{"id":897974,"date":"2026-09-16T14:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T14:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/897974\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T14:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T14:02:11","slug":"nfl-highest-paid-coaches-2026-top-5-at-nearly-100m-combined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/897974\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Highest-Paid Coaches 2026: Top 5 at Nearly $100M Combined"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAndy Reid<\/a> has built an unprecedented resume on the field as the only coach with 100 NFL coaching wins for two different franchises. After back-to-back Super Bowl titles, the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> rewarded Big Red in 2024 with a five-year contract worth $20 million annually<\/a> on average.<\/p>\n

\n\tReid stood alone in the $20 million club the last two seasons after Bill Belichick<\/a> and the New England Patriots parted ways. But a flurry of new contracts in 2026 has two more coaches on par with Reid and another pair knocking at the door of $20 million, based on a half-dozen conversations with those familiar with NFL coaching contracts.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast year, the Baltimore Ravens signed John Harbaugh to a three-year contract extension worth an estimated $16 million per year. Yet the Ravens\u2019 all-time winningest coach was fired after an 8-9 season. It set off a feeding frenzy, as clubs with and without head coaches called Harbaugh\u2019s agent at Excel Sports Management. The New York Giants ultimately signed him to a five-year deal worth roughly $100 million, tying Reid as the highest-paid coach in American sports by average annual value (AAV). Salary estimates are before any incentives.<\/p>\n

\n\tSean Payton has turned around the Denver Broncos, who endured seven straight losing seasons before back-to-back playoff appearances. In June, the club announced Payton agreed to a new five-year contract through 2030, replacing his previous deal worth $18 million annually. The new pact is on par with Reid and Harbaugh, according to multiple people.<\/p>\n

\n\tSean McVay and Kyle Shanahan are considered two of the best offensive minds in the sport, and their respective NFC West clubs rewarded them with new deals in 2026 that are estimated to be a tick lower than the top trio at roughly $19 million a year.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMcVay and Shanahan, who are close friends, are both in their 10th season as head coaches, and McVay is just 40, while Shanahan is only 46. By comparison, Reid, Harbaugh and Payton have a combined 66 seasons in charge on the sidelines, and Payton is the youngest at 62.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe NFL\u2019s opening weekend featured four of the five coaches above squaring off, with Shanahan\u2019s San Francisco 49ers topping McVay\u2019s Los Angeles Rams in Australia, and Reid\u2019s Chiefs rolling over Payton\u2019s Broncos, 31-10.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter the tightly bunched top five, there is a drop-off to $16 million for Jim Harbaugh, and then a trio of coaches at $15 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201cnot for long\u201d moniker is attached to the NFL for players\u2019 short careers and lack of job security. The same could apply to its coaches. Ten teams hired new coaches for the 2026 season, while seven did for 2025\u2014the Las Vegas Raiders did both seasons. It means half the league\u2019s coaches have been in charge one season or less entering the 2026 season. Only five coaches have been in their current positions for six full seasons.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe latest turnover is not unique, with nine, five and eight coaches hired in the three prior years. Since 2002, the Raiders have hired 13 coaches<\/a>, excluding interims, followed by the Cleveland Browns (10) and Miami Dolphins (nine).<\/p>\n

\n\tKlint Kubiak will look to buck that trend with the Raiders. He got the job after helping the Seahawks win the Super Bowl as their offensive coordinator. The AAV of his five-year Raiders deal is an estimated $12 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe starting head coach pay for in-demand coordinators has soared in recent years. Last year, it was Ben Johnson ($13 million), Aaron Glenn ($12 million) and Liam Coen ($10 million). In addition to Kubiak, this year\u2019s crop of first-time head coaches included Jesse Minter ($12 million) and Jeff Hafley ($11 million).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe cutoff for the top 10 is $14 million, up from $13 million last season<\/a> and $9 million in 2023. Sportico estimates that 21 coaches are making at least $10 million this season.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe NFL is the richest sports league in the world, with league revenue of $24 billion and the average team worth $9.34 billion, according to Sportico\u2019s NFL valuations<\/a>. NFL coaching pay has soared since it averaged below $300,000 in the late 1980s, but it still isn\u2019t close to that of top players. Twenty-seven NFL players will make $35 million or more this year, and more than 125 players will make at least $20 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Reid has built an unprecedented resume on the field as the only coach with 100 NFL coaching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[25049,29485,49,48,122548,1727,514,82],"class_list":["post-897974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-andy-reid","tag-bill-belichick","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-data-viz","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}