Belichick, Tomlin, McVay: Top 10 highest-paid NFL head coaches

Whilst the quarterback might be the most important position on the field in the sport of American Football, one man still holds the ultimate power over the team and the franchise, and that’s the head coach. 

It takes a lot to be a head coach in the National Football League. With so many intricate parts of the game that need to be dissected, analysed and then worked on ahead of gameday, then having to work out which plays to call at the right time.

Now they do have coordinators and assistant coaches that they can delegate to and help them with their tasks and getting players ready, but at the end of the day the buck stops with them. As Denzel Washington’s character Herman Boone said in the 2005 film Remember The Titans “I have never seen an assistant coach’s name in the newspaper for losing a game.” 

As a result, they are paid some very high amounts when it comes to their salaries, which can often come in handy for them if they suddenly find themselves out of a job off the back of one bad year. 

But just how much are they paid and are the team that pay them getting good value for money?

Using figures from SportsNaut, we look at who are the top 10 highest-paid coaches in the NFL when it comes to their annual salary: 

So as you can see they aren’t nearly paid as much as some quarterbacks are around the league, but it is still a very handsome sum in the grand scheme of things.

But at least you can say this is a good example of the successful coaches being paid what they’re worth, as 6 of the top 10 (Reid, Tomlin, Harbaugh, Carroll, Belichick and McVay) have all won Super Bowls with their current team.