AFC West head coaches ranked from worst to best in 2023
By Jason Reed
Having a great head coach can be the difference between making a Super Bowl run and missing the playoffs altogether. It is really easy to hire someone who is not up for the task and ultimately hold the team back. It is very hard to hire someone who elevates a team to new heights.
The AFC West is arguably the most interesting division in the entire NFL when it comes to head coaches. Every coach in the division is polarizing for one reason or another. Ask 100 people to rank the four shot-callers in the division and you will get a myriad of different responses.
So where exactly do Brandon Staley and the LA Chargers rank compared to the rest of the division? Let's continue our series of ranking the AFC West, today diving into the head coaches.
4. Josh McDaniels, Las Vegas Raiders
Josh McDaniels built up a big reputation while he was the offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots. He was credited for piloting the Tom Brady offenses that made so many of those Super Bowl wins possible and that has earned him two head coaching gigs in the AFC West.
The first was with the Denver Broncos a decade ago and it was an unmitigated disaster. Not only was McDaniels not ready to be a head coach but he was busted with a cheating scandal that former players later confirmed.
McDaniels went back to Foxborough and finally returned to the head coach world in 2022 with the Las Vegas Raiders. And as we here at Bolt Beat predicted, the first year under McDaniels was worse than the year before as the Raiders went 6-11 and missed the playoffs.
Is McDaniels a great coordinator? Sure. We will give him that distinction even though he was carried by Brady. Has he been a good head coach? Not at all.