Unlike the college level, the NFL doesn't publicly share the salaries of their head coaches to be compiled in a nice, neat chart like the good folks over at USA Today compile every year for all of us to reflect on time, and time again.
However, thanks to one NFL insider, we may have a glimpse into the highest paid NFL coaches. Spoiler alert: most of the names aren't all that surprising.
In Albert Breer's Monday Afternoon Notes column yesterday he shared there are likely between five and seven coaches in the NFL that make at least $10 million per year.
The five that Breer notes as the coaching profession's highest earners are Bill Belichick (Patriots), Sean Payton (Saints), Andy Reid (Chiefs), John Harbaugh (Ravens), and Jon Gruden (Raiders). The other two coaches that are listed as likely members (by Breer's best guess) of the eight-figure club are Rams head coach Sean McVay, and 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan who just signed a rare six-year deal yesterday.
Of all those guys, only Shanahan and Gruden have win percentages with their current teams under 60%. Of course, Gruden was lured out of retirement to take over the Raiders and Shanahan is heading into 2020 after one of the most impressive turnarounds of (perhaps) any NFL team in recent memory taking the Niners from 4-12 in 2018 to 13-3 and a loss to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV this past season.
Are there other NFL head coaches that belong in that elite club? Eagles head coach Doug Pederson is 42-27 with a recent Super Bowl title to his name. Mike Tomlin is 141-80 with a Super Bowl title, two AFC title, and 6 AFC North championships. Could also include Pete Carroll in there too with a Super Bowl title, 2 NFC titles, and 4 NFC West championships to go along with a 110-66 mark during his time in Seattle.
To put those salaries in perspective, the latest USA Today Coaches Salary Database shows that the top paid head coach in college football last season was Clemson's Dabo Swinney at just over $9.3 million, followed by Alabama's Nick Saban at about $8.85 million and then Michigan's Jim Harbaugh and Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher coming in at (or around) $7.5 million.
Stay tune to The Scoop for the latest.