The NFL's Best Coaches Since WWII

OPINION
By John Turney

As part of the series of the best ever players for the NFL 100 Anniversary, we add the head coaches. We go by wins, championships per season, innovations, and other intangibles to create our rankings.

The hardest part is to quantify long and meritorious service for those who didn't win championships and how to compare them to those who coached much fewer years but brought home the hardware. We are most confident in our top ten, but after that, it's judgment calls. We could drop the ones who won a lot of games but no Super Bowls and move up the two-Super Bowl-winning coaches and feel good about it. But, we tried to balance peak versus longevity.

The numbers after the names are:  Years—Championships—Winning percentage including playoffs

Key to Awards—
Used by Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the NFL and the Hall of Fame
AP = Associated Press
UPI = United Press International
PFWA = Pro Football Writers of America
SN = Sporting News
PFW = Pro Football Weekly

Other clubs and publications
Kansas City Committee of 101
MC = Maxwell Club of Philadelphia
CTDC = Columbus Touchdown Club
WTD = Washington Touchdown Club
NFLA = NFL Alumni
FN = Football News
GN = Gannett News Service
C&PFNW = College and Pro Football Newsweekly

1. Vince Lombardi-HOF—10—5—.740

Five titles. The Super Bowl trophy is named after him. His "second act" with the Redskins was cut short by an early tragic death. No one knows if he'd have turned the Redskins around so in some ways Lombardi is tops with sort of a "Gale Sayers exception" in that he had, compared to the next set of great coaches, a short career. But while he did it, he was the best.

Lombardi was the Giants offensive coach for most of the 1950s and one thing he did, though we cannot say he invented it or innovated it, but he used Frank Gifford in a number of ways, one of which was as a flanker. He also allowed Gifford to throw some halfback passes. When he took the Green Bay job he had his "Gifford" in Paul Hornung, though he didn't flank him he let Hornung throw ad he did Gifford.

However, what Lombardi was known for were his blocking schemes and the power sweep. He's run, run, and when teams had to honor that Starr would throw deep off of play action. It was not necessarily innovative but even then the NFL was a copycat league and every team began to try and run the Packer sweep. 

That lasted well into the 1970s. The Shula Dolphins were a clone of the Lombardi Packers, similar in the plays they ran, the players they acquire. They ran it, use played action, had a good pass rush and played good coverage. The one advantage the Dolphins had was Paul Warfield. The Packers never had anyone like that, though Carroll Dale had good speed. But, we digress.

When he got to Washington he told Sonny Jurgenson "If I had you in Green Bay, we'd have never lost". It would have been interesting to see if Lombardi in the 1970s would have passed more (assuming Jurgenson stayed healthy) than he did in the 1960s. Food for thought.

1959  (AP, UPI), 1961 (SN), 1967 (PFWA)   NFL Coach of the Year

2. Bill Belichick—24—6—.685

Six titles, plus two as a coordinator. In the era of free agency and the salary cap, he's the best coach and no one is close. The only negatives are the allegations of 'Spygate' which still dog him and are often cited by critics.

Belichick has had amazing consistency with his quarterback but everything else was in flux. Different defensive schemes (4-3, 3-4) from year-to-year, even week-to-week sometimes. He's had coordinators leave, come back, leave. From what we've seen he does it as well as it can be done in this era and it's not really close.

What would it take for us to move Bill Belichick to number one on our list? In our view, one more title. And to 100% seal the deal for his haters he could overtake Shula for total wins. He's 55 behind right now (including playoffs), and the last five years he's averaged 15 wins, so if he keeps that up (and it is a big 'if') he could do it mid-season in 2022. That would remove all doubt. 

2001 (C&PFNW), 2003 (AP, SN, PFWA, FD), 2007 (AP, SN, PFWA, PFW, MC), 2010 (AP, PFWA) NFL Coach of the Year 

2001 (KC101), 2003 (KC101), 2007 (KC101), 2014 (KC101)AFC Coach of the Year

3. Paul Brown-HOF—25—7—.660

Most of the way things are done by NFL coaches stem from Paul Brown. From film study to the naming of players positions, to how teams train and so on. He won seven titles with the Browns. His second act with the Bengals was okay, but he never got them far into the playoffs.

1949 (SN), 1951 (SN), 1953 (SN), 1957 (UPI), 1969 (AFL-UPI) 1970 (AP, UPI, FN) NFL Coach of the Year 

4. Bill Walsh-HOF—10—3 —.617

Walsh took a team that was truly bad and took it to the top quickly. His innovations include the so-called West Coast Offense whose concepts dominate the NFL landscape to this day.

Like Lombardi, he had a shorter career and he likely left a ring on the table by walking away after 1988. He coached with Stanford after than, but we always thought if you are going to coach, why not stay in NFL?

1981 (AP, SN, PFW, FD, WTD)  NFL Coach of the Year
1981 (UPI, PFWA, KC101), 1984 (UPI, PFWA, KC101)  NFC Coach of the Year

5. Chuck Noll-HOF—23—4—.572

Like Bill Walsh took a bad team to the top, four times to the top. He kept them competitive through about 1984 and then leveled out. His hiring of Bud Carson was genius. Carson brought the Cover-2 to the Steelers and with the players they had in the secondary it was a match made in heaven.

1979 (CTDC),  1974, (WTD), 1982 (GN), 1989 (MC)  NFL Coach of the Year
1972 (UPI), 1976 (FN),  1983 (PFWA), 1989 (PFWA) AFC Coach of the Year

6. Joe Gibbs-HOF—16—3—.629

Three Super Bowl wins with three different quarterbacks. He was a disciple of Don Coryell, but when he got to Washington he didn't recreate Air Coryell. He ran the 3-digit offense, but as a power running game and when Lawrence Taylor caused them issues he perfected the two tight end offense.

Later, when the Redskins got Gary Clark and Ricky Sanders Gibbs did open up the offense, using a three-receiver set quite a lot—in 1989 the Redskins had three 1,000 yards receivers for example.

We could have done without his comeback. It added nothing to his legacy.

1982 (AP, SN, PFW, FN), 1983 (AP, SN, PFW, FD, CTDC, WTD), 1986 (WTD), 1991 (SN, PFW) NFL Coach of the Year
1982 (UPI, PFWA), 1983 (PFWA, KC101)  NFC Coach of the Year

7. Tom Landry-HOF —29—2—.601

In the 1950s he perfected and standardized the 4-3 defense. In the 1960s he invented the Flex Defense which never spread around the NFL but was amazingly effective at stopping the run for the better part of two decades. He took an expansion team to a winner and a consistent winner.

1966  (AP, UPI, PFWA, SN), 1975 (FN) NFL Coach of the Year
1975 (UPI, PFWA, KC101) NFC Coach of the Year

8. Don Shula-HOF —33—2—.665

The NFL record holder in career wins. He was a terrific motivator and was also a great defensive coach with the Lions before getting the Colts job. He won a slew of Coach of the Year Awards, both major and from publications—he won one in nine different seasons though 1973, 1977, and 1990 were from publications rather than wire services.

1964 (AP, UPI, SN), 1967 (AP), 1968 (AP, UPI, PFWA, SN, PFW), 1970 (SN, PFW), 1971 (FN), 1972 (AP, SN, PFW, FN, CTDC), 1973 (FN), 1977 (C&PFNW), 1990 (FN)  NFL Coach of the Year
1971 (UPI, PFWA, PFW, KC101),  1972 (PFWA, PFW, KC101) AFC Coach of the Year

9. George Halas-HOF—20—2—.609

Halas will be part of the Pre-WWII analysis later in the Summer by Chris Willis of NFL FIlms as well. This is his post-WW II ranking. Halas coached forty years, twenty before and twenty after the war. He had more success early in his career—.734 winning percentage and four titles and only one losing season.

His last twenty years were .609 and two titles and four losing seasons. If we were to rank him for entire career versus the field he'd be top five.

1963 (AP, UPI, SN), 1965 (AP, UPI, SN) NFL Coach of the Year

10. Bill Parcells-HOF—19—2—.570

Parcells won two titles and then took a poor Patriots team to the Super Bowl and also turned the Jets around and the Cowboys, too. Those give him an advantage over several of the two Super Bowl-winning coaches.

He almost got into Hall of Fame in 2001, but a report the week of the Super Bowl that he was talking to the Buccaneers about coaching them ended his candidacy. He complained that the leak cost him the Hall of Fame that year. He eventually got in, but we thought it was a bit sneaky to want to get in the Hall of Fame then coach again so soon, almost like an insurance policy if the job he took went south.

1986 (AP, SN, PFW, FN), 1994 (AP, PFWA, PFW, MC, C&PFNW, FD, GN, CTDC) NFL Coach of the Year
1984 (UPI), 1986 (UPI, PFWA, KC101, FD), 1994 (UPI, FN), 2003 (KC101) NFC/AFC Coach of the Year

11. Hank Stram-HOF—17—2—.573

Stram had a lot of innovations some of which were copied by other coaches. Many weren't. He won 3 AFL championships and won a Super Bowl and lost a Super Bowl. His second act in New Orleans was not a success.

We count the AFL Championship that didn't have a Super Bowl after it since he won the final game. We don't count 1966 since they lost in the Super Bowl. We do the same for the NFL during the 1960s.

1966 (AP), 1968 (AP, UPI, PFW), 1969 (KC101) AFL Coach of the Year

12. Weeb Ewbank-HOF—20—3—.507

A three-time NFL champion, including beating the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.

1958 (AP, UPI) NFL Coach of the Year
1968 (PFWA)  AFL Coach of the Year

13. Greasy Neale-HOF—10—2—.596

And innovator of defenses, the 6-1 and the "Eagle" defense that eventually became the 46 defense. Won two titles.

1948 (SN) NFL Coach of the Year

14. Buddy Parker—15—2—.581

Also a crafty coach with two titles. When he was with the Lions he had Paul Brown's number. Not so much after he left to go to the Steelers. Twice resigned early in seasons—in 1957 with the Lions was frustrated with his team's efforts and in 1965 when he had issues with the Rooneys over personnel and trades.

1956 (UPI) NFL Coach of the Year

15. Bud Grant-HOF—1 —0—.607

Won the NFL title in 1969 but then lost the Super Bowl, then lost three others. He has the highest winning percentage among the coaches with 4 losses.

1969 (AP, UPI, PFWA, PFW, SN, KC101) NFL Coach of the Year
1976 (FN) Coach of the Year

16. Marv Levy-HOF—17—0—.562

A popular, beloved figure in Buffalo be got the Bills to the big game, but never brought home the Lombardi.

1988 (SN, CTDC) 1990 (WTD) NFL Coach of the Year
1988 (UPI, KC101), 1993 (UPI) AFC Coach of the Year

17. John Madden-HOF—10—1—.731

Madden is hard to rate. He took over a very good Raider team and did win a Super Bowl. However, did he achieve all he should have given the support he got from Al Davis and the talent he had?

1969 (PFWA, PFW), 1976 (WTD) AFL/NFL Coach of the Year

18. George Allen-HOF—12—0—.681

Allen coordinated the 1963 Bears defense, one of the best ever and was the de facto coordinator for the Rams and Redskins teams he led. He got a lot out of older players with the Redskins but we wonder if he shouldn't have shifted to younger players sooner in the 1970s and players were getting faster and stronger.

1967 (AP, UPI, SN), 1971 (AP, SN, PFW, WTD, CTDC)  NFL Coach of the Year
1971 (UPI, PFWA, KC101), 1976 (KC101) NFC Coach of the Year

19. Dan Reeves —23—0—.536

A long-time coach with 4 conference titles.

1984 (SN, PFW, C&PFNW), 1993 (AP, SN, PFW, CTDC, FD, MC)  1998 (AP, SN, PFWA, PFW, CTDC) NFL Coach of the Year
1984 (KC101, FN), 1989 (UPI, KC101, FN), 1991 (UPI, KC101, FN), 1993 (UPI, KC101), 1998 (KC101) AFC/NFC Coach of the Year

20. Marty Schottenheimer— 21— 0—.596

Came close to several Super Bowls, just could not get over the hump.

1986 (CTDC), 1996 (NFLA), 1997 (CTDC), 2004 (AP, PFWA, PFW, MC) NFL Coach of the Year
1986 (UPI, PFWA, KC101), 1995 (UPI, KC101, FN), 1997 (KC101), 2004 (KC101) AFC Coach of the Year

21. Chuck Knox —22—0—.550

Same story as Marty Schottenheimer.

1973 (AP, SN, PFW, WTD), 1980 (AP, SN, PFW, FD), 1984 (AP, SN, FD) NFL Coach of the Year
1973 (UPI, PFWA, KC101) 1980 (PFWA, PFW, KC101), 1983 (UPI, KC101, FN), 1984 (UPI, PFWA) NFC/AFC Coach of the Year

22. Jimmy Johnson—9—2—.567

Johnson won two Super Bowls and built a dynasty out of a bad team. He was innovative in developing the NFL trade chart, which (with some modifications) is still in use today. He also was a master of recognizing college talent. His second act was okay, but not stellar.

1990 (AP) NFL Coach of the Year
1990 (UPI) NFL Coach of the Year

23. Mike Shanahan—20—2 —.553

His first act with the Raiders was a failure. He went back to be an offensive coordinator and won a Super Bowl in 1994. With the Broncos he won a pair of titles. His third act with the Redskins was mixed at best.

1996 (CTDC) NFL Coach of the Year

1996 (KC101, FN), 1998 (KC101)  AFC Coach of the Year

24. George Seifert—11 —2—.649

Critics say he 'gravy-trained' his first Super Bowl. He then won one in 1994. His second act was a failure. His promoters mention his defenses in the 1980s for the 49ers which are seriously underrated.

1989 (SN, PFW, CTDC), 1990 (PFW) 1994 (SN) NFL Coach of the Year
1989 (KC101), 1990 (KC101, FN)  NFC Coach of the Year

25. Tom Coughlin—20—2—.537

A winner of two Super Bowls with the Giants, he took an expansion Jaguars team to the AFC title game in their second year and build a very good team that was highly competitive for several years.

1996 (UPI)  AFC Coach of the Year

26. Tom Flores —12—2—.538

Flores won two Super Bowls and many say he's a Hall of Fame coach. But as we've shown there are several 2 championship coaches not in the Hall of Fame. Flores took over a good Raiders team and in 1980 did a good job taking a wild card team to win the Super Bowl. In 1983 he also won it all. The questions as to if he was a great coach were 1981-82 and 1984-85, did they accomplish what they should have given the talent? His second act with Seattle was a disaster.

Should be in? We are neutral. But if he gets in then Jimmy Johnson, Shanahan, Seifert, and Coughlin should be in before because we've ranked them in that order and think our views are defensible and non-partisan.

1982 (UPI, PFW)  AFC Coach of the Year

27. Sid Gillman-HOF—18—1—.541

He won an AFL title but his HOF election was based on his innovation and his being the "Father of the modern passing game".

1974 (FN)  NFL Coach of the Year
1974 (UPI, PFWA, KC101)  AFC Coach of the Year

28. Don Coryell—14—0—.561

Another innovator, not unlike Gillman, but he waited for his Hall of Fame call which never came and still hasn't.

1974 (AP, SN, PFW) NFL Coach of the Year
1974 (UPI, PFWA, PFW, KC101)  1979 (PFWA, PFW, KC101) NFC/AFC Coach of the Year

29. Lou Saban—16—2—.490

Saban was successful with the Patriots then won two AFL titles with the Bills. Then was so-s with Broncos and then with the Bills again.

He had a few innovations if you will. He ran some zone blitzes with the Patriots in 1960-61 and with the Bills let Joe Collier run quite a lot of 3-4 defenses. No team in the AFL ran it more than the mid-1960s Bills and all AFL teams ran it some.

1964 (UPI), 1965 (UPI) AFL Coach of the Year

30. Dick Vermeil—15—1—.525

Won a title with the Rams, lost a Super Bowl with the Eagles, taking over a poor team there (as were the Rams). Revitalized the Chiefs in the early 2000s but couldn't get them to the big game.

1979 (SN, PFW, CTDC) 1999 (AP, SN, PFWA, PFW, MC, GN, FD, CTDC), 2003 (MC) NFL Coach of the Year
1978 (UPI, PFWA, FN), 1979 (PFWA, KC101), 1999 (KC101, FN) NFC Coach of the Year

31. Tony Dungy-HOF—13—1—.652

He won 65% of his games and won one title. His innovation of the "Tampa-2" was a big boost to his candidacy as well, though he has always said it was Bud Carson's defense.

1997 (MC), 2005 (SN, MC) NFL Coach of the Year
2005 (KC101) AFC Coach of the Year

32. Mike Holmgren—17—1—.588

He won a Super Bowl and lost two. A Bill Walsh disciple with a great offensive mind.

1992 (KC101, FN) NFC Coach of the Year

33. Pete Carroll—13—1—.586

Has a ring, is a fine coach, 2019 is a transition year with all of the Legion of Boom gone.

2012 (KC101) NFC Coach of the Year

34. Bill Cowher—15—1—.619

He won a title and lost one. The 2005 Super Bowl win got a monkey off his back because he'd been close to a few Super Bowls prior to that and never won one or failed to get there.

1992 (AP, SN, CTDC), 2004 (SN)  NFL Coach of the Year
1994 (KC101) AFC Coach of the Year

35. Sean Payton—12—1—.612

An amazing offensive coaching mind.

2006 (AP, SN, PFWA, PFW, MC), 2009 (SN, MC)  NFL Coach of the Year
2006 (KC101), 2009 (KC101) NFC Coach of the Year

36. Mike Tomlin—12—1—.645

He won a title early in his coaching career, but there are some rumblings coming recently that he's not getting the Steelers where they need to be.

37. Mike McCarthy—13—1—.613

Won a title, is going to his second act in 2019.
2011 (MC) NFL Coach of the Year
2007 (KC101) NFC Coach of the Year

38. Blanton Collier— 8—1—.672

Took the Browns to the title in 1964

39. Andy Reid — 20 — 0 — .600

Has been around forever, a bright coach, but has yet to get it done.

2000 (SN, MC, FD, GN) 2002 (AP, SN, PFWA MC, C&PFNW, GN, CTDC),  2010 (MC) 2018 (SN, MC) NFL Coach of the Year
2002 (KC101), 2013 (KC101), 2015 (KC101)    NFC/AFC Coach of the Year

40. John Harbaugh — 11 — 1 — .594

He won a Super Bowl and his Ravens teams have been consistently good.

Other Coach of the Year Award Winners
(In no real order)

Ted Marchibroda

1975 (AP, SN, PFW, WTD) NFL Coach of the Year

1975 (UPI, PFWA, KC101) AFC Coach of the Year

Mike Ditka

1985 (AP, SN), 1988 (AP, PFW, FD) NFL Coach of the Year
1985 (UPI, PFWA, KC101), 1988 (UPI, PFWA, KC101) NFC Coach of the Year

Jon Gruden

He's back. He took the Bucs to a title in 2002 (Dungy's team? And did Dungy take Mora's team to the promised land?).

2000 (KC101) AFC Coach of the Year

Sam Rutigliano

 1979 (UPI) 1980 (UPI, CTDC)  AFC Coach of the Year

Chuck Fairbanks

1976 (SN, PFW)  NFL Coach of the Year
1976 (UPI, PFWA) AFC Coach of the Year

Leeman Bennett

1980 (CTDC, WTD) NFL Coach of the Year
1977 (FN, KC101), 1980 NFC (UPI, PFWA, KC101) Coach of the Year

Jack Pardee

1979 (AP, WTD) NFL Coach of the Year
1976 (UPI, PFWA), 1979 (UPI), 1993 (KC101) NFC/AFC Coach of the Year

Jack Patera

1978 (AP, SN, WTD) NFL Coach of the Year

1978 (KC101, FN) AFC Coach of the Year

Walt Michaels

1978 (PFW) NFL Coach of the Year

1978 (UPI, PFWA) AFC Coach of the Year

John Ralson

1973 (UPI, PFWA, KC101) AFC Coach of the Year

Jim Mora

1987 (AP, SN, PFW, FD, WTD) NFL Coach of the Year

1987 (UPI, PFWA, KC101, FN), 1999 (KC101) NFC/AFC Coach of the Year

Art Shell

1990 (PFWA, PFW, MC, GN) NFL Coach of the Year

1990 (KC101) AFC Coach of the Year

Wayne Fontes

1991 (AP, PFWA, PFW, MC, CTDC) NFL Coach of the Year
1991 (UPI, KC101, FN) NFL Coach of the Year

Ray Meyer

1982 (FN), 1987 (UPI, PFWA, KC101, FN) AFC Coach of the Year

Lindy Infante

1989 (AP, SN, FD, WTD, CTDC) NFL Coach of the Year

1989 (UPI, PFWA, KC101, FN) NFC Coach of the Year

Forrest Gregg

1976 (AP), 1982 (CTDC) NFL Coach of the Year

1981 (UPI, PFWA, KC101) AFC Coach of the Year

Red Miller

1977 (AP, PFWA, SN, PFW, WTD) NFL Coach of the Year

1977 (UPI, FN, KC101) AFC Coach of the Year

Dick Nolan

1970 (PFWA, PFW, KC101)  NFC Coach of the Year

Al Davis

1963 (AP, UPI) AFL Coach of the Year

John Robinson

1983 (UPI, FN) NFC Coach of the Year

Dennis Green

1992 (C&PFNW, WTD), 1998 (MC, GN) NFL Coach of the Year

1992 (UPI) NFC Coach of the Year

Sam Wyche

1988 (PFWA) AFC Coach of the Year

Allie Sherman

1961 (AP, UPI), 1962 (AP, UPI) NFL Coach of the Year

Buck Shaw

1960 (AP, UPI) NFL Coach of the Year

Mike Smith

2008 (AP, SN), 2010 (SN), 2012 (SN) NFL Coach of the Year

2008 (KC101), 2010 (KC101) NFC Coach of the Year

Dom Capers

1995 (PFWA, CTDC), 1996 (AP, SN, PFWA, CTDC, FD, GN, PFW) NFL Coach of the Year

1996 (UPI, KC101) NFC Coach of the Year

Bruce Arians

2012  (AP, PFWA), 2014 (PFWA, SN) NFL Coach of the Year

2012 (KC101), 2014 (KC101) AFC/NFC Coach of the Year

Ron Rivera 

2013  (AP, PFWA, SN), 2015 (AP, PFWA, SN) NFL Coach of the Year

2013 (KC101), 2015 (KC101) NFC Coach of the Year

Worth Nothing

Bum Phillips

Phillips never won a Coach of the Year Award, but he was the runner-up in 1975 and did a fine job with the late-1970s Oilers.

John McKay

Had a legitimate claim on the 1979 Coach of the Year Award but Pardee and Vermeil beat him out, still, though, did a fine job in that "worst to first" season for the Bucs.

Ray Perkins

Ron Erhardt

Often you hear of the 3-digit offense, the West Coast Offense but less often the "Perkins-Erhardt" offense. It refers to the terminology used in that scheme. Charlie Weiss and now Josh McDaniels use is as do others, though all those terms are really obsolete because the verbiage is now so shortened no one uses full play calls anymore. They use truncated terminology and route concepts far more than anything. But in the pantheon of offenses, the Perkins-Erhardt has its place in history.

****************************

Interesting Names

Paul Wiggin

Neill Armstrong

John Mackovic

Charlie Winner

Bart Starr

Sammy Baugh

Norm Van Brocklin

Starr, Baugh, and Van Brocklin are three of the great quarterbacks who had varying success as coaches but never could replicate what they did on the field. You can add Bob Waterfield to that list and others.

Other names

Jeff Fisher—A lot of wins. A lot of losses.

Brian Billick—1 title

Jim Lee Howell—1 title

Gary Kubiak—1 title

John Fox—2 conference titles, amazingly no Coach of the Year awards 

Marvin Lewis—1 Coach of the Year

Mike Sherman

Jim Harbaugh—1 NFC Coach of the Year, 1 NFC title

John Rauch—1 AFL title, lost Super Bowl

Hampton Pool—1 title, 1 coach of the year

Lovie Smith—1 Coach of the Year, 1 NFC title

We could go on, but we don't care as much about coaches as we do about players and we may have valued longevity too much over championships, however, we feel good about our rankings but if you disagree, let us know.