Finding a franchise quarterback is probably the hardest thing to do in the NFL, especially in today's league. A close second to it though has to be finding a franchise coach. Over two-thirds of teams in the league have a current coach with less than five years of employment at their current team. And only five NFL teams, Kansas City, Seattle, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and New England have had their current coaches for more than six years. So many coaches have entered the league with dreams of leading their team to a title in the 100+ years of NFL history, and only a handful have done so. And only an even smaller group can count themselves among the all-time coaching greats. Here are the top ten greatest NFL coaches in history, ranked.
10. Bill Parcells
Bill Parcells is often a fixture among the top ten coaches in NFL history. Yes, his accomplishments are impressive. He won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants and a third with the New England Patriots. Parcells also notably made the playoffs with four different teams as a coach. But what truly separates Parcells is his impressive legacy and coaching tree. Parcells' handprints are all over the modern NFL, with his disciples including Bill Belichick, Todd Bowles, Tom Coughlin, Sean Payton, and Mike Zimmer.
9. Tom Landry
For 29 years, Tom Landry cut an iconic silhouette across Dallas Cowboys sidelines. Landry created one of the best teams of the 1970s, leading Dallas to five Super Bowl appearances in nine years. They would become champions of the league twice, but more importantly, during Landry's tenure, the Cowboys would become the national and even global brand they are today. In 1978, the term “America's Team” was coined. While Landry disapproved, his success and creation of the Cowboys into an NFL powerhouse brought the nickname and popularity of the team and league to a whole new level.
8. Geroge Halas
Halas may be the league's most iconic figure in the pre-Super Bowl era. Halas was around from the very inception of the NFL. The Chicago Bears' founder and owner Halas also served as head coach for 40 years. During that time, he watched the game change from “three yards and a cloud of dust” into a product that younger fans even recognize today. Even today, due to his longevity and success, he holds the second-most wins in NFL history, which is pretty astounding considering that others have had since the league first began to eclipse him. He won six NFL Championships and cemented the Bears as one of the league's best franchises of its early days.
7. Paul Brown
Very few figures in NFL history are claimed as seminal figures in a team's history. Even fewer hold that kind of status for multiple teams. Paul Brown is that guy for the state of Ohio. Paul Brown co-founded and became the first head coach of the Cleveland Browns. By the way, can you tell the team is named after him? Then, he led them to 10 straight championship game appearances from 1946-1955, the team's most successful period. That stretch included four AAFC (All-America Football Conference) titles and three NFL Championships. Brown finished his 17-year run with the Browns in 1962. That alone might have merited a spot on this list. But then, in 1967, the year he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he helped found the Cincinnati Bengals and would serve as their first coach. Brown coached the Bengals for eight years. They would quickly exit their status as an expansion franchise and become contenders, making the playoffs in their third year. They now play in a stadium named after him.
6. Bill Walsh
Bill Walsh is the person most easily identified as the inspiration behind much of the pass-first offense seen in today's NFL. Having learned and coached under Paul Brown, it's only fitting that Brown's protégé would earn a spot on this list. Walsh was the godfather of the San Francisco 49ers' rise to prominence and dominance in the 1980s. He coached the team to three Super Bowl titles while his groundwork proved pivotal in the two titles San Francisco would win after his retirement. Walsh's West Coast Offense was revolutionary, and its concepts are considered staples of modern offenses. From pass-first teams, tight end, and running back pass-catchers to three and five-step dropbacks, it all goes back to Walsh. Few people in the last 40 years of football history have changed the game as much as Walsh did.
5. Andy Reid
The first active coach on this list has raised his all-time stock in his last decade of coaching in Kansas City. He transformed the league's laughingstock into its premier juggernaut. They've made four of the last five Super Bowls. They've won three. He coached Kansas City to winning back-to-back Super Bowls for the first time in the NFL since the early New England Patriots dynasty. But even before his time in Kansas City, Reid enjoyed a very successful tenure with the Philadelphia Eagles, including four consecutive NFC Championship appearances. Although he didn't ever reach the top of the mountain with the Eagles, he is one of only a few coaches in NFL history to make a Super Bowl with multiple teams. Reid passed Tom Landry this season for fourth all-time on the coaching wins leaderboard and is only going up.
4. Chuck Noll
I'm afraid this is where I must inject that I am a diehard Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Please excuse the homer takes for the rest of this section. Chuck Noll is undeniably one of the best coaches the league has ever seen. The hiring of Chuck Noll on January 27, 1969, is the most prominent date in Pittsburgh Steelers history. He turned arguably the worst team in the NFL since its founding in 1933 into the best team to date in NFL history in a few short years. Pre-Chuck Noll, the Pittsburgh Steelers posted eight winning seasons and one playoff appearance. During Chuck Noll's tenure, the first true dynasty of the Super Bowl era was created. The 1970s Steelers won four titles in six years, a record not matched before or since. Noll also had an eye for talent in the draft. Noll helped architect the best draft in NFL history in 1974. In that draft, the Steelers selected four future Hall of Famers, and that rookie class proved to be the catalyst that sparked the dynasty's first Super Bowl win.
3. Don Shula
The NFL's all-time leader in wins. The man behind the only perfect season in NFL history. You cannot talk about NFL history without talking about Don Shula. Shula began his NFL coaching career with the Baltimore Colts. He led them to one of the last NFL Championships before the NFL-AFL merger, although this was after the Super Bowl era began, and Shula's Colts failed to win the Super Bowl. It wouldn't take Shula very long to get his next chance, as soon after he moved to the Miami Dolphins. It was in Miami that Shula became a legend. Miami was the best team of the early 1970s, advancing to three straight Super Bowls, winning two. The crowning achievement was the first and only perfect season in NFL history. Shula was far from done, as his head coaching career would ultimately last 33 years and feature two additional trips to the Super Bowl with Miami in the 1980s.
2. Vince Lombardi
There's a reason we call it the Lombardi trophy. Vince Lombardi was the Green Bay Packers for nine years. And during those nine years, they had no equal. Under Lombardi, the Packers won five titles, three in the NFL and the first two Super Bowls. Lombardi was a legendary motivator and leader, defining a lot of how we view football mentality today. He brought early running concepts like the “sweep” run into the league and used it to devastating effect. He saved a Packers team that was teetering on the edge of folding and cemented them as one of the league's most iconic teams. When you think of a football coach today, you think of an archetype Lombardi created and embodied.
1. Bill Belichick
Who else could have occupied this spot except the man who has made professional football his playground for the last two decades? Sure, arguments can be made about whether it was the generational quarterback or generational head coach more responsible for the New England Patriots' domination of the NFL for roughly 20 years. No NFL coach in history has won six Super Bowls besides Bill Belichick. No coach has shown the flexibility around team building and roster construction that Belichick has. And you'd be incredibly hard-pressed to come up with a coach that has even remotely approached Belichick's ability to get the most out of every single one of his players. Belichick has cemented himself as the standard all others should measure themselves by should they want to be great.
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