CBS ranks Adam Gase as 8th best coach in NFL
By Brian Miller
CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco has ranked all 32 NFL head coaches. The obvious sits on top of the heap but it’s number eight that caught our attention.
Bill Belichick is obviously everyone’s number one head coach. Apparently cheating over his career means nothing to just about everyone. To me it’s like Pete Rose gambling on baseball. You did it once you should be out. Period.
Like all rankings of any kind, the list is opinion based and therefore up to debate. At number two prisco has Mike McCarthy of Green Bay. I like McCarthy but I wouldn’t put him above Andy Reid at this point. Andy Reid comes in 3rd on the list.
Pete Carroll is ranked 4th and to be honest I think you could interchange any of the coaches between 2-4 as they all have similar successes. The drop from the top four to number five isn’t big. Mike Tomlin makes sense but I don’t see him in the same upper echelon as the top four.
Sean Payton comes in at number six and I think Payton is a very good coach but his teams the last few years have not played well. Payton is here on name alone. John Harbaugh is in at number seven and some could argue that he could be ranked above Payton.
At number eight is Miami Dolphins head coach and while Gase had a very good year in 2016 I honestly can’t rank him as the 8th best coach in the NFL and frankly I’m not sure I would put him in the top ten. That won’t be a popular opinion but one year doesn’t make you great. Remember Tony Sparano?
Bruce Arians should be ranked higher than Gase. He is at number 9 and Bill O’Brien at number 10 should be ranked lower as well. The problem is that a lot of coaches are new to their positions, like Gase, or they are struggling to stay off the hotseat.
What surprises me is that Oakland coach Jack Del Rio is not in the top 10. Had his quarterback stayed healthy, the Raiders may have met the Patriots in the AFC Championship game last year. Here is a look at the next ten coaches on Prisco’s list.
11: Chuck Pagano – Should be lower, a lot lower
12: Dan Quinn – Coming off the biggest Super Bowl choke is hard to justify higher
13: Mike Zimmer – Good spot for him but should be 11
14: John Fox – See Zimmer
15: Marvin Lewis – Lewis is a good coach but his time seems to be running out and he could retire sooner rather than later.
16: Ron Rivera – Mid-teens fits
17: Jason Garrett – Should be a little higher
18: Jack Del Rio – Should be a lot higher
19: Dirk Koetter – lower
20: Jay Gruden – lower
21: Jim Caldwell – same
22: Ben McAdoo – same
23: Mike Mularkey – a little higher but not much
24: Hue Jackson – this will never change as long as he is in Cleveland
25: Doug Marrone
26: Doug Pederson
27: Todd Bowles
28: Sean McVay, Vance Joseph, Kyle Shanahan, and Sean McDermott all tied because this is their first year as an NFL head coach.
Do you agree with Prisco’s list? Discuss it in our comments.