NFC North Roundtable: Division is loaded with great head coaches with great arguments to be the best

Minnesota Vikings beat writer Tyler Forness: Packers HC Matt LaFleur

This is a fascinating group of head coaches. Right now, Ben Johnson isn't considered for this, as he has yet to coach a game in the National Football League. In a year or two, I expect this to be Kevin O'Connell, but he's yet to turn his 34-17 regular season record into a playoff win, as he's currently 0-2 in elimination games. However, he did garner consideration because he's incredible at maximizing the most important position in the game: quarterback.

That leaves Matt LaFleur and Dan Campbell. The latter has done a great job completely changing the culture and expectations of what the Lions have been since they moved on from Bobby Layne, and he deserves a crazy amount of credit for that. However, we currently don't know how much credit he should get, as he had elite coordinators in Johnson and Aaron Glenn, both of whom got head coaching jobs in the offseason. That isn't to say that Campbell isn't great himself, but there is that little voice in the back of my head that is questioning how much credit he deserves.

That currently doesn't mesh at all with LaFleur, who has done a brilliant job in maximizing everything on the offense. Throughout his tenure, there have been issues at wide receiver, the offensive line, and missing their starting quarterback. He's maneuvered through them with ease and made Malik Willis look like a starting-caliber quarterback this year with Jordan Love out. LaFleur might be the most underrated head coach in the entire league

Green Bay Packers beat writer Wendell Ferreira: Packers HC Matt LaFleur 

I know it's easy to say Dan Campbell has a positive head-to-head record against LaFleur, but this is not a definitive argument. Otherwise, LaFleur should be considered a better head coach than Sean McVay and Andy Reid. Campbell and Kevin O'Connell have both done a great job for their teams and deserve a lot of respect, but LaFleur has already led two completely different versions of the Packers to excellent results, and this is the tiebreaker to me.

He took over an old roster with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback, and made the veteran play some of his best seasons ever, winning two MVP awards after down seasons in the final few years with Mike McCarthy. Then, LaFleur led the transition to Jordan Love and the youngest roster in football for two consecutive years. Guess what, the Packers went twice to the postseason anyway.

Matt LaFleur has proved he can be a good head coach under basically any circumstance, and this is something the others haven't done yet to the same degree.

Chicago Bears beat writer Kole Noble: Vikings HC Kevin O'Connell

This is a tough one for me between Kevin O’Connell, Dan Campbell, and Matt LaFleur. All three coaches can handle a lot of team issues and deficiencies really well. Recency bias is getting the better of me here and I’m going to have to go with O’Connell.

Seeing what he did last season with Sam Darnold at quarterback was one of the most shocking outcomes of the 2024 season, no one saw a 14-win season out of that Vikings’ squad and he’s proven to elevate the game of any player who steps into his system. Overall, this is a tough division to rank head coaches until one team finds some deep playoff success.

In Dan Campbell’s case, I think he’s a really good coach who can energize his team at any moment, but I want to see how he can do without his top coordinators who actually ran both sides of the ball. For LaFleur, I need to see he can make a solid run with Jordan Love before I can claim him as the top coach. With O’Connell, he just needs to replicate the same kind of season with a first-year starting quarterback in J.J. McCarthy and I have full faith in him pulling it off.

Detroit Lions beat writer Mike Payton: Lions HC Dan Campbell

Matt LaFleur is good, Kevin O’Connell and Ben Johnson are also good, but Dan Campbell was the guy who took the laughing stock of the league for 50-plus years and turned them into perennial contenders.

He did that through building a culture that has been deeply rooted in this team and developing players year after year. For the first time ever the Lions are a team that other teams want to be like. That starts with Dan Campbell.

A lot of people want to give credit to Ben Johnson for the Lions' success, and while he deserves some of that credit, it’s insane that people think his leaving is going to crater this team. People are about to find out just how strong of an offensive mind that Campbell is. Even Johnson will tell you he worked within the parameters of what Campbell set up.