Who rules the sidelines? A look at the 10 winningest NFL coaches
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Who rules the sidelines? A look at the 10 winningest NFL coaches
George Halas on the sidelines.
Before the 2023 National Football League season started, it seemed inevitable that Bill Belichick would end his career as the winningest head coach in league history.
He had won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots and 298 regular-season games, plus 31 playoff games, across his career. Then the 2023 season happened.
Belichick’s Patriots finished 4-13, the franchise’s worst record since 1992. At the end of the year, Belichick and New England owner Robert Kraft agreed to part ways.
And now, during the 2024 season, Belichick is on the sideline. He’s 26 wins from the #1 spot, a mark he’d reach in little more than two seasons if he maintained his .647 career winning percentage.
Will he ascend the summit? It’s hard to tell. Belichick would be 73 if he graced the sidelines next season—meaning he’d need to coach until at least 75 to break the all-time mark. Only one other NFL coach has ever helmed a team at age 73: Romeo Crennel in 2020 for the Houston Texans.
With Belichick’s pursuit of history stalled, it’s worth glancing at the legends who have reached the pinnacle of coaching success. Who else stands among the 10 winningest coaches in NFL history?
Stacker ranked the coaches with the most all-time regular-season wins using data from Pro Football Reference. These coaches have combined for 36 league championships, which represents 31.6% of all championships won throughout the history of pro football. To learn who made the list, keep reading.
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#10. Dan Reeves
Dan Reeves being carried by players.
– Seasons coached: 23
– Years active: 1981-2003
– Record: 190-165-2
– Winning percentage: .535
– Championships: 0
Dan Reeves reached the Super Bowl four times—thrice with the Denver Broncos and once with the Atlanta Falcons—but never won the NFL’s crown jewel. Still, he racked up nearly 200 wins across his 23-year career, including a stint in charge of the New York Giants, with whom he won Coach of the Year in 1993.
In all his tenures, he quickly built contenders—the three clubs he coached were a combined 17-31 the year before Reeves joined and 28-20 in his first year. However, his career ended on a sour note as he was fired from a 3-10 Falcons team after Week 14 in 2003.
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#9. Chuck Noll
Chuck Noll on the field.
– Seasons coached: 23
– Years active: 1969-91
– Record: 193-148-1
– Winning percentage: .566
– Championships: 4
Chuck Noll’s Pittsburgh Steelers were synonymous with success in the 1970s. Behind his defense, known as the Steel Curtain, and offensive stars, including Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, and Lynn Swann, Noll led the squad to four Super Bowl victories from 1974 to 1979. Noll’s Steelers remain the lone team to win four Super Bowls in six years, though Andy Reid and Kansas City could equal that mark if they win the Lombardi Trophy this season.
Noll was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993, two years after retiring. His legacy of coaching success has carried on in Pittsburgh—the club has had only two coaches (Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin) since Noll retired.
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#8. Marty Schottenheimer
Marty Schottenheimer.
– Seasons coached: 21
– Years active: 1984-98, 2001-06
– Record: 200-126-1
– Winning percentage: .613
– Championships: 0
As head coach of Cleveland, Kansas City, Washington, and San Diego, Marty Schottenheimer proved a successful leader during the regular season. Notably, he was named Coach of the Year after turning around his 4-12 Chargers team to a 12-4 record in 2004.
His teams, however, struggled during the playoffs. Schottheimer went 5-13 in the postseason, and he never made it past the conference championship round. As such, the Pennsylvania-born skipper is the winningest NFL coach never to win a league championship.
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#7. Paul Brown
Coach Paul Brown with players on the field.
– Seasons coached: 25
– Years active: 1946-62, ’68-75
– Record: 213-104-9
– Winning percentage: .672
– Championships: 7
The only coach on this list to pilot a college team, Paul Brown, reached the pro ranks after a three-year stint at Ohio State and two years with the Navy during World War II. He guided the Cleveland Browns—named after Brown, their first coach—to four straight titles in the fledgling All-America Football Conference. After the league folded, the ballclub moved to the NFL in 1950, and Cleveland continued its winning ways, with Brown leading the team to championships in ’50, ’54, and ’55.
He was fired in 1963 but returned in 1968 as the co-founder and coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. His other notable accomplishments include helping to invent the face mask and breaking pro football’s color barrier.
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#6. Curly Lambeau
Curly Lambeau with players on the field.
– Seasons coached: 33
– Years active: 1921-53
– Record: 226-132-22
– Winning percentage: .631
– Championships: 6
An early stalwart of the NFL, Curly Lambeau spent 29 years helming the Green Bay Packers before wrapping up his coaching career with two-year stints with the Chicago Cardinals and Washington. His Packers won titles across three decades, including the league’s first three-peat from 1929-31. Notably, he experienced only one losing season during his first 27 years with Green Bay, cementing his legacy of consistent success.
Born in Green Bay, Lambeau co-founded the Packers and played halfback on the team from 1919-29. He was elected to the Hall of Fame as a coach and owner in 1963, two years before his death.
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#5. Tom Landry
Tom Landry with the Dallas Cowboys.
– Seasons coached: 29
– Years active: 1960-88
– Record: 250-162-6
– Winning percentage: .607
– Championships: 2
The first head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Tom Landry held the position for his entire 29-year tenure as an NFL coach. The Cowboys were especially dominant in the 1970s when they made five Super Bowls and won the big game twice. Landry was known for coaching strong all-around squads and a unit that earned the nickname the “Doomsday Defense.”
Between 1966 and 1985, Landry and his Cowboys enjoyed 20 straight seasons with a winning record. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1990.
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#4. Andy Reid
Andy Reid holding a superbowl trophy on the field.
– Seasons coached: 26
– Years active: 1999-present
– Record: 267-145-1
– Winning percentage: .648
– Championships: 3
The only active coach in the top 10, Andy Reid has posted successful runs with both the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City. After reaching the Super Bowl once in 14 years with the Eagles, Reid ratcheted things up with K.C., winning three titles since 2019.
As back-to-back defending champions, Reid and Co. are looking this season to become the first franchise to three-peat in the Super Bowl era and the third to do so in NFL history after the Packers of 1929-31 and ’65-67. Time will tell if Reid and his offensive wizardry can lead Kansas City to that feat.
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#3. Bill Belichick
Bill Belichick holding a superbowl trophy.
– Seasons coached: 29
– Years active: 1991-95, 2000-23
– Record: 302-165
– Winning percentage: .647
– Championships: 6
The most successful head coach of the 21st century, Bill Belichick first coached the Cleveland Browns before taking over the New England Patriots in 2000. With the Pats, Belichick combined with quarterback Tom Brady to win six Super Bowls in 18 years.
Belichick and New England split after last season when the Patriots went 4-13—the worst record of Belichick’s career. His name has swirled around potential coaching openings, but nothing has come of it. Belichick has remained in the media spotlight with his regular slot on the “Monday Night Football” ManningCast.
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#2. George Halas
George Halas on the shoulders of his team.
– Seasons coached: 40
– Years active: 1920-29, ’33-42, ’46-55, ’58-67
– Record: 318-148-31
– Winning percentage: .682
– Championships: 6
George Halas was the founder and longtime owner of the Chicago Bears and coached the team across four separate stints. Nicknamed “Papa Bear,” he built the ballclub into one of the NFL’s premier franchises behind players such as Bronko Nagurski and Sid Luckman.
Halas also played for the team, competing as a player-coach in the 1920s. The first coach to study opponents via game film, he was once a baseball player and even made 12 appearances as a member of the New York Yankees in 1919. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1963 as both a coach and owner.
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#1. Don Shula
Don Shula on the field.
– Seasons coached: 33
– Years active: 1963-95
– Record: 328-156-6
– Winning percentage: .677
– Championships: 2
The winningest head coach in NFL history is Don Shula, who first coached the Baltimore Colts (losing Super Bowl III to Joe Namath and the New York Jets) for seven years before leading the Miami Dolphins for 26 seasons. With the Fins, Shula won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1972 and 1973, a run that included a 17-0 season—the only perfect campaign in NFL history.
He also coached quarterback great Dan Marino in the 1980s and ’90s, but the pair made it to a Super Bowl just once. Shula was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997.
Story editing by Mike Taylor. Copy editing by Robert Wickwire. Photo selection by Lacy Kerrick.
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