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ITL debates where Ryans belongs in the NFL coaching hierarchy right now.
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00:00Coaching, I think I saw Mina Kimes kind of do her ranking of quarterback, not quarterbacks,
00:05head coaches in the league, and that got me thinking.
00:07That's Jeopardy champion, Mina Kimes.
00:09That's right, celebrity Jeopardy champion, and she won a million dollars for an organization
00:14that does work with homeless folks in L.A., so that was really cool.
00:19However, I wanted to think about where does D'Amico Ryans and where should D'Amico Ryans
00:25rank?
00:25I'm not going to dig into her rankings, but I kind of want to get how valuable do we look
00:29at him, and where would we kind of rank, or how would we rank the coaches in the NFL
00:33headed into the 2026 NFL season?
00:35You know, you brought this up before the show, just in passing, and of course we decided to
00:39bring it to everyone, and I was kind of just going back and forth.
00:45I mean, you can make a case for D'Amico, I think easily, top five.
00:51You think so?
00:52Easily.
00:53Just the job he's done thus far, and then obviously with Matt Burke, you always want to give him
00:59credit.
00:59Just the building, getting the defense to play the way it has.
01:06Clearly, was it two division championships and a playoff berth?
01:11A wild card berth, yeah.
01:12The only teams that have won three playoff games in every year for the past three years
01:18is them and what, the Buffalo Bills?
01:20Isn't those three that we're talking about here?
01:22Like, it's a small class.
01:23He's a culture builder.
01:25I mean, he is the example right now in the NFL on like, hey, you want to build a culture?
01:30Look at what he did.
01:31There's that, but then also, when we talk about head coaches, that's not the only thing that
01:35matters.
01:35So first and foremost, as we dig into this, like, one, what are the through lines and
01:39what are kind of the metrics that matter?
01:41Because obviously, when you start talking about this, and with the way the NFL is going
01:45right now, there's a lot of people that think about not just, you know, how you are as a
01:49head coach, but like wins and losses, but coordinating and the schematic advantage that
01:53you give to your team is no longer just something that you keep for coordinators in their
01:57evaluation, but it's also coordinators, or rather head coaches in their evaluation.
02:01And then also, like, the ideas of, like, obviously, how much advantage do you create
02:06for your team?
02:07But then, what was I going to get to?
02:09Like, oh, yeah, the places where you can impact outside of everybody else, which is game
02:13management, and that's one of those places with Amiko Ryans, interestingly, there's, I
02:17don't think you're as settled as other players, or other coaches.
02:21And that's where I was going to go.
02:22Like, you could easily make a case for top five.
02:25I think you can also ask the question, is he top ten?
02:29Simply because, and you hit on one of the things, game management, you know, we know that
02:35that has been something of an issue.
02:38I think the other thing is, is he really, I mean, he's a culture builder, and he's the
02:43example, as I just mentioned, but has he ever gotten it right on offense?
02:48You're the head coach.
02:49It's not one side of football.
02:50Yeah, yeah.
02:51Has he?
02:52Has he?
02:53Legit question.
02:54I don't think he has.
02:55The thing is, though.
02:56Not yet.
02:57I think the thing is, that could have been a conversation probably last year or something
03:01like that, but right now, I think you could easily point at, hey, if he had a quarterback.
03:07Well, you can easily point at personnel.
03:09I think that's kind of his bailout right there.
03:11But, yeah, so, I mean, it'd be one thing if you had a really good quarterback that you
03:16knew for sure, and he's not getting the right offensive coordinator in there.
03:20But I think that's a big part of it.
03:22Like, you already moved on from Slowick, and you're still not sure on Nick Cayley.
03:27This is your whole team.
03:28It's not just your defense.
03:29Yeah, but you could blame CJ for this.
03:32Somebody could say, oh, he ain't got the quarterback.
03:34Because I think in this instance, and yes, I get what you're saying.
03:36I think people can.
03:37But, like, if you're doing that, he ain't got a quarterback, usually that looks a lot
03:40different than what CJ Stroud is.
03:41Like, I think that would be leaning way too far into the narrative.
03:44But you could look at his defense, like, look what this defense did if they had a quarterback.
03:47Sure.
03:48But this is where I think it would come back on D'Amico Ryan's and that narrative portion
03:52of this, which is, as the head coach, especially one who has hired for your staff two times,
03:59have you put the person who is going to accelerate, a dude who is, it's not like this is a
04:04dude
04:04that was given to you that you did not have an opportunity.
04:07Like, you get in here, and obviously within the conjunction with you and your general manager,
04:11you guys selected a quarterback that a lot of people viewed highly, and that honestly,
04:16there is still the belief that at least the raw materials are there.
04:20And that very much speaks to coaching, if not anything else, right?
04:23How have you taken what is clearly good raw materials and helped it flourish?
04:27I think that that is a question that most often, and if he was an offensive head coach,
04:32would be placed at his feet.
04:34And I don't know how much it is.
04:36Now, of course, I think we can acknowledge Nick Cacero clearly has a heavy hand
04:39on what happens on the offense, so maybe that's why he does not land as squarely with D'Amico Ryan's.
04:43But that's still responsibility.
04:44But does it because of that?
04:44Does it a little bit because of that?
04:46But, you know, you're almost not going palms up on the offense, you know, like you don't care.
04:51But clearly, you're not the strongest voice on what this offense is doing.
04:56The GM is.
04:56Your GM is the coordinator, so to speak.
04:59Yeah, but I feel like just by the nature of holding the position,
05:02that's still got to be somewhere in the matrix,
05:04even if we're going to lower the factor of how much we factor this in.
05:08All right, so this is in the abstract.
05:09I kind of want to do the exercise of, like,
05:11let's actually build some of this out and see where he falls.
05:15And obviously thinking about it, I think tiers kind of would help us think about it critically,
05:21and some of the through lines might help.
05:23But first and foremost, do you have a guy that you think of in the NFL as head coach
05:27that you go definitely the best in the league or maybe the top two or three?
05:32Because I got one that I immediately go to.
05:34He feels like he's that dude.
05:35Who's that?
05:36Sean McVay.
05:38It's a good one.
05:38He feels like he's that dude, right?
05:40Not only, like, the way that this program runs, there is –
05:44it feels like a third of the league are his sons, you know,
05:47that have come out of his program, right?
05:48There was a period of time, and it seems like it's still going,
05:51where if you touch the hem of his garment, boom, you can go get a job
05:53and be successful on the other side of it.
05:56He's building a tree.
05:56One of the guys is here.
05:58Bobby, yes.
05:59And, buddy, thanks for that one because I don't know.
06:02I'm holding on to my receipt.
06:03But, yeah, man, like, not only that, on the field it works.
06:06The schematic advantage that he brings to it, it's clear.
06:10It's clear that Sean McVay is up there.
06:12I'll put Andy Reid right there with him, too.
06:14I have questions about Andy Reid.
06:15Well, that's fair.
06:16I was waiting for us to get here.
06:17Yeah, but I would put him up there.
06:19I mean, just simply, yes, there are questions in terms of, you know,
06:23just some of the things going on in the building.
06:26It's not even that.
06:27But that's not what I'm talking about.
06:28It's not even that.
06:29Andy Reid, I think, is losing the offensive fastball.
06:34How so?
06:34Last year you saw a very clear step.
06:37And, obviously, you had some injuries that you were dealing with.
06:39But even schematically, the people, like the smart people,
06:43at least the people that I feel like are smart in football,
06:45will tell you that there were some schematic things that you go, huh.
06:49Now, Andy Reid has reinvented himself at some point.
06:52Multiple times.
06:53Right?
06:53And so that's something that you look at as a positive.
06:56But I do wonder, at some point it does feel like everybody gets caught up to,
06:59and you can't keep kind of reinventing yourself.
07:04And Andy Reid ain't no spring chicken, with all due respect to him.
07:06It's one of the reasons why we give him some deference.
07:08But I do wonder if we're getting to a place where,
07:10especially looking at the team and going, all right,
07:12where is the clear number one wide receiver that helps you mitigate some of these things
07:16and make so that you don't have to build so much of this through schematics of this.
07:20I do wonder if we aren't seeing some of the waning moments of Andy Reid,
07:25who has had a long, long period of being at the forefront of schematic advantage offense.
07:30Yeah, I got to leave him up there.
07:31And part of the thing is, with that personnel, with those shortcomings.
07:34I have Shanahan above him.
07:36With those shortcomings, as you put it out, they're still.
07:39Well, we're talking about shortcomings and still.
07:41I put Shanahan above him.
07:42How do you feel about Michael McDonald up in Seattle?
07:46I think he just won the Super Bowl.
07:47He's, you know, bottom of the first tier or second tier with a bullet.
07:52You know, he's done what D'Amico wants to do.
07:55You know, awesome run game, incredible defense, quarterback that does the job,
08:01you know, and fits the job and embraces the job.
08:04I mean, in a perfect world, D'Amico Ryans and the Texans want to be Seattle.
08:09They probably should have did what he did, to be honest, get a Kubiak.
08:13Run the offense.
08:15Yeah, yeah.
08:16Sean Payton?
08:18Oh, you've got to give it to him.
08:20Yeah, you've got to give it to him.
08:21He's up there.
08:21He's in there.
08:22Okay, so the...
08:22Especially when all the cap, you know, obstacles he had to overcome and everything else.
08:28Overcome.
08:28He came in there with a mess.
08:29He did that.
08:30That was his fault.
08:31But yes.
08:31Yeah, but still, I mean, being able to manage it.
08:33The question I will say, because obviously we're not actually sliding in spaces quite right
08:38now, but of the ones we named, McVay, Shanahan, Reed, McDonald maybe, you mentioned Payton.
08:45I wonder if we even throw in, how do you feel about Ben Johnson?
08:48That's a question that we need to have about the dudes who are just now stepping into it.
08:51Are there any of these that you go, D'Amico Ryans is better than them, or there should be
08:56more of a conversation about where he is?
08:58Because I'm really just kind of, who is ahead before we get to, all right, where around
09:02should he fall?
09:03I think it's still to be determined on someone like Ben Johnson, but definitely, definitely.
09:09He got the Bears going quickly.
09:10A Bears team that we talk about consistently about being like some level of mid.
09:14When was the last time they were just not mid?
09:16Right.
09:16Was that like, was that, what's my guy's name?
09:19Jay Cutler?
09:20Years?
09:21Maybe.
09:22What about Matt LaFleur?
09:25Oof.
09:25Up there in Green Bay?
09:27Mm-hmm.
09:27I think we're starting to get to a place where we're kind of close.
09:31Mm-hmm.
09:32In that.
09:33Because you haven't had as clear, well, no, he's had some, he's had some real success.
09:37Mm-hmm.
09:37Yeah, with Aaron Rodgers.
09:38And as a, and I mean, he is a clear offensive play calling advantage in the same way that
09:43you would talk about D'Amico Ryans as a clear defensive advantage.
09:47And there's some of that, yeah, no, I think we're in that similar space where maybe he might
09:51be there.
09:53The only other one that I'm looking at that has not been mentioned, and maybe there's just
09:57some biases, this meathead bias, Dan Campbell.
10:01Dan Campbell's last year really made me think.
10:05Mm-hmm.
10:05He's built a really good program.
10:07Like we talk about culture, that, that he's done.
10:09But he is a little more CEO than I realized.
10:12Well, that's, that's a talent.
10:14It is.
10:15Yeah.
10:15Yeah.
10:15That's a talent.
10:16But also, when you're CEO, you got to make sure you hire.
10:18And last year, the offense made me go, ooh, okay.
10:21Yeah.
10:21He ended up having to fire, take it back over at a certain point.
10:24Now, of course.
10:25Are we talking about Dan Campbell or D'Amico Ryans?
10:27Mm.
10:28Okay.
10:29Mm.
10:29I hear you.
10:30I hear you.
10:31Mm.
10:32So as of right now, just like if, if we're, somebody said you forgot Mike McCarthy's back.
10:36No, I know exactly where Mike McCarthy is.
10:38Yeah.
10:39I do not write him.
10:40You're talking to the wrong person.
10:41I do not write him.
10:43Yes.
10:43I am sorry.
10:44I am sorry to that man.
10:44I got a little more respectful.
10:46Yeah.
10:46I am sorry to that man.
10:48It is not 2008 right now, big dog.
10:51Okay.
10:51So like when you look at that, the handful of guys that we're talking about, McVay, McDonald,
10:57Shanahan, which mind you, all three in the same division.
10:59Yeah.
10:59That's not fun.
11:00Yeah.
11:01Then we talk about Peyton.
11:02You talk about Reed.
11:03Reed, uh, we didn't bring up either of the Harbaugh's.
11:07Or Liam Cohen.
11:09Liam Cohen feels very good.
11:10Hey, if we're going to talk about last year did this for me with Andy Reed and last year
11:14did this for me with Dan Campbell.
11:16Yeah.
11:16You better talk about last year with Liam Cohen.
11:19Yeah.
11:20No, I feel you on that.
11:22I do.
11:22I wouldn't put him above D'Amico Ryan's, uh, the amount of success isn't there yet, but
11:26he could be creeping and trying to like say something to D'Amico.
11:30Yeah.
11:30Right.
11:31Like, and then of course, first year too, right?
11:32That's what I'm saying.
11:33How many games he won?
11:3413, 14?
11:35That is correct.
11:3513 games.
11:36That is correct.
11:36He came and took the division from, from, from D'Amico.
11:38Right.
11:39So it's really, it's the, what lens are you looking at this through, you know?
11:42Right.
11:42And so it feels like D'Amico Ryan's might be in that kind of cusp of the top 10 conversation.
11:47He's, he's, he's kind of dropping from the top five, you know, possibility in terms of
11:53like culture and turning it around and getting to the playoffs three years in a row.
11:56So when you start looking at maybe some of the things that are more recent and, and also
12:01the successes that some of these guys, uh, clearly have had.
12:04Yeah.
12:04And I think he could very quickly change at least my impression.
12:08I don't know if, if I could speak for anybody else, that in-game management of like being
12:13very decisive in the way that we do some of these things is going to matter a great deal.
12:18Like you, will you timeout utilization, um, you know, game, game decisions that we we've
12:24had way too many instances to be able to ask, what were you thinking in that moment?
12:28Even if there's a, an answer that comes back that you go, all right, maybe that's walkable.
12:31We could talk about that a little bit.
12:33There's too many instances where that's the question.
12:35And I don't think that, I think that that, that hits you as a demerit, as a head coach,
12:38if that, if that stabilizes, that looks a little bit better this year, I feel a lot
12:42better about that because you're right, the culture of this, the, the ability to elevate
12:45the talent of the guys that you get in, I think matters a great deal.
12:48And we've seen that, but yeah, man, the, the, the ones that they're most elite that
12:52are able to change, uh, that we know 100% change what's happening and elevate it to a
12:58different level.
12:59They have those additional things that are in the, they do, uh, also did not mention,
13:03uh, uh, Sirianni.
13:06I think the guys that have the guys that have this either meathead or goofball
13:11personality, we just automatically, we downgrade them because Dan Campbell has done an amazing,
13:17see that really has amazing job.
13:19The thing is we look at the head coaches, if you, you have to have that demeanor, you
13:23know, not even that, if you specialize in offense or you specialize or you run in the
13:28office, Sirianni special, quote unquote, specialize in offense, but doesn't have anything, but
13:32he hasn't been doing it.
13:34So you see where I'm coming from then, right?
13:37Yeah.
13:37I feel like you see where I'm at, but they've won games though.
13:40They've won Super Bowls though.
13:41You have to give them credit.
13:42I do think being a head coach and just keeping the organization, you know, together, I do
13:47think that's a big part of it.
13:48Is that what Nick Sirianni's doing?
13:49Cause I thought that was how he rose.
13:50But you could be a Mike McDaniel and just be this offensive genius, but not keeping the
13:55team together.
13:56Certainly.
13:57No, no.
13:57And that's why it's, it's more all encompassing, which is why D'Amico Ryan gets a lot of credit
14:01for being, having a defense that could easily be one of those ones that you put up when
14:06you talk about the greats in, in, in, in the league, but also like, it can't simply
14:11be that it needs to be like, and ends up end of halves need to look like, all right,
14:15we have some level of this.
14:16And it's not all of it, right?
14:18Andy Reed has had his clock management issues.
14:20All these various different issues that you can point to with some of these guys, Kyle
14:23Shanahan's quarterback evaluation, right?
14:25Like there's all sorts of different things that you point to with these people, but it's
14:28overwhelmingly positive in all of the ways, even despite those things.
14:32And we're, it's, it's close with D'Amico, but no cigar in my, in my book.
14:37And that's not to say that he's bad.
14:38Cause I would still very much put him top half of the league without question.
14:40And just for your sake, Figgy, the nine, seven, nine texted.
14:47All right.
14:48You're the loop here on sports radio six 10, just a point that I think that the head
14:52coach still could still could do some developing in, in, in being better.
14:56Where do you got D'Amico right now?
14:58I'll put him eight to 10.
15:00I think that's fair.
15:01Yeah.
15:01I say, yeah, I say eight to 10.
15:03Yeah.
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