NFL Head Coach Power Rankings: Pete Carroll manages to make it into the top 10

NFL.com's Elliot Harrison put together an article that ranks the NFL's Head Coaches in a numerical hierarchy. It's obviously perfect and no one will have any issues with the placement of anyone.

Says Harrison on #7 ranking of Pete Carroll:

Yes, Seahawks fans, we realize Carroll won it all. So has every coach remaining -- save for Jim Harbaugh. So why is Carroll ranked beneath his rival? Because Seattle went 7-9 in each of Carroll's first two seasons with Seattle. He also trails Harbaugh in the head-to-head series, four games to three. However, if Carroll gets his club back to at least the NFC Championship Game, he might fly past Harbaugh and vie for the spot just below Belichick.

My sharp-tongued, passionate response would be something like...

In all seriousness, using head-to-head matchups as the main variable... or ... any variable, actually, seems a little like missing the forest for the trees, though I do realize he set out to write a short blurb that encapsulates 32 different people, which isn't actually as easy as it sounds.

Nonetheless, if I were to set out to do this, I would try to use variables like "how much does he get out of his players?" or "what is unique or special about his program?" or "how well does he delegate?" or "how well has he built out his coaching staff" or "how involved is he in the scheme?" or "how strong is he in his leadership?" or "how well does he manage game situations?" or "how well does he strategize or implement tactics?" or "how specific is his plan?" These are the things that coaches are hired to do.

In my opinion, and we're going to leave the other coaches out of this, Pete Carroll is intimately involved in every level of the organization, from high-level strategic and cultural philosophy to week-to-week tactic changes, to in-game adjustments, to coaching up of individual players and to taking an active role in scouting draft picks. He's shown he can delegate to an excellent staff of long-time coaches, trainers, dietitians, and even a team psychologist, but it's unmistakably his team and his program.

I think that Pete Carroll has used his several decades of coaching experience - and the lessons learned therein - to develop a specific program that has meticulous battle plans for every single level of the organization from the top-down. Culture. Identity. Philosophy. Staff. Practice. Messaging. Rehab. Lifting. Playbook. In my opinion, one of Carroll's greatest strengths is the specificity in which he operates his entire system. It's all structured methodically.

So, where does Carroll land on the head-coach hierarchy? I don't know (nor do I care to try to rank them), but I will say that Seahawk fans should feel lucky to have such a competent, energetic, and knowledgeable individual at the helm of their football franchise. A lot of great coordinators or former players have risen to the ranks of head coach and subsequently failed miserably, because there's really no job like an NFL head coach: part general, part CEO, part politician, part psychologist, and part accountant.