Coaching can be the great equalizer in the NFL.
There's a saying in coaching circles that it isn't about the X's and O's but the Jimmy's and Joe's that make a difference. While that's true in most levels of football, it holds less water in the NFL, where everyone has some level of elite talent.
Still, there are coaching staffs that set themselves above the rest, and there's a shift going on in the league right now.
When setting out to rank the best coaching staffs in the league, it used to be a foregone conclusion that Bill Belichick and his group would sit atop the list.
However, that's not the case anymore. A new wave of coaches are starting to establish themselves as elite options.
Here, we'll break down the top five staffs in the league right now. Rankings are based on recent success (the last three years), continuity and coordinator quality.
Because continuity and recent success were weighed heavily, no first-year head coaches and their staff were considered.
5. New England Patriots
Head Coach: Bill Belichick
Coordinators: Matt Patricia (offense, maybe?), Steve Belichick (defense?)
Bill Belichick is the greatest head coach in NFL history. Let's get that out of the way.
But this is a ranking of the best coaching staffs in the league right now. Belichick's body of work keeps them on the list but near the bottom. It's hard to think much higher of the staff, especially considering how training camp has gone to this point.
With Josh McDaniels giving up the offensive coordinator role to serve as the Las Vegas Raiders head coach, the Patriots don't have an official OC filling the void.
Jeff Howe of The Athletic has reported that Matt Patricia has called the offensive plays in training camp and figures to be the "de facto offensive coordinator" once the season starts. It's an interesting development that hurts their ranking here.
Patricia is coming off a stint as head coach where the Detroit Lions went 13-29-1 under his watch and the offense never finished higher than 18th in scoring offense. The other option is Joe Judge. He went 10-23 as Giants head coach and the offense finished 31st in scoring in both of his seasons in charge.
Patricia has only spent four years of his coaching career as an offensive assistant. Judge was mostly a special teams coordinator and assistant, apart from one year as an assistant wide receivers coach for the Patriots in 2019.
The Patriots have taken the same "no coordinator" approach on defense for years, but Belichick has had a heavy hand on that side of the ball. He's going to have to be heavily involved on both sides to make up for his lack of a bonafide offensive mind on his staff.
Still, it's hard to leave Belichick off the list when he went 10-7 and still made the playoffs with a rookie Mac Jones last season.
4. Baltimore Ravens
Head Coach: John Harbaugh
Coordinators: Greg Roman (offense), Mike Macdonald (defense)
John Harbaugh has won a Super Bowl with Joe Flacco and got an MVP season out of Lamar Jackson. If the true hallmark of a great coach is finding multiple ways to win with different talent, then that's Exhibit A as to why Harbaugh and his staff deserve a spot on this list.
Harbaugh has been remarkably consistent in his 14 years as the Ravens head coach. They've had just two losing seasons in that time frame. One of those was last year when they went 8-9 and didn't have a healthy Lamar Jackson for much of the season.