the "cream of the crop" of NFL head
coaches. His offensive mastery and scheming, partly inherited from his father,
Mike, is lauded as one of the league's best in the present day. The work that
Shanahan did with the 49ers this year amidst a plethora of injuries to key
players deserves extra recognition. San Francisco was playing for the NFC's No.
1 seed in Week 18 despite missing lead receiver Brandon Aiyuk all season, top
wideouts Jauan Jennings and Ricky Pearsall for some time and losing top
defenders Fred Warner and Nick Bosa to season-ending injuries.
5. Sean McVay,
Los Angeles Rams
McVay is up
there with Shanahan as one of the head coaches considered to be among the best
offensive minds in the NFL. In 2025, his ninth season as the Rams' head coach,
McVay put a new twist in his playbook that returned Los Angeles to its spot as
the leagues' top scoring offense: 13 personnel. In other words, deploying one
running back and three tight ends along with just one wide receiver in a
formation. McVay and the Rams ran over 30% of their offensive plays out of 13
personnel, per Sumer Sports, more than twice as much as the team with the
next-highest usage rate. The result? Los Angeles led the NFL in total yards,
passing yards and points scored per game.
McVay's
ability to adapt and change as defensive coordinators came up with ways to stop
previous iterations of his offense are part of what makes him such a valuable
head coach.
6. Ben Johnson,
Chicago Bears
Johnson is
one of two rookie head coaches to lead his team to the playoffs this year,
joining Coen. While Johnson didn't quite have the Bears fighting for
their conference's top seed as Coen did with the Jaguars, Chicago's 2025
turnaround looked quite similar to Jacksonville's. The Bears were coming off of
a 5-12 2024 season that resulted in the firings of their head coach and
offensive coordinator. In his first year, Johnson catapulted Chicago from last
place in the NFC North to first place and the NFC's No. 2 seed. He's also
helped unlock more of second-year quarterback Caleb Williams' potential by
tailoring the offense to his skill set, much like Coen has with Lawrence in
Jacksonville.
7. Sean Payton,
Denver Broncos
Payton didn't
pull off quite the same turnaround as other coaches on this list, but he
deserves his flowers for breaking the Chiefs' stranglehold on the AFC West and
leading the Broncos to the No.
1 seed. While defensive coordinator Vance Joseph helped Denver's defense shine
in 2025, Payton continued to mold the Broncos' offense around second-year
quarterback Bo Nix. Payton has maximized what Nix is able to do with a skilled
group of playmakers around him and rode that momentum – and that from the
defense – to the top seed in the AFC. Worth noting too is Payton's nine playoff
wins as a head coach, which puts him 20th all-time in the category.
8. Sean
McDermott, Buffalo Bills
Since 2019,
McDermott's third year as the Bills' head coach,
Buffalo has won at least 10 games each season. This year, the Bills won 12
games but fell one win short of a sixth straight AFC East division title. The
biggest stain on McDermott's résumé so far has been his inability to win big
games – mostly against the Chiefs – in the playoffs. The Bills have not been to
the Super Bowl with McDermott and have been eliminated from the postseason by
Kansas City in four of their last five playoff appearances. With the Chiefs out
of the playoff picture this year, McDermott and the Bills have a clearer path
to an AFC title.
9. DeMeco Ryans,
Houston Texans
After
back-to-back 10-win seasons to begin his coaching tenure in Houston, Ryans led
the Texans to tying
their franchise record of 12 wins during the 2025 regular season. These last
three seasons of success followed three straight years of four or fewer wins
before Ryans came in. With Ryans, the Texans haven't won fewer than 10 games,
have two division titles and have made the playoffs each year. In addition, the
former NFL linebacker has had success coaching in the wild-card round with two
wins in two appearances. So far, the third-year head coach has not been able to
push his team past the divisional round and into the conference championship.
10. Jim
Harbaugh, Los Angeles Chargers
Harbaugh is
in his sixth season of coaching in the NFL – his second season in his second
stint at the pro level. In each of the last two seasons, he's led the Chargers
to 11 wins. In his NFL coaching career, Harbaugh-led teams have won fewer than
11 games just one time: the 2014 San Francisco 49ers, which went 8-8. The
former 49ers head coach has yet to win a playoff game since making his return
to NFL coaching. Last year, the Chargers lost in the wild-card round to Ryans
and the Texans as quarterback Justin Herbert threw four interceptions.
11. Dave
Canales, Carolina Panthers
On paper,
Canales' team's record would indicate that he belongs at the bottom of this
list. The Panthers eked into
the playoffs despite an 8-9 record because of the poor state of play in the NFC
South this year. But there should also be an argument that Canales' ability to
get Carolina up to eight wins and a division title two years after the Panthers
won two games is a story of success. The second-year head coach has built a
serviceable offense despite the limitations of quarterback Bryce Young and has
kept the Panthers on an upward trajectory in the win column for two consecutive
years. Bringing a team from two wins to the playoffs in two years is laudable.
12. Nick
Sirianni, Philadelphia Eagles
Sirianni is
coming off of a Super Bowl win last year with a team that consistently looked
capable of dominating both sides of the football. This year's team, despite
returning almost all of last year's roster, seemed to take a sizable step back,
particularly on offense under new offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo. Despite
Philadelphia's second straight NFC East win – making them the first team to win
that division in back-to-back years in two decades – and a recent Super Bowl
victory, Sirianni's decision to stay in-house with Patullo and inability to
find a solution to star receiver A.J. Brown's frustrations early in the year
drop him further down the list. Sirianni's decision to rest the Eagles' starters in Week
18 to miss out on the NFC's No. 2 seed after the Bears' loss is something that
will also come into question pending how their outing against the 49ers goes.
13. Mike Tomlin,
Pittsburgh Steelers
Tomlin just
led the Steelers to their 22nd consecutive non-losing season and sixth straight
winning season. Pittsburgh also won an AFC North title this year for the first
time since 2020, and the Steelers are back in the playoffs for a third straight
year and fifth time in the last six years. In their last five postseason
appearances, Tomlin and Pittsburgh have been one-and-done. The Steelers haven't
won a playoff game under their current head coach since the 2016 season. Until
Tomlin breaks that streak, it's hard to rank him any higher in a playoff
coaches power ranking list.
14. Matt
LaFleur, Green Bay Packers
The Packers won 13
games in each of LaFleur's first three seasons as their head coach and won a
playoff game in each of those first two. The sailing hasn't been quite as
smooth in the four years since. Last year's 11-6 campaign was the Packers' best
regular season outing since 2021, and Green Bay still finished third in the NFC
North and flamed out in the wild-card round of the playoffs. LaFleur has one
playoff win since 2020 in three trips to the postseason in that time. To close
out this year's 9-7-1 showing, the Packers lost four straight games with
LaFleur struggling to right the ship in the wake of injuries to edge rusher
Micah Parsons and quarterback Jordan Love. Love will return for the wild-card
round, but LaFleur has his work cut out for him ahead of a third meeting with
the Bears this year.
