Acosta ranked all 32 NFL head coaches into a tiered "pyramid," with Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Mike McDonald, Sean Payton and Dan Campbell in the top Super Bowl-caliber tier, the "leaders of men" and "scheme lords" (including Andy Reid and both Harbaughs) next, then "need to see more," "can win you games/can lose you games," first-year coaches, and finally a "first coach fired potential" tier of Zac Taylor, Dan Quinn and Aaron Glenn.

One checkable claim, graded on its own against what actually happened.

Nothing to score yet: this grades once the result is in.

1 checkable claim in this take

Each one is scored on its own against the published methodology. A pundit naming several outcomes is graded on each, not on all-or-nothing.

• Head Coach RankingsJul 22, 2026

  “So this Super Bowl caliber tier, I have Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Mike McDonald, Sean Payton, and Dan Campbell in this tier... The leaders of men like you see right there are the Harbaugh's, Jim and John, and Mike Vrabel... Then we have the scheme lords... And you got Ben Johnson, Andy Reid, D'Amico Ryans, Kevin O'Connell, Liam Cohen, and Matt LaFleur... So this need to see more tier is Brian Schottenheimer of Dallas Cowboys, Dave Canales from Carolina Panthers, Kellen Moore from the New Orleans Saints, and Indianapolis Colts Shane Steichen... So this tier is Kevin Stefanski, Todd Bowles, Robert Saleh, Mike McCarthy, and Nick Sirianni... But these are the new first year head coaches, Jeff Halfley, Joe Brady, Jesse Mentor, Clint Kubiak, Todd Monken, and Mike Lafleur... And then we have the final tier of first coach fired potential, and that is Zach Taylor, Dan Quinn, and Aaron Glenn.”

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