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ESPN's Ben Solak's 2025 NFL Coaching Staffs, Coordinators Rankings

Ranking 32 NFL teams' coaching staffs, coordinators in 2025 - ESPN

NFC West Rankings:

23. Arizona Cardinals

Head coach: Jonathan Gannon
Offensive coordinator: Drew Petzing
Defensive coordinator: Nick Rallis

2024 ranking: 20

The Cardinals would be much, much higher in the "coaching staffs who do cool stuff" rankings. Gannon, who kept it fairly simple during his time as the Eagles defensive coordinator, has teamed up with Rallis to sow chaos in the defensive backfield with spinning, shifting three-safety looks -- really unique stuff at this level. Similarly, Petzing has built a multifarious running game out of heavy sets and a thunder-and-lightning backfield of running back James Conner and quarterback Kyler Murray.

At some point, there has to be some fruit on these funky trees. Arizona is 12-22 under Gannon and has failed to make a postseason -- make it three years running, and the seat starts to get hot. There was positive momentum from 2022 to 2023, especially on offense. The Cardinals were sixth in success rate and ninth in points per drive, largely on the back of the NFL's most explosive rushing attack. But they can't throw their way back into games, which is a glaring issue for an offense with a second-contract quarterback. And they have to throw their way into a lot of games, with a defense 30th in success rate.

One silver lining in the shaky defensive performance: The Cardinals were ninth in defensive red zone efficiency, regularly turning long drives into field goal attempts. If the retooled defensive line can win a few more passing downs on those long, bending-but-not-breaking drives, the Cardinals should take a step forward.

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16. Seattle Seahawks

Head coach: Mike Macdonald
Offensive coordinator: Klint Kubiak
Defensive coordinator: Aden Durde

2024 ranking: 26

This is probably too low for the Seahawks (can I say that about my own piece?). Mike Macdonald got this defense roaring down the stretch despite being hamstrung by injuries and personnel issues. Seattle ended the season fifth in points per drive allowed behind four emphatic playoff defenses (Denver, Philadelphia, Chargers, Minnesota) and sixth in explosive play rate surrendered. With an offense that should be better at ball control and sustained drives, the bend-not-break philosophy will shine next season.

The Seahawks made an offensive coordinator change, moving on from Ryan Grubb to hire Kubiak. I mark a Year 1 coordinator change against Macdonald a bit, though you could argue it's a good sign that he didn't stick to his decision to ride a dropback-heavy, college-inspired spread offense. The Seahawks failed to help their poor offensive line last season, and a new system was needed to account for that personnel limitation.

Kubiak looked like the next big thing for a couple of weeks last season in New Orleans before offensive line (then wide receiver, then quarterback) injuries lampooned a fiery start for the Saints' offense. He should bring a nice floor as a Shanahan disciple, but the ceiling remains to be seen -- especially with offensive personnel that doesn't fit the Shanahan meta all that well.

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5. Los Angeles Rams

Head coach: Sean McVay
Offensive coordinator: Mike LaFleur
Defensive coordinator: Chris Shula
2024 ranking: 3

The Rams are very well coached on offense. McVay is a whiz kid-turned-whiz man. We all know this. Moving on.

Defense: I really struggled with this one. On one hand, the Rams' defense was not great last season. It ranked 28th in EPA per play allowed and 24th in success rate; it gave up2.24 points per drive, the worst figure for a defense that made the playoffs. L.A. got better as the season progressed, but it was never an above-average unit.

On the other hand, the personnel available was clearly that of a below-average defense, and I like what Shula did schematically. The Rams protected an undermanned back seven with creative zone coverages and brackets, trusting in their pass rush to win games for them (e.g., the 27-9 wild-card victory over Minnesota). The pass rush was certainly powered by Defensive Rookie of the Year Jared Verse, but don't overlook Shula's impact. The Rams had one of the league's lowest blitz rates, with one of the highest rates of dropping players off the line of scrimmage and into coverage. Shula used pre-snap alignment to generate one-on-ones without taxing his secondary -- the right approach, given his personnel.

Consider me cautiously optimistic about Shula, who needs to draw even more blood from the stone of his defensive personnel if the Rams are to make a legitimate NFC push. There are no new starters expected in the secondary this season.

3. San Francisco 49ers

Head coach: Kyle Shanahan
Offensive coordinator: Klay Kubiak
Defensive coordinator: Robert Saleh
2024 ranking: 4

The 49ers had a weird defensive coaching arrangement last season. Nick Sorensen, who had alternated between coordinating special teams and coaching defensive backs in his career, was the titular defensive coordinator. But assistant head coach Brandon Staley had a heavy hand in introducing new fronts and coverages to the tried-and-true Legion of Boom-inspired defense the 49ers had run successfully for years.

The blend never took. Sorensen and Staley are with different teams now, as the 49ers sprinted back to the warm embrace of Saleh and the Pete Carroll system. Saleh is an exemplary defensive coach who has tailored his approach around both his personnel and the unique matchups of opposing offenses across his time in San Francisco and New York. In his 2½ seasons with the Jets, they ranked first in points per drive, first in EPA per play and third in defensive success rate. He has the juice. The 49ers' defense is on my short list for "units about to take a massive leap in 2025."

Here's another reason for coaching staff optimism in San Francisco: It kept an offensive assistant this year! For 2025, Klay Kubiak was promoted to coordinator after a season as passing game specialist. But it's not the title bump that matters, it's the fact he's still in the building. The constant trickle of key offensive assistants leaving for bigger jobs -- Klint Kubiak, Bobby Slowik, Mike McDaniel -- hurts a staff's ability to grow year over year.

For all his offensive acumen, Shanahan is not perfect -- he still has plenty of room to grow as a game manager. But that offensive system sure is something, isn't it?

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Commentary:

Now, wait a minute.

How can the Cardinals win 4 more games in 2024 than they won under Jonathan Gannon and his staff in 2023 and then have arguably the best free agency haul since Monti Ossenfort has arrived and add a potentially star-studded draft --- and yet --- according to Ben Solek drop 3 places in the coaching staff rankings from 20th in 2023 to 23rd in 2024?

The answer is as simple as A, B and C.

Look at how the Cardinals coaching staff stacks up against the 49ers', Rams' and Seahawks'.

Shanahan, McVay and Macdonald shine on their sides of the ball, and each of them is fully in charge of calling the plays. Gannon, on the other hand, has not shined thus far on the defensive side of the ball and does not call the plays.

The Cardinals have a history of late season collapses. Sean McVay's teams tend to get stronger as the season rolls along. Kyle Shanahan's teams have played in the NFC Championship game 3 of the last 4 years. And Mike Macdonald's team played hard and well to the end last season winning 10 games --- going 6-2 after their bye week --- pulling off a stunning 4-0 versus the NFC West in that span. The Cardinals, after their bye week and being in 1st place in the NFC West at the time, went 2-5 and 1-3 versus the NFC West rivals.

Sure, the Cardinals have upgraded their personnel on defense this year. But until the Cardinals' base defense and creative schemes actually work (as Brett Kollmann accurately pointed out on his Bootleg Football Preview of the Arizona Cardinals, while Nick Rallis dialed up the 4th most blitzes in 2024, the team's efficiency rate on those blitzes ranked 27th).

Classic example:

Funky exotic blitz scheme called at a critical time of a winnable game, but poor pass coverage scheme behind it winds up costing the Cardinals a win:

https://x.com/WBJMItch/status/1950641687472087449

Imagine that --- not one Cardinal covers Justin Jefferson on a 4th and 6 with the game and playoff implications on the line.

Plus, as mentioned earlier in one of my blogs this week, the Cardinals were the lowest ranked NFC West team in tackling the past two seasons. If your team doesn't tackle, it's not going to win its fair share of games. We hope to see that the Cardinals' tackling is much more consistent and reliable this season, but we have not seen this in quite some time. Pundits like Ben Solak are often in the "show me" mode --- and not in the "potential" mode when doing their rankings.

Comments

sneakyjobuAugust 2, 2025 at 6:45 AM
I will be heading to Red and White Practice Today at State Farm Stadium so am excited to see the energy of the team! The cards coaches should rightfully be in prove it mode because they have not accomplished consistent success as of yet. Petzing has shown his ability to coordinate a competent run game but the jury is still out on whether he can coach Kyler into "seeing the field" and orchestrating a pass game that can beat opposing defenses because the run game alone with 150 yards rushing and under 150-200 yards passing every game will not cut it in today's league. That kind of offense can get you to .500 but that's about the ceiling. Can this become a consistent 400 yard offense with Kyler threatening teams with his arm? Front 7's are too dominant to rely on prolific rushing attacks alone imo.

The defense is largely dependent on how all the new pieces gel together. The coverage schemes are worrisome but can they can find a way to blend in man and zone and utilize the strengths of the personnel is the question. We have so many good secondary pieces and it will be interesting to see how the coaches work in Rabbit. I have been watching some pass rush reps (follow Paul Calvisi on X) of Elijah Simmons and my biggest fear of this training camp is that the organization will try to stash him on the Practice Squad, he will not last out there and will get signed to a 53. He looks like a true penetrating NT that is going to put pressure right in the QB's face! Jon Gaines is having a great camp and D Rob is putting together a strong camp as well. Calais's reps look a little slow right now but he needs to get that older body into shape first. Ready for that first pre-season game against KC, the coaches need to take advantage of a strong opponent and test the starters significantly against the KC roster and send a message to the team. Oh, and the Cards just happen to be in the perfect position for Micah Parsons but this owner would never make a SB winning move like that!

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