There are a slew of good and great head coaches in the NFL. Who are the best approaching the 2025 season?
Getting the right head coach isn't as hard as finding a franchise QB, but it's quite difficult, and it's simply a fact that no team in this league is going to go very far without a top head coach. Coaches in the NFL come in all different flavors, but we've definitely seen more of an offensive-minded trend among head coaches over the last decade.
Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams seemed to start that trend, and now many teams are trying to play copycat, with some being successful and others not at all. Let's power rank the top head coaches in the NFL for 2025.
NFL Power Rankings: Top head coaches approaching the 2025 season
8. Kyle Shanahan, San Francisco 49ers
Kyle Shanahan is a great head coach who is constantly leading his teams deep into the postseason. He's made two Super Bowls in 2019 and 2023, and all of his 'down' seasons with the 49ers seem to be due to injuries, so it's hard to see how that could be Shanahan's fault.
An elite head coach, Kyle Shanahan is eighth in our power rankings.
7. John Harbaugh, Baltimore Ravens
John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens have become experts in the regular season, but they truly do seem to disappear in the postseason. Harbaugh being able to sustain success for this long is quite impressive, and he does have a Super Bowl as well. Someone who is surely ending up in the Hall of Fame one day, John Harbaugh comes in at seventh in our power rankings.
6. Dan Campbell, Detroit Lions
What Dan Campbell has done for the Detroit Lions is flat-out amazing. His rugged and no-nonsense personality is precisely what this team needed. If not for some major injuries on defense in 2024, the Lions absolutely had a clear path to the Super Bowl.
5. Dan Quinn, Washington Commanders
Dan Quinn is on his second head coaching stop in the NFL and already seems to be doing a lot better than he did with the Atlanta Falcons, and he took that team to the Super Bowl. Quinn helped lead the Washington Commanders to 14 total wins in 2024, and this team is all of a sudden a legitimate Super Bowl contender ahead of 2025.
4. Sean Payton, Denver Broncos
There was this weird group of folks across the NFL who tried to say that Sean Payton couldn't coach anymore and was propped up by Drew Brees following the Denver Broncos 1-5 start in the 2023 NFL Season. And boy, they could not have been more wrong. Payton has continued to cement himself as a top head coach in this league, as Denver ended up finishing 2023 with a 7-4 record and then proceeded to go 10-7 in 2024 with a rookie quarterback.
I am no math whiz, but a 17-11 record over 28 games in the NFL is impressive, and now he's got this Broncos team on the doorstep of contention.
3. Kevin O'Connell, Minnesota Vikings
Kevin O'Connell is flat-out excellent and now has a big project on his hands with JJ McCarthy, but given the success he just had with Sam Darnold in 2024, McCarthy could end up enjoying a very productive rookie season.
Finding instant success with the Vikings, O'Connell is yet another example of a stellar head coach who has been in and around the Shanahan/McVay coaching tree. He's third in our power rankings.
2. Sean McVay, Los Angeles Rams
Sean McVay is the second-ranked head coach in our power rankings for 2025. McVay helped bring a Super Bowl to the Los Angeles Rams back in 2021 and is again set to field a top-notch team in 2025. He's likely got another year or two with Matthew Stafford as his QB, so it will be interesting to follow the Rams' long-term QB situation.
He and Les Snead, their GM, have formed an elite trio set to continue their success this season.
1. Andy Reid, Kansas City Chiefs
Andy Reid is the top head coach in the NFL for 2025. He's a three-time Super Bowl champion and honestly has a HOF resume with both the Eagles and Chiefs. Now yes, Patrick Mahomes has certainly helped out a ton here, but Reid was an excellent head coach during his days with the Eagles and his pre-Mahomes Chiefs days.
Approaching 70 years old, Big Red may only have a couple more years left before retirement.