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The Green Bay Packers’ Matt LaFleur didn’t make the cut for Pro Football Focus’ top 10 head coaches going into the 2025 season.
Earlier this week, Pro Football Focus analyst Dalton Wasserman published a top 10 returning head coaches list ahead of the 2025 season. As expected, the usual names were on the list (subscription required): Andy Reid, Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, John Harbaugh, and Mike Tomlin. Unexpectedly, Matt LaFleur was left off the top 10 list. And it’s not clear why.
There were no honorable mentions or justifications for why certain coaches were left off or ranked where they were. Rather, the list seems to primarily focus on who’s won a Super Bowl at some point in their coaching career. Fair or unfair, that’s always going to be the standard. But even there, the rankings are puzzling.
The list is above. Draw your own conclusions, but I have several quarrels with it personally. Among them are the rankings on this list of Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh, neither of which have done anything to merit top 10 consideration except winning a Super Bowl 10+ years ago.
Mike Tomlin boasts an impressive 183-107-2 head coaching record, has never even had a losing season as a head coach, and has won a Super Bowl, way back in 2008, and lost one to the Packers in 2010. Since that Super Bowl loss, the Steelers have won just three playoff games and just one since 2016. His quarterback situation has primarily stalled them in the playoffs since then.
But even Kyle Shanahan managed to make the playoffs and win multiple games with a third-string quarterback recently. Tomlin shouldn’t be held to a different, lower standard because he’s won a Super Bowl in a different era.
Consequently, John Harbaugh being ranked in the top 10 is also worthy of scorn. Harbaugh has the opposite problem of Tomlin. He has a two-time MVP quarterback, has won multiple more playoff games than his division rival, but still cannot get the job done with some of the best rosters in the NFL and one of the best quarterbacks we’ve ever seen in our lifetime.
Every time the Ravens get into the playoffs, Harbaugh’s talented rosters never live up to the hype, except for Lamar Jackson. For a team with Super Bowl aspirations every season, their defense has not been able to generate a single interception since the 2020 playoffs, with their last turnover coming in the 2022 playoffs, a recovered fumble. The last two playoff runs, that defense has played in four games and hasn’t generated a single turnover.
Other questionable coaches on the list:
Sean Payton as...
