Dude is smart as hell about Dball. I wonder how good a DC or at bare minimum a D position coach he would make. He would definitely fire up the defense.
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I thought he would make a fantastic head coach with the right coordinators. I can’t think of anyone else that players would have the right blend of fear, respect, inspiration, and fear in playing for. The man is a master motivator. I always imagined that he and John Randle on a sideline together could get a guy hyped up enough to run through a brick wall. 
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John Randle is one of my all time favorites. Epic trash talker!
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He would kill the competition for sure.
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Finally a coach who would allow the Lions to get away with murder like the Packers always do.
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I think generally great players don’t make for good coaches. The game comes too easily to them, and often they have such a dogged, singular focus, they don’t take in the big picture around them. It’s difficult for a great player to teach a lesser player aspects of the game that came so naturally to them.
After all, how many great players have ever become good head coaches? Maybe Ditka? Forrest Gregg was certainly a great player, but he was pretty meh as a coach outside of one good year (lifetime winning percentage of .47). It’s too early to say with Vrabel (who I’m not sure I’d consider a great player anyway) and I honestly can’t think of any others. Plenty have been mediocre or worse though: Art Shell, Mike Singletary, Jim Ringo, Mike Munchak, Dick LeBeau, Bart Starr, Sammy Baugh, etc…
Conversely, the best coaches rarely sniffed the highest levels of the game as players, and those who did were typically little more than roster fodder. Belichick played at a small college (Wesleyan) and never after. Pete Carroll played at the University of the Pacific and that was it. Kyle Shanahan, Mike Zimmer, Andy Reid, Jon Gruden, Hank Stram, Bill Walsh, Jimmy Johnson nor Bill Parcells ever played after college (though Parcells was drafted late by our Lions). Bill Cowher, Tony Dungy, Doug Pederson, Don Shula, Tom Landry, Mike Holmgren, Sam Wyche, Sean Payton all made it to the NFL but at best as average players.
I’m with you- if Ray had the right coordinators, he would do fantastic as a HC. Dude sees the game like a top their QB, and he’s not just motivating people, he inspires them - huge difference. Motivation lasts the first couple of series/maybe first half. Inspiring someone to be a better man, and identifying as a football player…KNOWING that how you show up here is how you show up as a man, and that football is just a part of that. I think he potentially could be really good. instant credibility and mutual respect between him and most players.
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There have been studies and theories written up on this. George Brett for one was an elite player who often said how difficult coaching is. He did stints as the hitting coach for the Royals but he always had a hard time for it, for the exact reason you mentioned. A lot of what he did and saw was purely instinctual. He could see something and try to tell the player to look for this, only to realize what he was seeing and what the player saw were two different things. He couldn’t make the player see things in a way that Brett could then translate it for the player to understand. He could SEE what the player was doing wrong, but couldn’t teach the player how to understand what he needed to fix or adjust.
Conversely, on the theory for average players becoming great coaches, a lot of it has to do with the fact they cannot rely on God given talent in order to make it as a player. Instead, they had to overcome athletic deficiencies with either hard work or preparation. So, they had to learn ways to be competitive. If they teach those same work tactics and preparation to already good players, you make those players better, and better players become elite players. Scotty Bowman was also a very fringe actual hockey player, but became a genius head coach and talent evaluator.
Ray Lewis
He might be okay, but why would he want to be a coach. He has a easy gig and doesn’t have to deal with all the BS, 80 hour weeks, etc.
The only really great player in any sport that I can think of that had a great coaching career was Larry Bird. He won the 2012 Executive of the Year, the Coach of the Year in 1998, 3x MVP among other player awards. That is one of the best resumes of all time.
Can anyone think of any other great players in any sport that became great coaches?
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Or he would make for an excellent butcher or magician…great with a knife and can make $1000 dollar suits disappear with the snap of a finger 
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Might as well get Rae Carruth and OJ Simpson on the staff too.
I always say “the best instructor isn’t always the best shooter and the best shooter is not always the best instructor”!
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Jim Harbaugh
Pat Riley
Phil Jackson
Come to mind.
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You consider Jim Harbaugh a great player?
129 tds and 117 ints
Pat Riley with his 7.4 ppg
Phil Jackson with his 6.7 ppg
Those guys were not great players. Riley and Jackson were bench players and Harbaugh was never a top QB.
They are successful coaches but none were on the level of Larry Bird or Ray Lewis.
Look at how Mike Singletary failed in Frisco.
I guess maybe Mike Ditka.
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I think you could make a legitimate argument for Harbaugh and his Captain Comeback run with the Colts. I’ll never forget the AFC Championship game against the Steelers. His Hail Mary at the end of the game was ruled incomplete, but had it been today, that catch would have been reviewed, because the guy actually did catch the ball, which would have put the Colts in the Super Bowl. Super Bowl QB and coach, not sure if anyone else would have been able to claim that.
Harbaugh was definitely not Peyton Manning, but he wasn’t a clipboard holding scrub either.
Harbaugh was an average starting NFL QB at best.
129 TDs 117 INTs 58.8% 77.6 rating. Even by 1990’s standards, those aren’t very good.
Yeah, I think he played more competitive than what was left on the stat sheet though. He found ways to win with the game on the line. Not a great player, but very clutch. Hard to measure a players guts on a stat sheet.
And I will also point out he was on some incredibly lousy teams. Wasn’t exactly like he was throwing to Jerry Rice.
Would you consider Foles a great player? He’s even more clutch than Harbaugh was and actually won a Super Bowl. I think Foles is a better player than Harbaugh was, but to me they’re in the same category. Limited guys who weren’t affected by pressure and had one magical postseason run.
That’s a really great question. Just doesn’t seem like the right comparison, seems close, but not quite right. Let me think about it for a spell.
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