1. Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma
Lincoln Riley has to be at the top of any board of NFL coaching options. He’s the greatest offensive mind in college. Riley’s also made it to the College Football Playoff in each of his first two years as a head coach with the Sooners. He’s a young guy who can relate to younger players. He’s also considered to be a quarterback whisperer.
In his first two years as a head coach, he had his starting quarterback in a Heisman trophy. In both years, he had his quarterback drafted with the first overall pick in the NFL Draft. Neither of those players were predicted to be first round picks before they started at Oklahoma. Now, Riley has a chance at a 3-peat with Jalen Hurts. Hurts is coming in with a better resume than Baker and Kyler Murray before they started under Riley.
Producing NFL talent at the quarterback position is a great way to get your name in the ring as a potential NFL coach. Owners will pay millions for Riley to come in and solve their problems at the quarterback position.
Instead of drafting his players and figuring out how to coach them, they would simply hire him and let him coach any quarterback they put in front of him. The Cardinals got Kliff Kingsbury just because they hoped he could emulate what Riley did with Kyler Murray in college. They would’ve loved to have Riley as a coach.
Because of this demand for Riley as a coach, he will wait for the perfect role. Until then, he will produce NFL talent on offense in a defense-poor conference and potentially have a couple of more guys win Heisman trophies under his tenure.