Joe Marino· Jul 16, 2026
Marino ranks all 18 permanent head coaches in Buffalo Bills history, with Marv Levy first, Lou Saban second, Sean McDermott third and Harvey Johnson last.
“Number one, Marv Levy. Number two, Lou Sabin. Number three, Sean McDermott.”
said on air, transcribed by us · Locked On Bills (podcast) · read the original →
One checkable claim, graded on its own against what actually happened.
Nothing to score yet: this grades once the result is in.
Where do you stand? Pick this and every open claim on Picks →
1 checkable claim in this take
Each one is scored on its own against the published methodology. A pundit naming several outcomes is graded on each, not on all-or-nothing.
- Head Coach RankingsJul 16, 2026
“So I'll give you the one through 18 here as we close today's episode. Number one, Marv Levy. Number two, Lou Sabin. Number three, Sean McDermott. Number four, Chuck Knox. Five is Wade Phillips. Six, Doug Marone. Seven, Mike Malarkey. Eight, Buster Ramsey. Nine, Joe Collier. 10 is Dick Duran. 11 is Chiang Galey. 12, John Rausch. 13, Kay Stevenson. 14, Rex Ryan. 15, Greg Williams. 16, Hank Bola. 17, Jim Ringo. And 18, Harvey Johnson.”
Not settled yet. This is graded once the result is in.
More head coach rankings
The same kind of call, about other players and teams.
- Jesse HolleyHead Coach RankingsMiss · 25Jesse picked the 49ers to beat Seattle (expecting Sam Darnold to revert to form), the Texans over New England, and the Rams over the Bears. He also called Oregon's tight end a first-round player and ranked the Giants' new head coach as the best in the NFC East ahead of Quinn and Schottenheimer.
- Gregg RosenthalHead Coach RankingsClose · 62In a snake-draft-style ranking of the NFL's returning head coaches, Rosenthal made the even-numbered selections, taking Sean McVay second overall, Kevin O'Connell fourth, John Harbaugh sixth and on down to Raheem Morris at 26.
- JP AcostaHead Coach RankingsClose · 52Acosta made the odd-numbered picks in the head-coach draft, naming Andy Reid the best coach in the NFL, Dan Campbell third, Kyle Shanahan fifth, and continuing down to Brian Daboll at 25.
- Colin CowherdHead Coach RankingsClose · 48Cowherd likes Jacksonville, Chicago and Pittsburgh (with DK Metcalf back) in the wild-card round, ranks the league's head coaches with McVay first and Ben Johnson seventh, and predicts Lamar Jackson has about two strong years left. He also names the Rams as a possible team to draft a receiver and floats next year's draft having seven first-round quarterbacks.
- Ollie ConnollyHead Coach RankingsClose · 75Connolly ranked his Coach of the Year top five with Kyle Shanahan first, Mike Vrabel second, Mike McDonald third, Liam Cohen fourth and Ben Johnson fifth, naming Shanahan his winner. He also predicted the Broncos would blow out the Chiefs on Christmas night.
- John MiddlekauffHead Coach RankingsMiss · 0In a mid-July podcast, Middlecoff reacted to the Garrett Wilson extension and Jauan Jennings' contract unhappiness, predicting Jennings is San Francisco's clear No. 1 receiver and will top 80 catches; he also expects the Browns to keep Quinshon Judkins on the roster, ranks Mahomes as the top quarterback, calls Dak a top-12 QB, backs Bo Nix as a top-15 starter, says the Bears should win 10 games but must be ranked behind Denver, and would take Dan Campbell over Nick Sirianni.