ESPN's Top 20 NFL Coaches Ever

You'd have a hard time picking anyone besides Barry Switzer for worst coach to win one.

Worst coach to win multiple, I don't think there's an answer because I don't think a bad coach can possibly win multiple Super Bowls.

 

Not in any order...
These would seem to be no-brainers...

Lombardi
Brown
Belichick
Landry
Shula
Grant
Walsh
Gibbs
Halas
Lambeau
Levy
Noll
Parcells
Coughlin
Stram
Madden
Gillman

Also in the mix...

Johnson
Vermeil
Reeves
Schottenheimer
Shanahan
Cowher
Dungy
Holmgren
Allen
Reid

I'm sure there are some old timers I've omitted (Collier, Flaherty).

 

I guess Webb Ewbank is the anti-Dungy.

Completely unspectacular 130-129-7 regular-season coaching record. Never won more than 9 games a season with the Unitas Colts and was 6-6, 8-6 and 7-7 his last 3 years.

But a 4-1 playoff record that includes three NFL championships (including one SB win over Shula, who was 71-23-4 with the Colts after Ewbank was fired).

 

Ewbank should be in the discussion...

I find it interesting that Dungy and George Seifert have nearly identical W-L percentages.

 

As posted earlier in the thread, 55 different coaches have an AFL or NFL Championship or Super Bowl, and there are a few who haven't won one who are better than some that have.

We all know why St Tony of ESPN is on the list and arguing his merits is useless.

the list is the top 19 plus Dungy.

As far as turn-arounds, look what Vermeil did with the Rams, not saying he's a top 20 coach but he is a very good a coach. George Allen, Bud Grant, Shottenheimer (was in the playoffs in 13 different seasons, 4th all time) never won one but a great coaches

As far as coaches with impressive stats, look at Seifert, 2 Super Bowls and a 10-5 record in the playoffs.

Check out Steve Owen, coach of the Giants from '31-'53, won 2 Championships, lost 8.

 

Titles can be overrated... If you use them to separate Lombardi from Walsh, Shula, Landry and the rest, then fine... But if you're arguing that Tony Dungy is a better coach than Marv Levy, it starts to get stupid.

Does anyone think Tom Flores is a better coach than Schottenheimer, Levy or Reeves? Well, he has two more titles than they do...

Holmgren took two different teams to the Super Bowl. That impresses me a lot more than what Dungy did. If you had one game you had to win and you could choose between Andy Reid or Tony Dungy to coach that team, who would you pick? I'd take Reid in a second. He won't be on this list.

Where is Jimmy Johnson in this discussion?

 

Tony Dungy is Bagger Vance, the magical negro

 

I don't think Flores or Seifert were bad coaches, but I don't think either gets almost any credit for winning two titles. I could see dismissing Seifert's first title in SF, because that was with a team that had just won a title and the HOF coach walked away. The title with Young as QB was a little tougher to come by largely because Dallas was so good at the time.

 

If we're talking in their primes, say 2005 Colts vs. 2005 Eagles, I'm betting on Reid using a timeout with the ball and a one-point lead with 1:50 left; Manning getting the ball and somehow throwing a pick in the end zone with 30 seconds left; followed by McNabb fumbling a handoff and running into his own end zone for a game-ending safety as time expires.

 

Dungy turned the Bucs -- the Bucs! -- into a consistent winner, with Trent Dilfer and Shawn King as quarterback. They were easily the most pathetic NFL franchise of the '80s, and even by 1996, were there many reasons to believe things were changing?

I think he gets short-changed for what the Colts accomplished. Peyton Manning didn't draft Dwight Freeney, Bob Sanders, Dallas Clark and Robert Mathis. Dungy did.

Until Dungy became head coach there, the idea that you could just pencil the Colts in for 10-14 wins a season over a long stretch was just absurd. What head coach helped create those expecations? Dungy.

I think people forget, like the Bucs, how terrible the Colts were. Mora built a nice foundation but there was nothing resembling staying power ("Playoffs?? Playoffs???") by the time he left.

 

Dungy didn't draft any of those players in Indy, Bill Polian did. There are teams where the coach makes all the decisions and the GM just has the title, but that wasn't the case in Indy. I'm sure Dungy had imput, but Polian had final say.

Dungy did do a great job rebuilding the Bucs, but he still got fired because the owners thought he was underachieving in the playoffs. Monte Kiffin also got the credit for building that defense that got them a title the year after Dungy was canned.

 

The Colts had made the playoffs four times in seven years, including one AFC championship game and another season when they were 13-3, before Dungy's arrival.