Most teams have an offensive and defensive coordinator. Some head coaches take the role of one of the coordinators because they feel they can do it better than anyone else and, in the case of Bill Belichick, a head coach may take BOTH titles. The best coordinators know their jobs, though. Their organizations depend on them to run their side of the ball and they are experts. On the other hand, many coordinators in this league probably shouldn't have as much responsibility and power as they have. Thus, following is your list of the 5 Best and 5 Worst coordinators currently coaching in the NFL (in no particular order): Best 1) Mike Nolan - DC - Miami Dolphins -- Mike Nolan started as a defensive coach in the college rank in the 80's and progressed to the NFL. He has held the D-coordinator position with 6 NFL teams. His stint as a head coach was unsuccessful but Nolan knows defense. Prior to the Broncos collapse last year, which apparently included in-fighting among the coaching staff, he had his defense playing at a very high level. Nolan does a good job at getting the most out of his players. 2) Mike Zimmer - DC - Cincinnati Bengals -- Zimmer spent many years as the DC in Dallas and is currently the DC for the Bengals. He had 1 short year in Atlanta sandwiched in between. Zimmer has coached a variety of different schemes, depending on the head coach he was working with and seems to master each one. Some of his defenses in Dallas were some of the best in the league and he now has a young, no-name Bengals defense carrying them to the playoffs and looking good for the future. 3) twinky LeBeau - DC - Pittsburgh Steelers -- No matter what I say, it won't give him enough credit. How many defenses has he coached into a Super Bowl appearance. He's been coaching in the league for almost 40 years and his defenses started making SB appearances back in the 80's with the Bengals. He has done it with many different rosters and makes guys look better than they actually are. 4) Kevin Gilbride - OC - New York Giants -- Everywhere this guy has been, he comes up with new things. Beginning with the Oilers, Gilbride made Warren Moon a household name. Remember the explosive young Jaguars franchise that made it to the AFCCG in just their 2nd season? Their OC was Gilbride. And then in New York, Gilbride worked with Eli one on one for the first 3 years of his career, molding him into a legit nfl QB, and then in Gilbride's first year as OC, the Giants won the Super Bowl. The guy knows offense, especially passing offense better than anyone in the league. 5) Gregg Williams - DC - New Orleans Saints -- Learning the game with the Oilers/Titans and taking them to their only SB appearance ever, Williams was considered one of the hottest up and coming coaches in the league 10 years ago. After some bad choices in going to Buffalo and Washington, Williams had lost a lot of his luster. However, reports of his demise were premature. Brought into New Orleans to try and do 'something' with a porous defense to compliment the Saints explosive offense, Williams quickly turned them into a legitimate group and ended up bring New Orleans it's first SB championship. Worst 1) Brian Daboll - OC - Cleveland Browns -- I'm having trouble figuring out why this guy was given an OC position in the first place. After stints as a QB coach, WR coach, and even a defensive assistant, Mangenius apparently felt Daboll was qualified. About the only thing his offense seemed qualified to do last year was continue the Browns offensive ineptitude. Daboll's inability to do anything positive on offense forced the Browns to trade Edwards during the season and for Holmgren to dump half the offensive unit this off-season. At what point do the coaches take blame? 2) Frank Bush - DC - Houston Texans -- Mainly focused on linebackers as an assistant in his years in the league, Frank Bush has failed to put together a good defense in Houston as the main guy, despite the organization's best efforts to throw talent his way. This guy is in over his head and should just be an assistant. 3) Mel Tucker - DC - Jacksonville Jaguars -- Apparently the Giants care more about winning than the Jaguars because Tucker did a worse job of destroying a great defense than Sheridan could ever dream. Inheriting a defense that traditionally ranked among the best, Tucker very quickly turned them into a slow, tentative group. By the end of the season, the Jags did not resemble themselves. Why is he back? 4) Brian VanGorder - DC - Atlanta Falcons -- Can someone explain to me why this man is at a high level of coaching in the NFL when the recent positions on his resume include BUTTISTANT (not head coach) positions at Georgia Southern, Western Illinois, and Central Michigan? Mike Smith seems to have a hard-on for this guy but VanGorder is holding back this team from taking the next step forward. Their defense is floundering and regardless of how good their offense is, they will not do anything until the defense is fixed. 5) Jimmy Raye - OC - San Francisco 49ers -- The veteran of the 'worst' list. The other 4 coaches on the worst list are all relatively new to the coordinator business and therefore, their lack of production can be explained through their youth and the 'risk' the teams took for a new guy. However, how do you explain Raye? Jimmy Raye's first OC position in this league was in 1983. Nineteen Eighty Freaking Three? How does this guy continue to get coordinator jobs? He would take the Patriots offense and have Brady throw 5 yard outs to Randy Moss all day, intermixing a few screen passes to the RB's in between. The guy consistently takes over offenses and they slowly disintegrate under his control. For most organizations, it only takes them a couple of years to figure out that the guy is horrible at running a modern-day offense, but why do other organizations continue to give him opportunities?
Best: twinky LeBeau, Kevin Gilbride, Gregg Williams, Worst: Chuck Cecil: Funny how bad a D can get after just one season
yep, Cecil almost made the worst list ............ and I'm sure Giants/Jags fans can also attest that a defense CAN get a lot worse in just one season .................. don't ever underestimate the importance of coaching in this league .......... it can make or break players/teams ................
arians got snubbed from the worst list because of that freaking superbowl win that let him keep his job by default just kidding to all the fans of teams that really suck, i didnt mean freaking superbowl but he still sucks regardless
yep, i considered arians for the worst list also ........... there are just too many bad coordinators out there, i couldn't list them all ............... he would have made a worst 10 list for sure ................. :icon_cheesygrin:
Haha. Clicked on this link thinking if Daboll isn't on there, something is wrong (QB sneak on 1st down in baltimore) and got the bonus of seeing Mel Tucker on there too. Nice. I do find it interesting that the Browns could win if they just ran the ball 50-60 times a game. Maybe it was the QB's.
I honestly think people over rate Dan Henning because of his adaptation of the "Wildcat". But as a game caller, he is horrible.
yes, when i was thinking about Henning, he definitely didn't fall into the '5 worst' category even though his play calling is atrocious at times because he does some other things well............... but he was closer to the 'worst' list than the 'best' list ............. :icon_cheesygrin: **********Automerged Doublepost********** it never ceases to amaze me how some coordinators keep their jobs from season to season when they fail so badly .................... it almost makes you wonder if they have pictures of the head coach cheating on his wife ...................... it seems more often than not, the teams blame the players and make massive roster changes hoping to fix the problem ................. there are a lot of good coordinators that can make players look a lot better than they actually are so it's not necessary to overhaul the roster every year if you have the right coach in place ...........
no...thats just 100% wrong i love throwing the ball and pretending to be a poor mans version of the colts. hes awful and heres why his gameplanning is atrocious, if our guys arent just flat out better than their guys its an uphill battle his play calling in critical situations is terrible beyond belief. QB roll outs on 4th and 3 in the playoffs, screens to get 3 yards when you need 4...just very poor coaching decisions when it matters he cant maintain leads, when he was the browns OC they were up big in the playoffs but he kept airing it out with no success and the steelers won that game, they were down like 24 pts....the terribly smelling shoe is on the other foot now i guess despite not a man on our roster 1) liking, 2) being accustomed to, or 3) having experience in it....he still demands to run behind 2-3 TE sets with little success when every RB hes ever had on the team prefers running with a FB (especially willie, willie was too blind to pull off no FB, arians played right into willies biggest weakness) dont tell me hes a good OC, they squeaked out a superbowl under him due to bens heroics, hes awful and the only reason he has a job is because tomlin is a cat and despite numerous reports toying with my emotions, he decided not to fire him
Adam, KTrain is right. Arians struggles to use his personnel properly and his game-planning and play-calling is sometimes curious to say the least. And this is a good conversation to have because there ARE bad coordinators on good teams and GOOD coordinators on bad teams. In many cases, coordinators deficiencies are covered up by the head coach. There are several coordinators in this league that have limited responsibilities because they aren't very good at one or more aspects of their job.......... and, there are many more coordinators that SHOULD have more of their responsibilites limited .................
