5 best NFL coaching reunions to watch in Week 2

Old friends become new foes each NFL week. It is a natural evolution of the league. But Week 2 offers a handful of fresh, extreme relationship makeovers, a few tests of wits and camaraderie in fiercely competitive tangles that will produce the best and the worst of all involved.

I expect a few of these winners to unabashedly gloat.

And some of these losers to suffer painful meltdowns.

In an ego-driven, macho-laden, status-centered league, little is more paramount than beating old friends or the agonizing embarrassment of losing to them.

Nearly, by any means necessary.

How about former Carolina Panthers running back Mike Tolbert, now with the Buffalo Bills, chirping about his return to Carolina on Sunday and any inside information that he can impart to the Bills to help them topple the Panthers?

“There’s a rule out there that snitches get stitches, but I’m going to try to get a lot of stitches.”

Let the reunions begin.

Let’s rank the top five:

Tomlin, in his 11th season as Pittsburgh Steelers head coach, was the Vikings defensive coordinator in 2006. That was the job that preceded his leap to Pittsburgh.

During that 2006 season, Tomlin turned heads with his leadership and fire-like emotion. Then-Steelers owner Dan Rooney recognized it, reached for Tomlin, and the rest is Steelers history.

Rooney once told me about Tomlin: “He embodies the competitive nature of our game, the backbone it takes to be great, the passion about the job of head coach that is required to first survive and then to flourish.”

Tomlin hosting the Vikings, the franchise that was his primary NFL launching pad, will serve as another reminder to this riveting thinker about what was and what is. This is a showcase game for Mike Tomlin.

Arians was the Colts offensive coordinator in 2012. When current Colts head coach Chuck Pagano dealt with cancer that season, Arians took over a 1-2 team and led it to a 9-3 record before Pagano returned. That boosted Arians into the spotlight — he became the Arizona Cardinals head coach the following season.

Now he returns to Indianapolis with an 0-1 team that looks sluggish and lost. He is playing a Colts team that just got waxed 46-9 by the Los Angeles Rams. Arians this season has already showed signs of frustration bordering on hysteria over his Cardinals. This is a get-well game for Arians. For the Cardinals.

Some Indianapolis fans wish the Colts had pushed Pagano out and kept Arians. Arians will seek to light up the Colts, first to heal his own team, his own wobbly ego, but also to show those fans why that idea had merit.

Just last season, McDermott was the Panthers defensive coordinator. He takes his 1-0 Bills to Carolina on Sunday, seeking a festive homecoming.

As Bills head coach, McDermott has continued his art of visualization as a personal trait as well as a teaching tool for his players. McDermott believes that visualizing a play, a game, a goal, meditating on it, is a huge step to actualization.

He coached against Panthers quarterback Cam Newton in the last five years of Panthers practices. Surely he has a trick or two to make Newton squirm in this game.

Washington plays at the Rams on Sunday. Gruden, the Washington head coach, battles his offensive coordinator from last season, McVay, now the Rams head coach.

These men share a close relationship. McVay views Gruden as a mentor. McVay’s team scored 46 points last week. Gruden’s, 17. McVay is 1-0. Gruden is 0-1.

Pupil meets teacher.

Gruden and Washington seek to avoid a huge 0-2 hole.

This game should feature plenty of offensive wizardry.

The sting of losing it for Gruden would be severe. No veteran NFL coach wants to lose to a guy who is in only his second NFL game as a head coach. Especially one he tutored. Especially considering a Washington fan base that is already fretting and antsy.

Reid became head coach in Philadelphia in 1999, took the franchise to a Super Bowl but never won one. He was fired in 2012 and now is in his fifth season in Kansas City. Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie decided the Eagles needed a new voice, a new style, a new plan. Lurie is on his second coach since — first Chip Kelly, now Doug Pederson — who happens to have been Reid’s offensive coordinator in Kansas City and who spent 12 years in the league with Reid as a player or coach.

Reid disagreed with Lurie’s decision. It hurt him to leave Philadelphia, a team and a town with which he shared special bonds. He has built a fast and strong team in Kansas City.

I expect him to unleash it against the Eagles.

Reid is 8-3 against his former assistants who have become head coaches and has won six of the last seven such meetings and three in a row.

This is the No. 1 reunion game in the NFL this weekend. There is little chance Reid will lose it.

In fact, I expect him to run up the score — big.