Gauging Where Andy Reid Ranks Heading Into 2026

There's no doubt in my mind that Reid is one of the top ten best head coaches in the NFL. He's already a Hall of Famer if he chose to retire; any additional accomplishments are just icing on the cake.

The question then becomes how many head coaches rank higher than Reid heading into 2026. For starters, his team not being in the playoffs will be a strike against him. The six-game skid the Chiefs ended the season on will also be a knock against him, especially with the majority of them being one-score games.

The greatest scale you can measure a head coach on is what he brings to a team. Reid brings his legendary catalog, but his patented offensive mastery has taken a nosedive from where it was before. The Chiefs' offense has been reduced to relying on Mahomes to bail them out, and the creative play calling and manipulation of defenses are faint.

Matt Nagy's departure may help with that, but I fear a little what an offense taken over entirely by Reid will look like in 2026. With that being said, I believe the offenses of Sean McVay, Ben Johnson, and Kyle Shanahan are all superior to that of Reid at this point. Reid has one of the best quarterbacks in the league at his disposal; there's no reason why their offense should've struggled as much as they have these past two seasons.

Reid's prowess extends beyond his offense. Reid's teams are defined by their defense, but that took a massive step back in 2025 as well. This season, DeMeco Ryans, Mike Macdonald, and Mike Vrabel were all better defensive coaches than Reid was.

You can't have Reid lower than the fifth-best head coach in the NFL. His team may not have performed as well this season, but he still has an exceptional mind that sets up the Chiefs for success.