One of the recent lists that tend to dominate NFL media this time of year came from CBS Sports. Analyst Cody Benjamin gamely efforted to rank all 32 NFL head coaches.
Detroit’s rookie coach, Dan Campbell, came in very near the bottom. Only Texans rookie coach David Culley finished lower than Campbell in the poll, which suspiciously resembles the current NFL power rankings beyond the top 20.
It’s quite difficult to project how a rookie head coach will fare in a position they’ve never held before, on a team that was bad enough to need a coaching change no less. Once upon a time the media — both local in Detroit and nationally — adored Matt Patricia and trumpeted him as a fantastic hire for the Lions. Obviously, that fell flat.
Aside from the inherent folly of ranking unknown commodities, the rankings here are based on success as coordinators. And that’s some faulty logic to base head coaching projections, something that is certainly not unique to CBS’s list when talking about head coaches. It’s guesswork and a tough assignment for Benjamin, who is a good writer and a smart football guy.
Take Arthur Smith, the new head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. Smith was a great offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans, designing an offense that took advantage of having unique RB Derrick Henry and a revitalized QB in Ryan Tannehill throwing to a talented receiving corps with an above-average OL in place to boot.
I like Smith; he was one of our top candidates for the Lions position when Patricia was fired. I believe he will do well in Atlanta, but it’s not because of how he orchestrated Tennessee’s offense. It’s because he’s a good communicator and someone who understands how to reach modern NFL players. The same is (probably) true of new Jets head coach Robert Saleh, an early favorite to win the Lions job in his hometown before the team went in a different direction.
Saleh checks in at 29th, two spots ahead of Campbell. Smith is No. 21, ahead of several more proven commodities as coaches, including Mike McCarthy of the Cowboys. Once upon a time, McCarthy led the Packers to a Super Bowl victory. His recent track record suggests that McCarthy belongs in the lower echelon of coaches, but below someone who’s never coached before? That’s disingenuous. So is undervaluing the importance of leadership and the ability to manage players.
Those are qualities even Campbell’s critics will begrudgingly acknowledge are real assets for the new Lions coach. The players are excited to play for him. His oversized and zealously honest personality are assets and he sure appears to understand how to use them in that way as a coach.
So while Campbell doesn’t have the track record of success at running an offense like Eagles rookie coach Nick Sirianni (27th) or a defense like Chargers rookie Brandon Staley (24th), he does have actual experience running a team.
Campbell was the interim coach for the Dolphins in 2015 and made his mark by getting players generally repulsed by the prior coaching staff of milquetoast Joe Philbin to buy into his energy and nard-nosed attitude. Campbell coaxed a 5-7 finish from a below-average roster that had given up on Philbin. He turned them into overachievers. That’s more tangible head coaching results than any of the other first-year headmen can claim.
Being a head coach requires different skills than being a coordinator. Patricia lacked those skills and that’s why a largely brilliant defensive mastermind (reflecting his Patriots days here) was an unmitigated disaster as a head coach. Until we see those skills in action, there’s no real point in worrying about where Campbell or the other rookie head coaches are ranked.
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