Coaches and players generally love him. He's a helluva offensive schemer, he's a quarterback whisperer. But head coaches are judged on the wins and losses.
He's in his 18th season coaching. This will be the 11th season he makes the playoffs, so he has a playoff hit rate of making it into The Tournament 61% of the time.
In the 16-game era he had a .638 win percentage, which was 10.2 wins per16; in the 17-game era he currently has a .600 win percentage which is 10.2 wins per17. He had some down years in New Orleans, mainly 2014-16---->but he wins a lot of fukking games.
He's a 7x division winner, could be his 8th division title this year.
By the regular season, he's got a resume that warrants position in an All-Time pantheon. In the playoffs he's 9-9 with a 1-2 NFCCG record, 1-0 Super Bowl. To cement his All-Time status he has to win another Super Bowl. People often complare him to other 1x champions of his era like McCarthy, Tomlin. Here's how Payton stacks up against other 1x winners of his era.
SEASONS
Tomlin, Carroll 19
Payton, John Harbaugh, McCarthy 18
Dungy 13
Kubiak 10
McVay, Arians 9
Pederson 8
Sirianni 5
SUPER BOWLS
1-1: Tomlin, Carroll, McVay, Sirianni
1-0: Payton, Harbaugh, McCarthy, Dungy, Kubiak, Arians, Pederson
CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Harbaugh, McCarthy 1-3
Tomlin 2-1
Payton, Dungy 1-2
Carroll, McVay, Sirianni 2-0
Kubiak, Pederson, Arians 1-0
PLAYOFF RECORD
Harbaugh 13-11
McCarthy, Carroll 11-11
Dungy 9-10
Payton 9-9
McVay 8-5
Tomlin 8-11
Sirianni 6-3
Arians 6-3
Pederson 5-3
Kubiak 5-2
PLAYOFF APPEARANCES
Sirianni 5 (100%)
Dungy 11 (85%)
McVay 7 (78%)
Harbaugh* 12 (71%)
Tomlin*, McCarthy 12 (67%)
Carroll 12 (63%)
Payton 11 (61%)
Pederson 4 (50%)
Arians 4 (44%)
Kubiak 3 (30%)
REGULAR SEASON
Sirianni .713
Dungy .668
Arians .635
Payton .630
Tomlin .627
Harbaugh .617
McVay .623
McCarthy. 608
Carroll .573
Kubiak .522
Pederson .492
DIVISION TITLES
McCarthy 8
Payton, Tomlin 7
Carroll, Dungy, Harbaugh 6
McVay 4
Kubiak, Pederson, Sirianni 3
Arians 2
All in all, Arians, Pederson, and Kubiak are clear outliers in this 1x winners group, they don't really belong with the rest. Of the other 8 names though, you call your shot on who you think is better.
Most of these guys have a stretch with an All-Time quarterback or elite defense. All of these guys have strengths and weaknesses. I don't think Payton is categorically better than McCarthy, who also won in two places and they have a similar output with All-Time QBs. Anyone you could say Payton is better than, you could make the argument against him for the other guy---->none of these 1x winners stand apart from the pack of 8 guys (again excluding Pederson, Arians, Kubiak).
When it's this close and you're nitpicking, Payton has coached a long time and has only one Super Bowl appearance. Tomlin and Pete have also coached a long time and have two appearances;
I want a guy who can get me in The Tournament alot. Payton's playoff hit rate is worse than most of these guys;
Payton does have you in the conference championship as much or more than anybody besides Harbaugh and McCarthy. But that's the class and the results speak for themselves, especially when you coach a long time.
Payton, McCarthy, Carroll, Tomlin, Harbaugh, McVay, Dungy, Sirianni. You take your pick on who you'd rather have, they all damn near the same overall from a results standpoint.
