{"id":138849,"date":"2026-07-13T11:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/andy-reid-is-voted-the-nfls-top-head-coach-by-ap-writers-for-the-fourth-straight-season\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T11:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:26:12","slug":"andy-reid-is-voted-the-nfls-top-head-coach-by-ap-writers-for-the-fourth-straight-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/andy-reid-is-voted-the-nfls-top-head-coach-by-ap-writers-for-the-fourth-straight-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Reid is voted the NFL’s top head coach by AP writers for the fourth straight season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FILE
FILE – Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is seen during an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders, Jan. 4, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo\/Jeff Lewis, File)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Jeff Lewis, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Big Red is No. 1 again.<\/p>\n

Andy Reid was voted the NFL\u2019s<\/a> No. 1 coach by The Associated Press in a preseason survey for the fourth straight year.<\/p>\n

Despite coming off his first losing season in Kansas City<\/a>, Reid remains the standard for coaches.<\/p>\n

A panel of eight AP pro football writers ranked the top five coaches entering the 2026 season. First-place votes were worth 10 points. Second through fifth-place votes were worth 5, 3, 2 and 1 points.<\/p>\n

Reid, who has three Super Bowl rings and leads both Kansas City and Philadelphia in all-time wins, received five first-place votes and one second. He was left off two ballots.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Rams<\/a> coach Sean McVay got the other three first-place votes and finished second. Seattle\u2019s Mike Macdonald, who led the Seahawks<\/a> to a Super Bowl title last season, finished third. San Francisco\u2019s Kyle Shanahan placed fourth and Denver\u2019s Sean Payton came in fifth.<\/p>\n

Nick Sirianni, John Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh, Mike Vrabel and Ben Johnson also received votes.<\/p>\n

1. Andy Reid, Kansas City Chiefs<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Chiefs had 12 straight winning seasons, made 11 playoff appearances, won nine consecutive AFC West titles and reached five Super Bowls in six years before going 6-11 in 2025.<\/p>\n

Injuries slowed the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes ended up suffering a season-ending knee injury in Week 15 last season.<\/p>\n

Reid won more games than any coach in the history of the Eagles before going to Kansas City and doing the same with the Chiefs, along with winning three Lombardis.<\/p>\n

From 1999-2012 in Philadelphia, Reid guided the Eagles to five NFC title games and one Super Bowl. He is fourth on the NFL\u2019s all-time career list with 307 victories.<\/p>\n

2. Sean McVay, Los Angeles Rams<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Rams fell short against the Seahawks in the NFC title game in January after going 12-5 and winning two playoff games on the road.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old McVay has led Los Angeles to one Super Bowl title, two NFC championships, four division titles, seven double-digit win seasons and seven playoff appearances in nine years.<\/p>\n

McVay got four second-place votes along with the three firsts and was on seven of eight ballots.<\/p>\n

3. Mike Macdonald, Seattle Seahawks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Macdonald led the Seahawks to a Super Bowl victory in just his second season, beating New England 29-13 to capture the franchise\u2019s second NFL title.<\/p>\n

At age 38, he became the third-youngest head coach to win a Lombardi behind McVay (36) and Mike Tomlin (36).<\/p>\n

The Seahawks went 10-7 in Macdonald\u2019s first season in 2024. He previously spent two years as the defensive coordinator in Baltimore. His \u201cDark Side\u201d defense allowed an NFL-low 292 points (17.2 per game) last season.<\/p>\n

Macdonald appeared on seven ballots, getting three third-place votes.<\/p>\n

4. Kyle Shanahan, San Francisco 49ers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shanahan is the only coach on the top 5 list who hasn\u2019t won a Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

He guided the injury-depleted 49ers to a 12-5 record last season and a Week 18 matchup against Seattle for the No. 1 seed. San Francisco beat Philadelphia on the road in the playoffs before losing to Seattle in the divisional round.<\/p>\n

In nine seasons, Shanahan has led the 49ers to five playoff appearances and two Super Bowl appearances, including an overtime loss to Kansas City.<\/p>\n

5. Sean Payton, Denver Broncos<\/strong><\/p>\n

Payton led the Broncos to a 14-3 record and the AFC\u2019s No. 1 seed last season in his third year in Denver. They fell short against New England in the AFC championship game after quarterback Bo Nix was injured in the divisional round win against Buffalo.<\/p>\n

Payton, who won a Super Bowl with New Orleans, has taken the Broncos to the playoffs twice in three seasons.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/a><\/p>\n

\"FILE
FILE – Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay watches his players during the NFL football team's practice, June 2, 2026, in Woodland Hills, Calif. (AP Photo\/Kyusung Gong, File)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Kyusung Gong, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"FILE
FILE – Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald watches defensive player drills during the first day of rookie minicamp at the NFL football team's training facility, May 1, 2026, in Renton, Wash. (AP Photo\/Lindsey Wasson, File)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Lindsey Wasson, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"FILE
FILE – San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan looks to the field during the second half of an NFL football divisional playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks, Jan. 17, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo\/John Froschauer, File)<\/span>(AP Photo\/John Froschauer, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"FILE
FILE – Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton looks over playbook with quarterback Bo Nix (10) in the first half of an NFL football game Jan. 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/Eric Lutzens, File)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Eric Lutzens, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FILE – Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is seen during an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders, Jan. 4, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo\/Jeff Lewis, File)(AP Photo\/Jeff Lewis, File) Big Red is No. 1 again. Andy Reid was voted the NFL\u2019s No. 1 coach by The Associated Press in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":138850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-138849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138849"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=138849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}