NFL Head Coaches

[Rain Man]

Here's a list of NFL head coaches, with their 2008 records and their career records. I got the career records from ESPN and I think (not sure) that they're records prior to 2008, since the new coaches are shown with 0-0 records.

Coaches with a career winning percentage above 57% are in green
Coaches with a career winning percent from 55 to 57% are in blue
Coaches with a career winning percent from 50 to 54% are in black
Coaches with a career winning percent from 46 to 49% are in orange
Coaches with a career winning percent under 46% are in red

Asterisks show the number of Super Bowls in which a coach has appeared as a head coach.

What do you think? What conclusions can we draw from this?

*13-3 Jeff Fisher Tennessee Titans 128 - 102 - 0 56%
*12-4 John Fox Carolina Panthers 63 - 49 - 0 56%
*12-4 Tony Dungy Indianapolis Colts 139 - 69 - 0 67%
*12-4 Tom Coughlin New York Giants 115 - 93 - 0 55%
12-4 Mike Tomlin Pittsburgh Steelers 22 - 10 - 0 69%
11-5 Mike Smith Atlanta Falcons 0 - 0 - 0 N/A
11-5 Tony Sparano Miami Dolphins 0 - 0 - 0 N/A
****11-5 Bill Belichick New England Patriots 138 - 86 - 0 62%
11-5 John Harbaugh Baltimore Ravens 0 - 0 - 0 N/A
10-6 Brad Childress Minnesota Vikings 24 - 24 - 0 50%
*9-6-1 Andy Reid Philadelphia Eagles 97 - 62 - 1 61%
9-7 Ken Whisenhunt Arizona Cardinals 17 - 15 - 0 53%
Fired 9-7 Eric Mangini New York Jets 23 - 25 - 0 48%
*9-7 Jon Gruden Tampa Bay Buccaneers 95 - 81 - 0 54%
*9-7 Lovie Smith Chicago Bears 45 - 35 - 0 56%
9-7 Wade Phillips Dallas Cowboys 70 - 49 - 0 59%
8-8 Gary Kubiak Houston Texans 22 - 26 - 0 46%
8-8 Sean Payton New Orleans Saints 25 - 23 - 0 52%
Fired **8-8 Mike Shanahan Denver Broncos 146 - 98 - 0 60%
8-8 Norv Turner San Diego Chargers 58 - 82 - 1 41%
8-8 Jim Zorn Washington Redskins 8 - 8 - 0 50%
7-9 Dick Jauron Buffalo Bills 57 - 76 - 0 43%
Interim/Hired 7-9 Mike Singletary San Francisco 49ers 0 - 0 - 0 N/A
6-10 Mike McCarthy Green Bay Packers 27 - 21 - 0 56%
5-11 Jack Del Rio Jacksonville Jaguars 50 - 46 - 0 52%
Interim 5-11 Tom Cable Oakland Raiders 0 - 0 - 0 N/A
4-11-1 Marvin Lewis Cincinnati Bengals 46 - 49 - 1 48%
Fired 4-12 Romeo Crennel Cleveland Browns 24 - 40 - 0 38%
***4-12 Mike Holmgren Seattle Seahawks 161 - 111 - 0 59%
2-14 Herm Edwards Kansas City Chiefs 54 - 74 - 0 42%
Interim 2-14 Jim Haslett St. Louis Rams 45 - 51 - 0 47%
Fired 0-16 Rod Marinelli Detroit Lions 10 - 38 - 0 21%

[Reerun_KC]

Herm still blows ass...

[Hydrae]

Interesting, the only coaches with more than one Super Bowl appearance as the head coach are Belichick, Holmgren and Shanahan. :hmmm:

[melbar]

What, third lowest pct in the nfl?

[Rain Man]

I see several interesting findings out of this.

First, the coaches with good career records tend to have good teams this year. One might argue that they've been lucky to fall into good teams, but that's not true if you look at the "greens". At least half of them have at some point walked into a weak team and brought them up.

Second, the coaches with bad career records tend to have bad teams this year. Again, one might argue that they've been unlucky in getting hired to coach bad teams, but I'm not sure that's true. Norv Turner has walked into great situations and reversed them, and our own Herm Edwards took a playoff team and virtually destroyed it.

Third, ten active coaches have led a team to the Super Bowl. Of those, eight are in the top half of the league this year in terms of record, and they coach 5 of the 9 teams with 11+ wins this year.

Fourth, the new blood performed well. Smith and Sparano led amazing turnarounds, and Harbaugh did well for himself in Baltimore. The other two new guys took over in midseason and aren't culpable at this point.

Fifth, Herm Edwards and Marvin Lewis are way overdue for firing.

Sixth, what sort of idiot hires Norv Turner and Dick Jauron with their lengthy records of sub-mediocrity?


All told, this tells me that there are good coaches and there are bad coaches, and it's relatively easy to tell the difference. If a guy has 100 games under his belt and is below .500, avoid him like the plague. If a guy has won 55%+ of his career games, there's a really good chance that he can take you to a Super Bowl at some point.