Bruce Arians (64) began his NFL coaching career in 1989 as the Kansas City Chiefs running backs coach. He would hold that post until 1992, then returned to the NCAA as the offensive coordinator for Mississippi State from 1993-1995. Arians went back to the NFL briefly as the New Orleans Saints tight ends coach in 1996 and back to the NCAA the year after to become Alabama’s offensive coordinator. In 1998, Arians returned to the NFL where he would remain until today. From 1998-2000 he was the quarterbacks coach of the Indianapolis Colts. In 2001 he received his first stint as an NFL offensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns until 2003. From 2004-2006 he was the Pittsburgh Steelers’ wide receivers coach, before becoming their offensive coordinator in 2007-2011. In his time in Pittsburgh the team went to three Super Bowls and won two of them. In 2012, he was hired as the Indianapolis Colts’ offensive coordinator, but took over the head coaching position after Chuck Pagano’s leukemia diagnosis. He took a team that won two games the previous season, and went 9-3, giving them a playoff berth. As a result, he won AP Coach of the Year, the first interim head coach to do so.
In 2013, Arians signed a four-year deal with the Arizona Cardinals. In 2014, he won Coach of the Year again, guiding the Cardinals to an 11-5 record and the first round of the playoffs. In 2015, he broke the franchise record in wins he set the year before, going 13-3 and advancing to the NFC Championship. Arians’ record as a head coach is 50-25-1 prior to the 2017 season.
HCR: 2017-2018
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Headcoachranking.com assigns a grade to the in-game performance of NFL head coaches each week. Our knowledgeable graders analyze each head coach’s performance in 5 key areas of decision making. After determining their “HCR” (Head Coach Ranking), we rank them from best to worst. HCR rankings are posted every Tuesday of the NFL season, and fans will be able to track each coach’s performance throughout the season.
