Ranking the NFL's Best Head Coach, QB Duos Ahead of the 2024 Season

When you think about the most successful NFL franchises in recent history, iconic head coach-quarterback duos may come to mind.

We remember the San Francisco 49ers winning three Super Bowls with Bill Walsh and Joe Montana, Jimmy Johnson and Troy Aikman leading the Dallas Cowboys to back-to-back titles, and most recently, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady as the faces of the New England Patriots dynasty.

When a franchise hits on a match between a head coach and quarterback, it can create magic.

Even if the head coach doesn't call plays, he must hire the right offensive coordinator who can accentuate the quarterback's strengths.

Now, look across the league. Which teams have the best coach-quarterback tandems?

We will rank the top 10 with a heavy emphasis on joint success between the coach and signal-caller.

In addition, our rankings also factored in individual accolades and statistics for the player and coach. For example, a lead skipper who has won Coach of the Year or an MVP-winning quarterback can impact the order.

In favor of consistency, our rankings feature duos that have worked together for multiple seasons with the quarterback in a full-time starting position.

In two years together, Mike McDaniel and Tua Tagovailoa have built some momentum, but they don't have any playoff wins.

Yet the Dolphins are an ascending team with an electric offense under McDaniel, who calls the plays.

The Dolphins have fielded a top-four passing offense in scoring and yards in both seasons with McDaniel and Tagovailoa joined at the hip.

Last season, the Dolphins led the league in passing yards, and Tagovailoa earned his first Pro Bowl nod, throwing for 4,624 yards, 29 touchdowns and 14 interceptions with a 69.3 percent completion rate.

Tagovailoa made a notable leap between 2021 and 2022 when McDaniel arrived in Miami. He will likely continue to light up defenses with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle at wide receiver.

This pair just needs some playoff success to move up the list.

At No. 9, Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts have the playoff wins to leapfrog Mike McDaniel and Tua Tagovailoa, but they're in this spot after a disappointing year that ended in an absolute collapse.

The Philadelphia Eagles lost six of their last seven games and scored 19 points or fewer in five of those outings.

Sirianni isn't the primary play-caller, but he elevated quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson to offensive coordinator after losing play-caller Shane Steichen, who accepted an offer to become the Indianapolis Colts head coach last offseason.

Hurts made the 2023 Pro Bowl roster, throwing for 3,858 yards, 23 touchdowns and 15 interceptions while rushing for 605 yards and 15 touchdowns, but he clearly regressed when you consider his MVP buzz from the 2022 campaign.

Perhaps Sirianni made the right call hiring offensive coordinator Kellen Moore this offseason.

Regardless, the Eagles have made the playoffs in all three years with Sirianni and Hurts together. In 2022, Philadelphia won the NFC East title and advanced to the Super Bowl.

The Eagles' poor finish to an 11-6 season with a top-eight offense in scoring and total yards doesn't erase what Sirianni and Hurts have accomplished together.

With Moore calling the plays, this duo should continue to lead a perennial playoff contender.

The Dallas Cowboys tandem isn't here because of Mike McCarthy's successful 2010 Super Bowl run with the Green Bay Packers.

McCarthy has led the Cowboys to the playoffs in three consecutive seasons with a healthy Dak Prescott, who missed 11 games because of injury in 2020.

With McCarthy and Prescott, Dallas has won the NFC East title in two of the last three years, one more division crown than the Philadelphia Eagles, who have had Sirianni and Hurts in that time span.

Unlike Hurts, who regressed with a new play-caller last season, Prescott had arguably his best year, logging career highs in completions (410) and touchdown passes (36) despite an offensive play-calling transition from Kellen Moore to Brian Schottenheimer.

Over the last three years, the Cowboys haven't played up to expectations in the playoffs, which is probably why they're comfortable with McCarthy and Prescott going into a contract year.

However, McCarthy and Prescott are a big part of the reason Dallas went 12-5 in three consecutive years.

Dan Campbell and Jared Goff have only made the playoffs once in three seasons together, but they have strong momentum on their side, which boosts them one spot over Mike McCarthy and Dak Prescott.

As McCarthy and Prescott enter what could be their final year in Dallas, the Detroit Lions just signed Campbell and Goff to extensions.

Detroit's decision to reward its head coach and quarterback shows the team's faith in Campbell and Goff to continue their ascension.

In 2023, Campbell and Goff helped lead the Lions to their first division title since 1993.

Campbell became Detroit's head coach in 2021. In the following campaign, he promoted then-tight ends coach Ben Johnson to offensive coordinator, which turned out to be a pivotal decision for the offense and Goff.

Detroit has moved up the ranks in passing yards and touchdowns over the previous two terms.

The Lions' appearance in the 2023 NFC Championship Game may be the first step into their Super Bowl window with Campbell and Goff.

Sean McDermott is a defensive-minded head coach, so his play-calling decisions aren't tied directly to Josh Allen.

However, McDermott took over a team that missed the playoffs for 17 consecutive seasons and then turned it into a perennial playoff contender.

McDermott helped end the Bills' playoff drought with Tyrod Taylor as his starting quarterback in 2017, and he's kept the club atop the AFC East for four consecutive years with Allen.

The Bills lost offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, who became the New York Giants head coach in 2022, and they fired his replacement, Ken Dorsey, midway through the previous campaign. Fortunately for them, Joe Brady has done well calling the plays.

While the Bills went through three offensive coordinators, Allen has performed at a high level, throwing for 4,283-plus yards in four consecutive campaigns.

McDermott and Allen have won at least one playoff game in each of the previous four years, but they need to get over their AFC divisional-round hump to make it into the top five.

Zac Taylor may have been on the hot seat before the Cincinnati Bengals selected Joe Burrow with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 draft.

That said, in his first two years with Burrow, Taylor played a role in the Bengals' huge leap from the bottom of the standings to the Super Bowl.

In four seasons, Burrow has played more than 10 games twice, and in both campaigns, Cincinnati made appearances in the AFC Championship Game. The club lost 23-20 to the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl 56.

In the other two seasons, the Bengals have finished last in the AFC North.

While you can make the case that Burrow has significantly boosted Taylor's head coaching resume, the Bengals' lead skipper has proved to be a solid play-caller.

Under Taylor's tutelage, Cincinnati fielded a top-seven passing attack in 2021 and 2022. Last year, Jake Browning, an undrafted quarterback out of Washington in his fifth season, threw for 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions with a league-leading 70.4 percent completion rate.

Moreover, Burrow hasn't posted eye-opening passing numbers in his seven playoff appearances, throwing for nine touchdowns and four interceptions in those outings.

Yet the Bengals are 5-2 in the postseason with Taylor and Burrow.

With a winning playoff record together, Taylor and Burrow surpassed McDermott and Allen for the No. 5 spot.

The San Francisco 49ers duo ranks one spot ahead of the Cincinnati Bengals tandem because head coach Kyle Shanahan, who's regarded as one of the top offensive play-callers in the league, has helped develop Brock Purdy (the last pick of the 2022 draft) into a top-tier quarterback. It's a testament to his play-calling acumen.

Meanwhile, the 49ers have advanced to the NFC Championship Game in three consecutive seasons, and they're coming off a Super Bowl appearance. San Francisco has also finished four of the last five campaigns with double-digit wins.

Because Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo suffered injuries in 2022, Purdy was able to take advantage of an opportunity to start and immediately elevated the offense with impressive rookie passing numbers.

Last year, Purdy led the NFL in multiple passing categories, including passer rating and QBR, and finished fourth in MVP votes.

The 49ers were a playoff team before Purdy took over the starting job, but now Shanahan has an MVP candidate who's on the rise.

San Francisco is 17-4 in the regular season and 4-2 in the postseason with Purdy under center (he exited early in one playoff contest), which is why this pair is fourth in these rankings even though they've worked together for just two seasons.

At No. 3, the Baltimore Ravens' tandem has consistency in their favor.

John Harbaugh and Lamar Jackson have worked together for six seasons. In two of those campaigns, Jackson won league MVP.

Harbaugh doesn't call offensive plays, but he's done a good job of hiring coordinators who have built the offense around Jackson.

Under Greg Roman, the Ravens operated a run-heavy scheme with Jackson heavily involved in the ground attack. Jackson rushed for 1,005-plus yards in 2019 and 2020.

Last offseason, Baltimore replaced Roman with Todd Monken, who opened up the passing game. Jackson finished the 2023 campaign with career highs in passing attempts (457), completions (307) and passing yards (3,678), winning his second MVP.

With Jackson as the starter under Harbaugh, the Ravens have won 75 percent of their regular-season games.

Harbaugh's 2012 Super Bowl title aside, he still has the accolades, winning 2019 Coach of the Year and three AFC North titles, with Jackson to push this tandem to the No. 3 spot.

Harbaugh and Jackson have struggled in the playoffs though, going 2-4 during their tenure. For that reason, they fall behind a couple of Super Bowl-winning duos.

In 2021, the Los Angeles Rams swapped out Jared Goff for Matthew Stafford and immediately reaped the benefits, winning Super Bowl 56 over the Cincinnati Bengals.

Though Sean McVay and Stafford are three years removed from their title glory, the Rams passing offense has continued to operate on a high level, ranking 10th in yards last year.

If the Rams had remained at the bottom of the standings after a down 2022 campaign with Stafford missing several more games because of injuries, they wouldn't have been ranked No. 2.

However, following a bounce-back season with Stafford coming off his first Pro Bowl year since 2014, this tandem still has enough juice to stay near the top of the coach-quarterback rankings.

With this duo, the Rams have made the playoffs in two of the previous three years, going 4-1 with Stafford throwing for 11 touchdowns and three interceptions in those games.

Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes lead an active NFL dynasty. They're trying to win their fourth Super Bowl, which would be three straight, a first-ever in league history.

To put this tandem's success into perspective, if you include playoff games, they have the highest winning percentage of any coach-quarterback duo in NFL history.

Ever since Mahomes became the full-time starting quarterback in 2018, the Chiefs have won the AFC West title and played in the AFC Championship Game every year.

Back in April, Reid signed an extension that runs through the 2029 campaign, and Mahomes is only 28 years old, which means this duo is here to stay and potentially dominate the league for another half-decade.

With multiple Lombardi Trophies and a win percentage that's in the record books, Reid and Mahomes are truly in a league of their own in these rankings.

Maurice Moton covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @MoeMoton.