Elliot Harrison of NFL.com ranked all of the NFL head coaches this week. It was no surprise to see New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick at the top of the list. The ranking only includes coaches who have experience in the role. That means no rookie head coaches made the list.
Where did the San Francisco 49ers' head coach land within the ranking? Fans had to scroll down, and down, and down, to find Kyle Shanahan's name at No. 23 on a list that included 26 total head coaches.
"This might not be a fair ranking for a guy who kept the 49ers competitive in the second half of the season while having to play musical chairs at quarterback," Harrison admits. "The problem here is that Shanahan hasn't really accomplished anything yet as a head coach, which makes the criteria for evaluating his performance somewhat narrow."
Colin Cowherd of FOX Sports was not a fan of Shanahan's placement on the list and discussed the ranking this week.
"What are you doing?" Cowherd indirectly asked Harrison. "Let me tell you, NFL.com writer (he didn't want to name Harrison specifically), Shanahan has a doppelgänger on this league. It's called Belichick. Belichick was a great coordinator. Everywhere he went, teams got better. (He) went to Cleveland, won some games but couldn't win consistently because he couldn't get the great quarterback.
"If I had told you when Belichick was in Cleveland, this is the next great head coach in the league, you would have scoffed at it. But if you had done any homework with Belichick, you would have known. He actually did an incredible job in Cleveland for what he had, and he was the best coordinator in the league."
Cowherd compares Shanahan's success as an offensive coordinator to Belichick's.
"He made Matt Schaub a Pro Bowler," Cowherd continued. "He made Matt Ryan an MVP. Then he leaves, the teams aren't the same, the quarterbacks aren't the same."
Cowherd then shared the following information from a tweet by analyst Warren Sharp.
This is what Kyle Shanahan has been dealing with since arriving in SF:
QB attempts:
Beathard 392
Mullens 274
Jimmy G 267
Hoyer 205Team health:
#29, #23Defensive health/efficiency:
#24/#28, #32/#13Schedule faced:
#7, #15Record in one-score games:
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) July 15, 2019
5-11 (3rd worst)
"Kyle Shanahan, when he has had Jimmy Garoppolo, a legitimate franchise quarterback, is 6-and-2," Cowherd said. "That's 6-and-2 as he's rebuild(ing) with a tougher-then-ever schedule, with a team that can't stay healthy, and a bad defense, which you can't blame him for that because he's not drafting the players. Their secondary is atrocious.
"So if you look at him when he's actually had a quarterback that's considered a franchise quarterback, 400 yards a game, 93 passer rating, they win by over a field goal, 27 points a game, 6-and-2. This is Belichick before he got a franchise quarterback."
Cowherd believes Shanahan will be considered a top-six NFL head coach in a few years.
You can watch the entire segment, which begins at about the 4:50 mark, below.
