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The playoffs are finally here, which means that we've spent a ton of time this week breaking down the matchups from every conceivable angle. We already know who is playing whom, and where, and when. We know about the key players involved on both sides of the ball. But just as important as the players, in some cases, are the coaches. They're the ones who have to put the players in position to succeed on game day, after all.

So with that in mind, we are here once again to rank all 14 playoff coaching staffs -- that means the head coach, plus the offensive and defensive coordinator (or play caller, or top assistant). As with the rankings we've done for each of the last five years, there are a few things worth noting before we dive in: 

  • I came up with my own rankings to start things off, then ran them by the CBSSports.com staff over the past several days and weighed their input. That process is how we came up with rankings that are both tiered and numbered.
  • The teams with coaches who are new to the playoffs are all grouped together in Tier 4 because we don't yet have enough information to determine what they'll be like on this stage. It's not necessarily reflective of their actual quality.
  • The tiers themselves should be considered rigid, while the rankings within them are fluid. That means if you wanted to slot one Tier 2 team ahead of another, there would be very little argument, as we are basically splitting hairs. But if you tried to move a Tier 3 team ahead of one of the teams in Tier 1 or 2, that would draw more forceful pushback. 
  • What you see below is my analysis of why the teams ended up in the tiers they did, along with the strengths and weaknesses of the coaches that contributed to them.

Untested staffs

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Bears coach Ben Johnson Getty Images

As mentioned above, we grouped all of the coaching staffs that have yet to compete in the playoffs in their own tier at the bottom. This year, that group includes a trio of play-calling head coaches with young offensive coordinators serving under them, as well as young-but-experienced defensive coordinators.

Because the play-calling head coaches carry so much responsibility, we gave them the most weight when determining these rankings, but our feelings about the specific play-caller were not necessarily determinative. It does seem clear at this point, though, that Johnson and Coen are in a different tier of offensive play-caller than Canales, so we moved the Bears and Jags ahead of the Panthers. 

Breaking the tie between Chicago and Jacksonville was more difficult. Johnson and Coen are among the small handful of best offensive play-callers in the league, and that was exemplified by the performances they got out of their offenses this year. Coen did get a bit more out of Trevor Lawrence than Johnson did out of Caleb Williams on a down-to-down basis, though, and Campanile's defense was better and more consistent than Allen's, so we went with the Jaguars ahead of the Bears.

Veteran staffs with some question marks

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Steelers coach Mike Tomlin Getty Images

The Steelers seem to have some sort of voodoo magic that allows them to win games they have no business winning, given how they actually played. Whether or not you want to attribute that specifically to Tomlin is up for debate, but it's been going on for years. Still, there are concerns about their offensive aggressiveness under Arthur Smith and their vulnerability to specific matchups (like slot receivers) on defense, and Tomlin is one of the most conservative game-day coaches in the league, so there are still some unanswered questions here. 

McDermott has gotten better over the years at game management, which used to be a bugaboo for him. Brady has, over the past couple of years, found an identity for the Bills that works -- most of the time. Whether you think the occasions where it doesn't fall on him, the roster or some combination of the two, there are times where the Bills don't seem to get as much out of their roster as they should. Babich's defense has shown extreme vulnerabilities against the run this year.

We know what the Texans are defensively. Ryans and Burke (the latter of whom calls the plays) have built one of the best and most ferocious groups in the NFL, and they consistently bring it on game days. The questions come on the offensive side of the ball, where the Texans have been better this year than last but are still extremely inconsistent. Caley isn't working with the best talent in the world, but there have also been times where moving the ball seems like too much of a chore, considering the quarterback is C.J. Stroud.

Sirianni has been to two Super Bowls and won one. Fangio is one of the best defensive coordinators in the league. The Eagles fall into this tier almost entirely because of Patullo, who has seemingly had no answers for what plagues the offense throughout this season. The Eagles are talented enough that they can still win the whole damn thing despite that, but it's definitely an issue that has hamstrung them throughout the year to date.

Rock solid staffs

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Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh Imagn Images

Splitting hairs between this entire group was really, really difficult. As mentioned in the notes above, you could put them in pretty much any order and the tier would still make perfect sense. I don't have strong preferences between them and mostly ranked them by the quality of the coaching job I thought they did in this specific season.

Payton and Co. did a terrific job this year, particularly in pulling out close games. The Broncos' defense is one of the best in the NFL and has been for a while under Joseph, who is emerging again as a head-coaching candidate. Payton's offense always puts players in position to succeed, but the unit has been inconsistent this year, and he does have some conservative tendencies in game management that could come back to bite Denver if it keeps playing close games. 

Harbaugh is a program builder who seemingly always maximizes every ounce of potential that his team has. That held true again this year as the offensive line fell apart under the weight of injuries and the Chargers still managed to excel despite it. Minter has become arguably the top first-time coach candidate on the market due to the work he's done with the defense, and Roman is an experienced guide for an offense that probably does need to be in a bit of a conservative shell at times, given all the injuries up front. If there's anything that could hold the Chargers back, though, it might be that posture. 

LaFleur's group is just extremely steady. He is the play-caller and, while the Packers can get conservative and overly-reliant on the run at times, they still manage to grind out first downs and even explosive plays at a high rate because he knows how to scheme players into open space and the Packers have the players to take advantage of what he does for them. Hafley is another DC who has emerged as a top coaching candidate due to his work on that side of the ball. 

Vrabel is, like Harbaugh, a program builder. He took the Patriots from worst to first in the AFC East, and he professionalized the entire operation. McDaniels is as experienced an offensive coordinator as there is in the playoffs, and we know that he can call games and win at the highest level. Williams has unfortunately been dealing with health issues throughout the season, but the Patriots have found a way to succeed -- when healthy, at least -- on that side of the ball nonetheless.

One could argue that Macdonald (or Vrabel, or Johnson, or Coen, or Payton, or any number of other coaches) should be the Coach of the Year this season. The job he did with Seattle's defense is second to none. And after whiffing on his offensive coordinator hire during his first season with the team, he nailed it in Year 2, such that Kubiak has emerged as one of the top offensive-minded coaches on the market when it comes to head-coaching hires this offseason.

The top two

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49ers coach Kyle Shanahan Getty Images

Shanahan and McVay are probably the NFL's two premier offensive minds at the moment. They each call the plays for their team and have familiar offensive coordinators to support them. Klay Kubiak is young, but his father, Kliff, and Kyle's father, Mike, ran this style of offense together for years, and Klay himself has been in San Francisco since 2021. LaFleur is in his second stint with the Rams and has been working for either Shanahan or McVay for almost his entire professional coaching career. 

Saleh built one of the NFL's best defenses during his first stint in San Francisco, and while it didn't work out as a head coach in New York, the defenses were always good. He has kept this year's group together with duct tape and sticks and glue and remains a top defensive mind. Shula's defenses over the last two seasons have been good enough that he's turned into a head-coaching candidate in his own right.