The 5 best NFL coaches (hello, Andy Reid!) for the 2024 season, ranked

Anyone who says you can win in the NFL off overwhelming talent alone does not understand the difference a great coach can make. They're also probably willfully ignoring the anatomy of the San Francisco 49ers' last two Super Bowl losses, but that's both here and there.

Sure, a team stocked with Pro Bowlers and All-Pros is likely guaranteed to at least enjoy a terrific regular season. Newsflash -- the team with better players usually wins the game! I know, I can't believe it either. But suppose you want to make a deep run into January, even February. In that case, you need a maestro who understands how to motivate his players and how to find every last feasible advantage. You need a coach who is a net positive, not one of the worst coaches dragging their teams to the bottom of the ocean like a rusty anchor.

READ MORE NFL:

The football guys below have demonstrated that they are a cut above as coaches. They not only built their respective teams' identities, but they also constructed strong cultures that have allowed their teams to sustain their winning ways. Moreover, some of them are master tacticians and glorified motivational speakers who have galvanized entire locker rooms of grown men into sums greater than their parts.

Heading into the 2024 season, these are the best coaches in the NFL. Full stop.

5. Dan Campbell, Detroit Lions

After just two winning seasons and only two playoff wins, is it too early to anoint Campbell as one of the NFL's best coaches? Probably, but only because the other men on this list have all enjoyed sustained success to varying degrees. Yet, also, it's my list, so I make the rules, and I think Campbell is unquestionably an elite coach, one of the genuine upper-crust leaders you'll find in the NFL in 2024. Deal with it.

Campbell is the platonic ideal of the CEO coach. He dips his toes in the water on offense with future NFL head coach Ben Johnson, and he makes sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed on defense with Aaron Glenn. Campbell is the emotional heart of the Lions, the motivator that inspires his players to run through a brick wall for him. (I cannot say for certain a Lions player wouldn't do that for Campbell.) It's cliche, but the Lions' players genuinely believe in the team's vision, they believe in each other and play for each other, and they are never out of a game until the final whistle.

That is a testament to Campbell's hands-on approach, and it's one of the biggest reasons the Lions are poised to be an NFC powerhouse for years to come.

4. Kyle Shanahan, San Francisco 49ers

Heading into his eighth season in San Francisco, Shanahan is virtually untouchable. The 49ers have a stacked roster, a team with players who would give any coach a high floor to work with. But no one wrings out every drop of his team quite like Shanahan does. It's resulted in four seasons with at least 10 wins, an appearance in the NFC title game in four of the last five years, and two respective berths in Super Bowl 54 and Super Bowl 58.

For the first time in a while, the 49ers are a model organization. They present the grand plan the rest of the NFL aspires to. Shanahan empowers his players, empowers his coaches -- just take a look at all the recent 49ers defensive coordinators who have left for their own gigs -- and he has unwavering conviction in his schemes and game-plans being better than everyone else's. It's really, really, really hard to argue with the results.

With that said Shanahan's young Andy Reid impression in his two Super Bowl appearances leaves something to be desired. With a steadier hand on the sideline, there's an alternate reality where the 49ers have two more Lombardi Trophies hanging around their headquarters on display. Instead, they have to forever endure a bizarre Super Bowl overtime fiasco hastened by Shanahan's misunderstanding. It's not great, Bob!

Still, I'm of the belief that actually getting to the Big Game still matters. Not every first or even second-time Super Bowl coach pushes all the right buttons when they get to the NFL's final boss. I have enough faith to believe that when -- and I truly mean when -- Shanahan takes the 49ers to another championship game, this time, he'll give his team the needed edge on the margins, showing he's learned from his fatal mistakes in the past. His overall resume and impeccable play-calling acumen are too good not to expect more growth in the future. Guys like him do not finish without at least one Super Bowl ring on their hands.

3. Sean McVay, Los Angeles Rams

McVay has turned an obsession with every facet of the game into one of the NFL's strongest programs. No one accounts for every small detail quite like the guy who apparently remembers everything about his football life. That not-so-novel approach has translated into five double-digit win seasons, five playoff berths, two NFC titles, and a Super Bowl win in 2022. A no-nonsense, holistic Rams thought process has turned them into a perennial winner.

Who would've thunk?

At the same time, McVay is practical. Almost mind-numbingly so. He doesn't make "risky" fourth-down decisions. He takes the field goal. He punts in opposition territory ... without discretion (take that, nerds?). He holds onto his timeouts, often for no good reason. If McVay was perhaps a little less process-oriented, and a little more proactive, then the Rams might have already won another championship. But his propensity for conservatism and playing it safe hasn't notably detracted from the Rams' golden era so far. And I guess that's validation enough to continue turtling and letting game results speak for themselves.

After all, why fix what isn't (mostly) broken?

2. John Harbaugh, Baltimore Ravens

After a short downturn without much Ravens' playoff success, Harbaugh returns to his rightful place (near the top) on this list. The Ravens were so good, so dominant, and so complete in all three phases of the game -- while led by an MVP quarterback -- that I'm still shocked they didn't win the Super Bowl. To me, it'll be known as one of the great "missing rings" in NFL history. That might sound like I'm taking a shot at Harbaugh for presiding over his team falling short after a stupendous regular season, but the man's extended rap sheet implies they don't even return to this doorstep without him.

In 16 seasons with Baltimore, Harbaugh has averaged 10 wins. They've made the playoffs 11 times and played in four AFC title games. Yes, Harbaugh hasn't managed to replicate his success in Super Bowl 47 -- an achievement now over a decade old that is starting to uncomfortably leave the field of vision in the rearview mirror. But he's helped the Ravens have maintained their place as one of the NFL's bona fide marquee organizations. The Ravens usually build the right way, approach the offseason and team situations with a professional tact, and the results bear out on the field in glowing fashion. Most importantly, they adapt. They are chameleons of the sport, finding ways to win and succeed at all costs. Nowhere else do they follow the leader more than with Harbaugh here.

I'd like to say that it is inevitable for Harbaugh to bring another Super Bowl or two back to Baltimore. But the set-up of an intimidating AFC featuring several generational quarterbacks playing in their primes at the same time -- Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen -- ensures that the Ravens hoisting a trophy any time soon will be as predicated on dumb luck as it is their own triumph.

Still, Harbaugh has the Ravens positioned well enough to expect them to pounce the moment a tangible opportunity to win it all opens up.

1. Andy Reid, Kansas City Chiefs

Was there any doubt?

With the golden age of Bill Belichick firmly away and over, Reid has established himself as the king of NFL coaches. He is a living legend, presiding over an all-time quarterback guiding an all-time team to one of the more remarkable runs of success in league history. To date, in 11 years, Reid has yet to experience a single losing season in Kansas City. The last time his Chiefs didn't at least play in the AFC title game, Patrick Mahomes was still a relative unknown in the same way a distant mile-sized meteor is a relative unknown to an unsuspecting planet.

The Chiefs are the NFL's Big Red Machine. They are the gold standard, rife with Hall of Famers galore, with no signs of slowing down any time soon. And it's all thanks to Reid, who is one of the handful of greatest NFL coaches ever, let alone the best active one the league has to offer.

Reid is getting up there in years at the age of 66. He's been a head coach for over a quarter-century at this point. I wouldn't be shocked to see him hang up his clipboard after another year or two before he rides off into the sunset. But Reid has always felt more like a guy who uses his job, his unbridled joy for football, as a conduit for his life vitality. With his de facto made-man status in Kansas City, he'll coach the Chiefs for as long as he wants, likely adding at least a few more audacious pieces of jewelry to his collection in the process.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: The 5 best NFL coaches (hello, Andy Reid!) for the 2024 season, ranked