The head coach and quarterback carry the most weight in an NFL team's success. Just look no further than the Kansas City Chiefs, who became the first team in NFL history with five Super Bowl appearances in six seasons from 2019 to 2024, with quarterback Patrick Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid at the helm. However, Super Bowl LX featured head coaches and quarterbacks still early in their respective tenures.
The Seattle Seahawks' duo of Sam Darnold and Mike Macdonald lifted the Vince Lombardi Trophy in the quarterback's first year with the franchise and the head coach's second. The AFC champion New England Patriots reached the big game in quarterback Drake Maye's second season and head coach Mike Vrabel's first as the franchise's head coach. Where will they all stack up in the 2026 edition of our top 10 NFL quarterback-coach duos?
Before we dig in, let's lay out a key ground rule. The Jacksonville Jaguars went 13-4 in 2025 after going 4-13 in 2024, making them the third team in NFL history to post a 13-win season after a 13-loss season. The Jaguars' duo of quarterback Trevor Lawrence and head coach Liam Coen helped power this surge in a major way.
Lawrence initially struggled with picking up Coen's Shanahan/McVay tree offshoot scheme, but once it clicked, he put the league on notice. He led the entire NFL in total touchdowns, with 24 across the final eight games of the regular season, a stretch in which Jacksonville went an unblemished 8-0 to win the AFC South. Lawrence's 38 total touchdowns stand as the third-most in football last season behind only the league's last two MVP winners: Matthew Stafford (46) and Josh Allen (39).
The final six games of the regular season were this duo's masterpiece: Lawrence produced an absurd 19 total touchdowns to only a single turnover. That feat made him just the third player in NFL history to record 19-plus total touchdowns and one or fewer turnovers in the final six games of a season, according to CBS Sports Research. The other two players to do so are 2019 Drew Brees (20 total TDs to one turnover) and 2020 NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers (21 total TDs to one turnover).
If this duo can find more early-season consistency while breaking through in the playoffs, they could rise in 2026. No team had a more dire offensive line situation than the Los Angeles Chargers in 2025. The Chargers allowed 60 sacks (the most in team history) and the most quarterback hits in the NFL (138) while having 11 different starting offensive line combinations because of injuries, which was tied for the most in the NFL.
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