Some folks consider the NFC South to be the best division in the NFL heading into 2017. We’ll be taking a look at each position group for each team and ranking them leading up to the season, hoping to give you a better feel for the teams the Panthers will be facing twice on the schedule, as well as the hometown team itself. A football team starts up top with the head coach, and that is where we will begin this series. The NFC South has two coaches who are just beginning their careers at the top of their respective franchises and two veterans who have been successfully leading their teams for multiple years, with all four coaches still in their first term at head coach. All of these teams are extremely productive from an offensive standpoint, well-disciplined, and have distinct personalities: those qualities come from the top. So which coach is the best in the division? Let’s find out.
4) Dirk Koetter
Photo Credit: Chris Urso/Tampa Bay Times
- Record with Current Team: 9-7
- Challenge Accuracy: 3 Challenges, 1 Overturned
- Playoff Record: N/A
The newest head coach in the division and the only one to not appear in a Super Bowl, Koetter has no other place but the bottom of the rankings. Is this a knock on Koetter? Absolutely not. But with only one NFL season under his belt as a head coach, it’s too early to call it: will he have an illustrious career or will he be another flaw in the Buccaneers long list of recent head coaches? Koetter has a strong offensive background, having worked with the Jaguars, Falcons and now Buccaneers and their respective offensive weapons. Considering he is an offense-first coach, he has followed the same path in all three stops: a promising start for all teams, followed by disappointment. For example, In 2007, his first season with the Jaguars as an offensive coordinator, Koetter rode the Fred Taylor-Maurice Jones-Drew running back tandem to a top 10 offense and a playoff run; in 2008, saw the offense fall into the low twenties and a 5-11 record. In 2012, Koetter was named Atlanta’s coordinator, and saw similar results in his first season: 13-3 with a top 10 offense; and then the drop off in his second season (4-12, 20th-ranked scoring offense). And last season, his first season as Tampa Bay’s Head Coach, he saw a 9-7 record and a lot of potential with a high scoring offense, will this up-and-down succession continue with the Bucs being such a trendy choice to win the division or can Koetter put together two successful seasons in a row?
“I trust my eyes, okay? I watch the tape. I watch a lot of tape and I trust what my eyes tell me. So I don’t need a freaking piece of paper with a bunch of numbers on there to tell me something my eyes can see. I mean, not to get pissed off, but that whole thing of looking at a piece of paper and telling you how to call a football game is a freaking joke in my opinion. That’s why I watch tape. Half the stuff on that paper, you can sort those stats out any way you want to. But I’m sticking by eyes. It’s worked OK for me so far.”
3) Dan Quinn
Photo: Getty Images
- Record with Current Team: 19-13
- Challenge Accuracy: 7 Challenges, 4 Overturned
- Best Season: 11-5, 2016
- Worst Season: 8-8, 2015
- Playoff Record: 2-1, one Super Bowl appearance (2016)
Dan Quinn could easily rank as one of the top coaches in any other division around the league, so seeing him ranked at third shows how stacked the NFC South is when it comes to head coaching pedigree. After helping lead the Seahawks defense to a Super Bowl win against the Broncos in 2013, Quinn took the Falcons to the Super Bowl just a few years later, all while winning Coach of the Year in 2016. He has begun forming an elite defense in Atlanta, and that is something new for it’s NFC South rivals to see. The Falcons offense has always been explosive, and with Julio Jones and Matt Ryan in their prime, an elite defense only adds more pressure on the other NFC South teams to keep up with the Falcons. Quinn is quickly on the rise as one of the best new coaches in the NFL, the only knock against Quinn being that his team blew a 25 point lead in one quarter against the Patriots in the past years’ Super Bowl. The biggest task is still ahead of Quinn: whether or not he can return to the Super Bowl, and this time – finish it.
“I think you have to to gain some of the lessons that you want to learn. We won’t know all those lessons until you go through the season again. You have to go through some of those experiences again to prove that you’ve learned those lessons. Now that the team’s back, all of the attention and focus is on our own improvement to see how good we can get.”
2) Ron Rivera
Photo: Getty Images
- Record with Current Team: 53-42-1
- Challenge Accuracy: 41 Challenges, 20 Overturned
- Best Season: 15-1, 2015
- Worst Season: 6-10, 2011/2016
- Playoff Record: 3-3, one Super Bowl appearance (2015)
Rivera could easily be placed at #1 on this list. Had the Panthers left Super Bowl 50 with a victory, he would without a doubt the top coach in the division, but with Sean Payton being the only coach in the division with a Super Bowl victory, there is no choice but to give Rivera the silver medal. Winning two Coach of the Year awards, holding an NFC Championship and the only coach in the division to win not only consecutive division titles, but three in a row (including a near perfect season at 15-1), that is more than enough to put Rivera towards the top of the NFL coach rankings. Many people forget Rivera took over a 2-14 team, and just four years later turned them into a 15-1 squad with his team’s first ever draft choice turning into an NFL MVP. Since taking over the Panthers in 2011, Rivera has seen his defense rank in the top ten nearly every season, along with an offense that is consistently towards the top of the ranks as well. In drafts, he has picked up one of the best quarterbacks and linebackers in the game, both of whom lead both units every Sunday on the field or on the sidelines. When you combine the fact that Rivera still has some inconsistencies in his fourth down play calling (to riverboat or not riverboat) and his record in close games is still not great, along with failing to put together a back-to-back winning season, he still has room to grow, but is steering the ship and the Panthers in the right direction.
“I’ve been fortunate to be around four guys with unique styles. I had the very personable, likeable, get to know your guys style of a Dave Wannstedt, to the CEO style of an Andy Reid, to the demanding, I want real men, hold you accountable style of Lovie, to the very imaginative Norv Turner. I’ve learned from all those personalities.”
1) Sean Payton
Photo: Getty Images
- Record with Current Team: 94-66
- Challenge Accuracy: 91 Challenges, 40 Overturned
- Best Season: 13-3, 2009/2011
- Worst Season: 7-9, 2007, 2014-16
- Playoff Record: 6-4, one Super Bowl championship (2009)
The only coach in the division to win a Super Bowl automatically puts you at the top of the list. Throw in three division titles, an NFC coach of the year award and turning a historically bad franchise into a winner in just a few quick years, Payton’s glorified West Coast offense combined with his fiery energy made him one of the best coaches of the entire NFL in the last decade. While the Saints as of late have been more average than good; despite the 7-9 records the past three seasons, teams can always expect a fight in the Superdome where they will be forced to outscore one of the most dangerous and high-powered offenses in the league. When Payton was suspended by the NFL in 2012, the Saints fell from a 13-3 record (2011) to a 7-9 record with basically the same roster; and when Payton returned the following year, the Saints went back to competing in the NFC South (and nearly won the division at 11-5), including a playoff victory in the wild card game against Philadelphia. The Saints haven’t been as competitive since 2013, and after trading one of their few offensive weapons away to the Patriots this past offseason, signs are showing that we may be seeing the end of the Sean Payton Era in New Orleans.
“You learn a lot more about all the things that are necessary to be the leader of a team and so there’s day-to-day hands-on training that you get and you might not even be asking for it. You try as best you can to be organized, have a plan, know exactly what you want from a schedule standpoint, have an idea of what you would want in a staff.”
