Being a successful coach in the NFL is no easy task. Year in and year out there is so much turnover within the league very few coaches stay with a team for very long.
But what makes a great coach stand out from a good coach?
Great coaches are consistent winners. Champions. Multiple championships. They leave a lasting legacy on both the team or teams they coached and the game itself.
Here is a list of who we think are the 10 greatest coaches of all time.
(Honorable mentions to Tony Dungy, Andy Reid, John Madden.)
10. Bill Parcells
It is hard to find a coach who was better at turning a franchise around other than Bill Parcells. He won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants, taking four franchises to the playoffs, but it’s how he got them there that sets him apart from other coaches.
When Parcells became head coach of the Giants in 1983 they had one winning season in the last 10 years. By 1984 they were in the playoffs and Super Bowl champions by 1986. He became head coach of a New England Patriots team in 1993 that had won two games the year prior. They won 10 games the next year and by 1996 they were in the Super Bowl (but lost to the Packers).
He became head coach of the Jets in 1997 following a 1-15 season the year prior and turned them into a playoff team by 1998, losing to John Elway’s Broncos in the AFC Championship Game. In 2003, he became head coach of the Dallas Cowboys and led them to the playoffs immediately after three straight 5-11 seasons. Parcells finished his 19-year career with 172 wins, 10 playoff appearances with a 10-8 record.
9. Joe Gibbs
In the first season of Joe Gibbs’ coaching career, Washington started 0-5 before rallying to finish 8-8 that season. Then the championships starting coming in. Gibbs won the Super Bowl in just his second season in Washington and won it three times total with three different quarterbacks (Joe Theisman, Doug Williams and Mark Rypien) — the only head coach to achieve such a feat.
Gibbs’ success in Washington was built with the ground game, building an offensive line nicknamed “The Hogs” and a strong running attack behind the likes of John Riggins, George Rogers and Earnest Bayers. In his 16-year career, Gibbs reached the postseason 11 times and the Super Bowl four times, and had 154 career wins and a 17-7 record in the playoffs.
8. Paul Brown
Paul Brown is one of the most successful coaches in the history of football. After winning at both the high school and college level, Brown became head coach of the AAFC Cleveland Browns in 1946 where he had tremendous success, winning four championships before they joined the NFL in 1950.
Brown enjoyed immediate success in the NFL, beating the New York Giants for the Eastern Conference tiebreaker then the LA Rams for the championship in their first season. Brown actually led Cleveland to six consecutive NFL Championship games, winning three in that span. He took the Browns to two more championship games in 1957 and 58 but ultimately lost those.
Brown finished his career with 159 wins in the NFL (213 total wins professionally) and has one of the most impressive coaching trees, which includes Don Shula, Weeb Ewbank, Bill Walsh and Chuck Noll.
7. Tom Landry
One of the most iconic football coaches of all time, Landry manned the Dallas Cowboys sideline with his signature hat for three decades, establishing the Cowboys as one of the premiere teams in the NFL, winning Super Bowls in 1971 and 1977.
He led the Cowboys to three other Super Bowl appearances, which they ultimately lost (twice to Chuck Noll’s Steelers) but became the benchmark for success in the NFC, reaching the playoffs 18 times in his 28-year career.
The Cowboys would stumble at the end of his career in the late 1980s, and Landry would finish with 250 career wins — which is currently fourth all time.
6. George Halas
George Halas was one of the great pioneers of the game and the first truly great coach the NFL ever had. Halas, who was also the founder and owner of the Bears, ranks second on the all-time wins list with 318 and won six NFL championships across four decades — the first in 1921 and his last in 1963.
He is the only head coach to win a title in four different decades and continued to find success in an ever-evolving game. Halas is believed to be the first coach to implement film study of opposing teams in practice, put coordinators in the press box and have the team publish its own newspaper and broadcast games by radio.
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5. Bill Walsh
Among the great offensive minds in the game was Bill Walsh, who was head coach of the San Francisco 49ers from 1979-1988. Walsh won three Super Bowl titles with the Niners behind Joe Montana under center but it was the West Coast offense — which relies on quick, short throws to move the ball downfield — that may be Walsh’s lasting mark on the NFL which is still used today in different variations.
With the Niners running the new offense, they averaged 24.4 points per game during Walsh’s 10-year tenure — the most in the NFL in that span — and oversaw the careers of Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Charles Haley and Ronnie Lott. He also traded for Steve Young, who would win a Super Bowl after he retired.
He only won 92 games in his career, but had a .609 winning percentage in that short time.
4. Chuck Noll
The Pittsburgh Steelers are one of the most revered franchises in the NFL and Chuck Noll is a big reason why. From 1969-1991 Noll oversaw the Steelers, winning 193 games (ninth all time) and helped build their dynasty in the 1970s in which the franchise won four Super Bowls in a six-year span.
And we really do mean he built that team. Noll found tons of talent through the draft, including Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris. In 1974, the Steelers drafted four Hall of Famers with their first five picks: Lynn Swann, John Stallworth, Jack Lambert and Mike Webster. No other team has drafted more than two Hall of Famers in a single draft since.
Noll also helped pave the way for more Black players and coaches. He made Joe Gilliam the first Black starting quarterback in the NFL and gave Tony Dungy the start to his coaching career, pushing hard for him to eventually become the first African-American coordinator in the NFL.
3. Don Shula
Nobody knew how to win quite like Don Shula. His 328 career victories are the most in NFL history and coached 31 winning seasons in his 33-year career. His main claim to fame, though, are the 1972 Miami Dolphins. To this day, the Dolphins are the only team to finish the regular and postseason with a perfect record.
In fact, the Dolphins had just won 15 games in their first four years of existence before Shula took over and completely turned them around into a two-time Super Bowl winning franchise in 1972 and ’73.
Shula took the Dolphins to two more Super Bowls in the 80s, but fell short both times. He also spearheaded changes to the game that have helped turn it into the pass-heavy version of the NFL we see today and capitalized on those changes by drafting Dan Marino to give the Dolphins a prolific passing attack.
2. Vince Lombardi
Vince Lombardi is synonymous with success in the NFL. They named the Super Bowl trophy after him for a reason. Lombardi is the only head coach to win five titles in a seven-year span and his Green Bay Packers were the last NFL team to win three straight championships, which included the first two Super Bowls.
Lombardi lost his first playoff game in 1960 and never experienced that feeling again. He won nine straight times in the postseason — a record that stood until Belichick topped it in2006 — and finished with a career 9-1 record in addition to a .738 winning percentage in the regular.
Lombardi resigned as Packers head coach in 1968 and later became Washington general manager and head coach in 1969 — one year before his death. That year he lead Washington to a 7-5-2 record — its first winning record since 1955.
1. Bill Belichick
Bill Belichick has established himself as the most decorated coach in possibly the toughest era to win in the NFL. He has six Super Bowl championships with the New England Patriots, nine AFC championship victories and 17 AFC East titles. He ranks third all time in wins with 290, behind Halas and Shula.
Some may argue that Tom Brady was the result of the Patriots’ success, others will argue Belichick is what made Brady successful. Whichever way you look at it one thing is clear: in a span of three decades Belichick consistently built a championship-caliber team. Nobody has dominated the modern NFL the way Belichick has with the Patriots and he has undeniably earned the top spot on this list.
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