NFC North Head Coach Rankings for 2025
Having previously reviewed all the position groups in the NFC North — QB, RB, WR, TE, OL, iDL, Edge, LB, CB, S — it is now time to rank the men in charge of those players.
VikingsTerritory gives you NFC North Head coach rankings heading into the 2025 season.
It is a relatively young group of head coaches, with Dan Campbell, the oldest at 49, and Ben Johnson, the youngest at 39. Matt LaFleur is the most experienced in the role, having served as head coach in Green Bay since 2019. LaFleur and Kevin O’Connell are both in the top five in terms of win percentages among current NFL head coaches.
All of the coaches have enjoyed a certain amount of success in their tenures except Johnson, who is a first-year HC in Chicago. Here are my NFC North Head Coach Rankings for the 2025 season.
Adam New’s NFC North Head Coach Rankings | 2025
It’s “see it to believe it” on Ben Johnson.
1. Kevin O’Connell (MIN)
You can accuse me of drinking the purple Kool-Aid if you want, but there is no head coach in this division I’d take over Kevin O’Connell. He has no right to have been as successful as he has been over his first three seasons with what he has had at his disposal. With 34 wins in three seasons as Vikings HC, he has the fifth-best winning percentage among current NFL head coaches.
A significant portion of his losses occurred during the season when he lost Kirk Cousins and Justin Jefferson to injury. However, keeping the Vikings semi-competitive with a mix of Joshua Dobbs, Jaren Hall, and Nick Mullens at QB actually boosted his reputation.
This is the strongest roster O’Connell has had in his time in Minnesota, with an asterisk next to starting QB JJ McCarthy. Suppose the Vikings’ head coach can uphold his QB-whisperer reputation and have McCarthy playing at a high level from the start. The Vikings will be serious contenders this season, and O’Connell’s blossoming reputation will continue to grow.
Minnesota is fortunate to have him, and at just 40, he has the potential to lead the team for a long time.
2. Matt LaFleur (GB)
LaFleur started his head coaching journey in Green Bay with a bang. He became the first head coach to ever win 13 games in each of his first three seasons, delivering the division championship each time – aided by two MVP seasons from Aaron Rodgers.
The future Hall of Fame QB’s powers had waned by Year 4, as the Packers didn’t make the playoffs, and he was gone by Year 5, replaced by Jordan Love. LaFleur hasn’t been able to repeat the same success since, but he has kept Green Bay competitive.
Green made the playoffs in the last two seasons with Love at quarterback, earning second and third-place finishes in the division. The question now is whether Green Bay’s skipper can take them back to the top of the division after three seasons of not really being close. Expectations are high in Wisconsin, and as good as LaFleur has been garnering the third-best win percentage across the league. He needs to find something more this season.
3. Dan Campbell (DET)
Since Campbell was hired as the Lions’ head coach, he has been fortunate to have kept his coordinators in place. That is until this year when both Johnson and Aaron Glenn departed for head coaching roles. When Campbell was first hired, he emphatically announced that he would change the culture of the Detroit Lions.
The Lions had been bottom dwellers in the division for a long time, and after starting 4-19-1 over their first year and a half, the switch was finally flipped. Detroit has now won 35 of their past 44 regular-season games.
How much of it was down to the culture Campbell has created, and how much of it was down to his coordinators running the offense and defense, respectively? When a head coach isn’t calling the plays, there is always room for doubt regarding the size of the role they are playing. With two new coordinators in town, John Morton (OC) and Kelvin Sheppard (DC), we will get those answers.
4. Ben Johnson (CHI)
Johnson is the new kid on the block, taking the head coaching gig in Chicago at just 39 years old on the back of being the offensive mastermind who brought the Lions out of the doldrums.
The Bears will hope he can have the same effect on them, but this time, Johnson must do it from the big seat. He lands last on this list by default, having no head coaching experience to draw from, but as the Vikings saw with O’Connell and the Packers with LaFleur, immediate success is not impossible.
The Lions’ offense worked from a strong offensive line. So, it should be no surprise that Chicago has some major upgrades to their OL this season. The Bears haven’t made the playoffs in the last four seasons, finishing at the bottom of the division in the previous three. If Johnson can deliver playoff football in his first season, he will become the latest young head coach to burst onto the scene and see the NFC North host four very good leaders.
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