Every NFL Coach of the Year winner from 1957 to present day

There is a notion that Coach of the Year often, perhaps too frequently, goes to a coach in their first year with a team that picks up more wins. Clearly, that has to be all about the coach, right? Well, that was happening from the beginning. Wilson was promoted from the Detroit Lions’ wide receivers and tight ends coach to head coach prior to 1957. What’s odd is that the season prior, the Lions had gone 9-3, but under Wilson, they went 8-4. Now, at the end of the year, the Lions did win the NFL title. Was voting done at a different time back then? Or did the AP not quite know what to do with Coach of the Year yet?

There are a lot of Hall of Fame coaches on this list. Wilson didn’t make the Hall (he also didn’t finish with a winning record as a head coach), but Ewbank is there. Ewbank is famous for leading the Jets to a win in Super Bowl III, but prior to that, he was the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. He was the head coach of the Colts starting in 1954, and took the team from 7-5 in 1957 to 9-3 in 1958. The Colts would win the NFL title, and win it again in 1959.

Ever heard of him? Lombardi, notably, only won Coach of the Year once. He would go on to lead the Packers to the first two Super Bowl wins and also become one of the most iconic coaches ever. This was his first season with the Packers, who named him head coach and general manager. Green Bay went 7-5 under Lombardi, but that was huge. The Packers had gone 1-10-1 the season prior, and things were so bleak there were worries about the franchise’s future in the city. Lombardi, in essence, saved football in Green Bay.

Shaw played for Knute Rockne. He started coaching college football in 1924. He was the first head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. Shaw retired after the 1960 season (he was 61, which was old at the time), but he went out with a bang. In his third season with the Eagles, his team went 10-2, and would go on to win the NFL title over Lombardi’s Packers. Shaw would go down as the only head coach to lead a team to a playoff win against Lombardi’s Green Bay team.

Sherman is a fascinating guy, and a forgotten notable face of football in the ‘50s and ‘60s. The New York Giants were his second head coaching gig, after he coached the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the CFL. Sherman was considered an offensive whiz and was promoted from offensive coordinator of the Giants to the lead role. He took the Giants from 6-4-2 to 10-3-1 (ah, the days of NFL ties being regular occurrences) and a loss in the NFL title game to, surprise, Lombardi’s Packers.

Yes, Sherman may not be in the Hall of Fame, but he is one of the rare back-to-back winners of NFL Coach of the Year. This time, the Giants went 12-2, though the Packers beat them again in the NFL title game. The next season, Sherman and the Giants lost in the championship matchup again, but after that he never had a record above .500. However, even if the team wasn’t winning, Sherman made waves by adding Emlen Tunnell and Rosey Brown to the coaching staff, both black, in the face of controversy. Oh, he also had a weekly TV show in New York, played a key role in the creation of NFL Films, had a role with the New York Cosmos, and took over off-track betting in New York City. Like we said, a fascinating guy.

Nobody this side of Paul Brown is more associated with a franchise. Halas didn’t merely coach the Chicago Bears. He founded and owned the team as well. The dude coached the Decatur Staleys, who would become the Bears, in 1920. He had already led the Bears to five titles prior to 1963. This year, “Papa Bear” led his franchise (literally, his franchise) to an 11-1-2 record and one last title. He won Coach of the Year, an award that was introduced over three decades after his career started.

Shula, a former Colt as a player, took over for Ewbank in 1963. The first season went fine, with Baltimore going 8-6. The next year, though, the team improved to 12-2, which was enough to earn him Coach of the Year. A four-win uptick will do that, especially when you can make the argument, “Well that first season he was a rookie head coach!”

Well, in 1965 Halas did turn a 5-9 Bears team into a 9-5 Bears team. Of course, he was also the guy who coached that 5-9 team, and every Bears team for over four decades. Maybe voters saw the writing on the wall and wanted to give the living legend a second Coach of the Year award before he retired.

Landry never owned the Cowboys, but he’s nearly as associated with that franchise as Halas is with the Bears. He coached Dallas from 1960 through 1988, winning two Super Bowls. It took time for Landry to build the team up. Memorably, the Cowboy went 0-11-1 in his first season. In 1966, though, he got the long-languishing franchise up to 10-3-1 and a playoff appearance. That was huge, and it paved the way for the rise of “America’s Team.”

This is the only tie in the history of this award. These two Hall of Famers finished the year brandishing identical records. Allen led the Los Angeles Rams to an 11-1-2 record, the same mark Shula’s Baltimore Colts managed.

This time, Shula won Coach of the Year solo, his third win total. He had never had a down year with the Colts, but 1968 was a magical year. His team went 13-1 and was considered one of the best football teams in years. That’s partially why the Colts’ loss to the Jets in Super Bowl III this season was so surprising.

Grant was a four-time champ…in the CFL. He won four Grey Cups with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers before taking over the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings were in a rough spot when he took over, but he built them up and in 1969 they went 12-2. Grant and the Vikings would lose the Super Bowl, the first of four Super Bowls that Grant would lose as a head coach. He did win Coach of the Year, though.

The Cleveland Browns are literally named after Paul Brown, a co-founder of the franchise. His one Coach of the Year award, though, came with the second franchise he co-founded, the Cincinnati Bengals. In the first year after the NFL and AFL merged for good, Brown’s Bengals went 8-6. Given that they were in their third year of existence, that was actually quite impressive. Turns out Brown knew how to coach.

After a few years with the Rams, Allen moved across the country to take over Washington. He became the first first-year head coach to win Coach of the Year since Lombardi back in 1959. Washington went from 6-8 to 9-4-1 and made the playoffs. That uptick in record, from a previous Coach of the Year winner, was enough.

Shula is, to date, the only four-time winner of Coach of the Year. You couldn’t avoid giving it to him in 1972, though. This was the Dolphins’ undefeated season. How can you not give Coach of the Year to the guy in charge of a 14-0 team? There’s a reason why Shula has the most wins (regular and postseason) as a head coach.

We’ve been on a run of Hall of Famers. Knox is not in the Hall, but, as you will see, that is a surprise. Knox was a first-time head coach in 1973 when he took over the Los Angeles Rams. The team went 12-2, and Knox helped turn around John Hadl’s career. A strong start. Knox and the Rams would proceed to make the next three NFC title games.

Back to the Hall of Famers, though after Coryell, there is a stretch of no Hall of Famers coming up. His innovation is well known. People still talk about the “Air Coryell” offense. While he is best remembered for his time with the Chargers, where his offense turned Dan Fouts into a superstar, Coryell won his only Coach of the Year while with the St. Louis Cardinals. In his second year with the franchise he improved their record from 4-9-1 to 10-4 with a playoff spot.

Apparently coaching the Baltimore Colts was the path to winning Coach of the Year. After years in the wilderness, Marchibroda actually returned to the Colts, now in Indianapolis, in 1992. Then, he was the first head coach of the Baltimore Ravens in 1996. Overall, his career was middling, but the start of his run with Baltimore was impressive. Marchibroda took over a lousy Colts team that had won six games total over the prior two seasons and took them to a 10-4 record in his first year.

Gregg is a Hall of Famer…as a player. He was a great offensive lineman for the Packers. As a coach, his track record is dicier. Gregg had some bad years in the CFL and college football, and finished with a losing record in the NFL. However, he had a couple of great years…in the ‘80s with the Bengals. His Coach of the Year win, though, came in 1976 with the Browns. In his second year with the team he took Cleveland from 3-11 to 9-5.

The NFL can be harsh. Miller got his first head coaching gig in 1977 with the Denver Broncos. In his first season the team went 12-2 and made the Super Bowl. This was pre-John Elway! The next two years, the Broncos went 10-6 and made the playoffs. In his fourth season, Miller’s team went 8-8. Not bad, but the Broncos had a new owner. Miller was fired, and he never coached in the NFL again.

Patera took the Seattle Seahawks to a 9-7 record in 1978. That’s not too shabby, but context is important. This was the third season of the existence of the Seahawks as a franchise. Patera, the first head coach in team history, got them to a winning record within three years. That’s Coach of the Year worthy.

No, Patera didn’t win back-to-back. He was just followed by a fellow Jack P., and a “Jack Pa.” at that. Pardee is mostly associated with the city of Houston. After all, he coached not only the Oilers, but the Houston Cougars college football team, and also Houston’s USFL squad. That being said, his Coach of the Year award came with Washington. It’s also kind of an odd win, as in his first season with the team it went 8-8, and this time it went 10-6, but neither time did the franchise make the playoffs.

Knox is back. However, he had by this point resigned as head coach of the Rams, where he had only known success, to take over the Buffalo Bills. The franchise was coming off two terrible seasons, and it did take Knox some time. Ultimately, though, Knox took them from 5-9 to 7-9 to 11-5 and the playoffs, and that won him another Coach of the Year.

Back to the Hall of Famers! Walsh is considered one of the most innovative offensive minds of his generation. He left Stanford to take over as the 49ers head coach and GM. The first season, 1979, they were bad, but that wasn’t surprising. A guy isn’t hired as a first-time head coach and GM because a franchise is in a good place. By 1981, the Niners were going 13-3 and then winning the Super Bowl. Surprisingly, this is Walsh’s only Coach of the Year award.

This was the strike-shortened season. Gibbs and Washington won eight games for the second season in a row. This time, though, that meant an 8-1 record. While the strike complicates things, Gibbs' win was still reasonable.

Gibbs did indeed win back-to-back awards with Washington. While this season ended with a Super Bowl loss, as opposed to the win in 1982, Washington maintained elite play over a full 16-game season. It went 14-2, and the future Hall of Famer had his second, and final, Coach of the Year. He’d add two more Super Bowls.

Fired by the Bills, Knox quickly signed up with the Seahawks, still a fairly-new team. In his first season, Knox’s team went 9-7, but Gibbs’ 14-2 record overshadowed him. The next year, though, Seattle went 12-4, and Knox was rewarded. Yes, Knox has three Coach of the Year awards. Yes, with three different franchises. And, yes, he is not in the Hall of Fame.

You can just say “’85 Bears” and people know what you’re talking about. The team carries more cache than even the ’72 Dolphins. Sure, the Bears lost one game, but only one. Many consider this team the best in NFL history, and Ditka was their head coach. That made this an easy call for the voters.

The Giants decided to promote from within after Ray Perkins left to replace Bear Bryant at Alabama. That proved wise for the franchise. Sure, the first season, 1983, was tough, but the steady improvement began swiftly. By 1986, the Giants were going 14-2 and en route to the Super Bowl. They were led by an elite defense. Parcells was a defensive mind, but he also had a defensive coordinator named Bill Belichick. He may come up later.

Mora is perhaps best remembered now for his quotability when his teams struggled, but the guy had some real success. The USFL was not around very long, but he took his team to three title games in three years, including two titles. While he never won a Super Bowl, he did win Coach of the Year in 1987. He took a moribund New Orleans Saints franchise to a 12-3 record.

Ditka picked up a second Coach of the Year win. The Bears had consistent success in the 1980s, but an absence from the roster may have played a role in this win. In 1988, the Bears went 12-4, but it was also the team’s first year without Walter Payton since 1974. Perhaps that was what impressed the voters. Ditka is in the Hall, but as a player.

Infante is one of the more obscure names on this list, and reasonably so. He was not a notable player, and in his NFL coaching career he went 36-60, and 0-1 in the playoffs. Infante won Coach of the Year in 1989 with the Green Bay Packers. The team went 10-6. Now, if you watched “That ‘70s Show,” you know the Packers had a lot of years of struggle. Indeed, this was the franchise’s best season since 1972.

How ‘bout them Cowboys? Johnson has two Super Bowls and a college national title, but he also made history with his 1990 win for Coach of the Year. He is, to date, the only coach to win it with a team that finished with a losing record. In 1990, the Cowboys went 7-9. However, the year before they went 1-15 in Johnson’s first season, and that was after they went 3-13 in Tom Landry’s last season. That six-win improvement was apparently impressive enough.

You may have heard during the 2023 playoffs that the Lions won their first playoff game since 1991. Fontes was the head coach that season. Detroit went 12-4, the team’s best campaign since the days before the Super Bowl. Fontes was fired after the 1996 season. He posted a 66-67 record as the Lions’ head coach. Little did the franchise know that would serve as the highpoint for years to come.

Chuck Noll? Never won Coach of the Year. Mike Tomlin? He doesn’t have one yet, and it seems unlikely he will at this point. Cowher, though, is the Steelers head coach to pick up this award. He actually won for his first season with the team. Noll’s last year had been lackluster by the franchise’s standards, as it went 7-9. Cowher’s Steelers posted an 11-5 record. It was the beginning of a Hall of Fame career.

All those years in Denver, even when the team went to three Super Bowls, Reeves never won Coach of the Year. He finally took it when it moved from the Mile High City to the Big Apple. Like Miller, Reeves was fired by the Broncos after an 8-8 season. Unlike Miller, he resurfaced, and he led the Giants (past their Parcells Era heyday) to an 11-5 record.

Speaking of Parcells! He had “retired,” not for the first time, after the 1990 season. He was talked into joining the Patriots, though, where he also served as general manager. The year prior to his arrival, the Patriots had gone 2-14. He took them to 5-11, and then to 10-6, and that playoff run won the Hall of Famer his second Coach of the Year.

Rhodes was a fine defensive mind, but his head coaching acumen was limited. He was the kind of “tough guy” personality that probably wouldn’t fly today, and even then it was not exactly beloved. Before he burnt out his Eagles players, though, he won Coach of the Year in his first season with the team. Philly went 10-6 and made the playoffs for the first time in three seasons, and the voters gave the first-year coach the highlight of his middling tenure as a head man.

In the second season of the Carolina Panthers’ existence, Capers took them to a 12-4 record. That certainly was remarkable for such a young franchise. It also would turn out to be the only time Capers managed to coach a team to a non-losing record. This proved to be an atypical season in multiple ways as such.

Hey, Fassel is a two-time UFL champ! Of course, there’s a good chance you have zero memory of the UFL, or Fassel’s Las Vegas Locomotives. Fassel is yet another Giants head coach. He was also – shocker – a first-time head coach in his first season with a team. New York went 10-5-1 and he won this award.

Reeves is one of only two head coaches who are eligible for the Hall of Fame with over 200 wins that are not in the Hall. That’s with him being a two-time Coach of the Year as well. Maybe if he had a 1-4 record in the Super Bowl, instead of a 0-5 record, that would be different. In 1998, Reeves led the Falcons to a 14-2 record, but they lost the Super Bowl to his former team the Broncos.

Vermeil is the last Hall of Famer on the list, though a few names coming up are locks. Now, Vermeil can’t pretend that he knew Kurt Warner was going to turn out to be a Hall of Fame quarterback. He did, though, and the Rams went 13-3 and won the Super Bowl. They rallied around Kurt Warner, and it got Vermeil a ring, a Coach of the Year, and a spot in the Hall.

Haslett is not one of those future Hall of Famers, for the record. He is notable for being a winner of both the Defensive Rookie of the Year award and the Coach of the Year award. In his first season as a head coach (the theme continues), Haslett was a clear choice. He helped flip the Saints from 3-13 to 10-6. That would be his best season as an NFL head coach, though. Haslett did coach in both the UFL and the XFL, though!

He’s in the College Football Hall of Fame as a player and made a Pro Bowl in the NFL, but he is of the Dom Capers school of Coach of the Year winner. That is to say, he won the sole time he managed a non-losing record as a head coach. The Bears went 13-3 in 2001. Beyond that, his career is defined by four 7-9 campaigns in nine seasons.

Here’s a guy you can lock into the Hall of Fame. This is, surprisingly, Reid’s only win as Coach of the Year. He won back in his Eagles days. It’s a bit of an odd win, as the Eagles had gone 11-5 the two prior seasons under Reid, and this time they went 12-4. Maybe they figured it was time for him to win. Of course, back in the Eagles days, Reid was thought of as a guy who “couldn’t win the big one” and the franchise gave up on him. Reid joined Kansas City. He now has three Super Bowl rings.

The two defining head coaches of the new millennium back-to-back. Unlike Reid, we aren’t seeing Belichick for the last time. He already had a Super Bowl ring with the Pats, but 2003 was the “No, we’re here to stay” season. New England went 14-2, and Belichick was honored with Coach of the Year. He’d take home another ring, of course.

Schottenheimer is the other coach, along with Reeves, not in the Hall with 200 wins. The legacy of Schottenheimer is clear. He went 200-126-1 during the regular season, but 5-13 in the playoffs. Famously, after going 14-2 with the Chargers in 2006, he was fired after a one-and-done playoff run. Indeed, back in 2004 he turned the Chargers around from 4-12 to 12-4, but did also lose their first postseason game.

Smith grows a fine beard and knows how to handle a defense, but his head coaching record is spottier. That being said, he had a few successful seasons with the Bears that can’t be denied. In his second season with the franchise, Smith took them from 5-11 to 11-5. The next year they would go 13-3 and make the Super Bowl, but Smith didn’t get a second Coach of the Year that season.

Instead, future Hall of Famer Payton won Coach of the Year in 2006. This was about a no-brainer of a call as you could make. Not only did Payton, in his first season, turn a 3-13 team into a 10-6 team. This was the post-Katrina season, the one where the Saints were able to return to the Superdome. How could the voters deny Payton this award given all that?

The greatest regular season of all time deserves as many awards as possible. New England went 16-0 and rewrote the offensive record books. Sure, the Pats famously lost the Super Bowl, but the awards were all doled out by then. Belichick is the only coach, to date, of a team to go undefeated during a 16-game regular season. Another easy call.

The 2007 season for the Atlanta Falcons was truly bleak. It’s the Michael Vick dogfighting season. It’s the Bobby Petrino season. Smith took over and helped turn a 3-13 team in turmoil into an 11-5 playoff team. Of course, he was helped by the Offensive Rookie of the Year Matt Ryan, but that’s still impressive.

For years, the Bengals and the Lions were going toe-to-toe in the battle for the “most-maligned NFL franchise.” Lewis removed the Bengals from that equation. Sure, he went 0-7 in the playoffs over his 16-year tenure, but he changed the narrative. By 2009, he was well into his run, and he bore some responsibility for Cincy going 4-11-1 in 2008. That being said, the team did go 11-5 even with tragedy hitting the team. It feels right he won at least once.

This is the last time Belichick’s elite coaching wasn’t taken for granted. He could easily have four Coach of the Year awards, like Shula, but he has to settle for three. The Patriots went 14-2 this season, an improvement of four wins. Notably, they lost their first playoff game, but Belichick was still a good choice here. Frankly, he could have won every season from 2001 through, say, 2019 without issue.

Harbaugh is back in the NFL with the Chargers after several years coaching his alma mater Michigan, finally helping them solve Ohio State and win a title. Don’t forget that Harbaugh was also a great head coach with the 49ers, only getting axed because his personality can be, um, a little wearing. You know the drill. The Niners went 6-10 in 2010. They hired Harbaugh. They went 13-3.

Arians may be a Hall of Famer, but he is definitely a history maker. He’s the only interim head coach to win Coach of the Year. Arians was the offensive coordinator under Chuck Pagano. Pagano, though, was treated for leukemia during the season. Arians took over for the head man. Across 12 games, and dealing with obvious turmoil and a fraught situation, the Colts went 9-3. Here’s a no-brainer: Arians got his first head coaching gig the next season.

Rivera (a member of those ’85 Bears as a player) has a mixed legacy as a head coach, which makes it fitting his career record (assuming he doesn’t get another gig) is 102-103-2. He mixed great years with bad years, and smart decisions with puzzlers, with Carolina and Washington. The Panthers had been a shrug of a franchise for a while, but in his third season with the team Rivera helped get them to 12-4. That included an 11-1 run to end the season (recency bias is a thing).

Hey, Arians is back! His 2013 season with the Arizona Cardinals was remarkable, as he got a woeful franchise to 10-6, and the next year he only improved them to 11-5. This may have been a “Congrats on your last two seasons” win, having given Rivera the award in 2013. Arians would eventually win a Super Bowl with the Buccaneers, which is the reason he might, might, make the Hall of Fame.

The dance between Arians and Rivera continues! Arians’ Cards actually went 13-3 in 2015, but Rivera had him bested. This was the year the Panthers went 15-1, behind Cam Newton’s MVP campaign, and would make the Super Bowl. Having an MVP under center helps, but 15-1 is impressive no matter how you slice it.

If you have internalized the idea that Garrett couldn’t coach his way out of a paper bag, well, you’ve probably been listening to Cowboys fans (or too many ESPN talking heads). He’s a polarizing figure in Dallas. Garrett went 85-67 as a head coach, but he never made an NFC title game, much less a Super Bowl, and that doesn’t cut it with “America’s Team.” In 2016, Garrett helped coax a 13-3 record out of the Cowboys even though Tony Romo was injured and fourth-round rookie Dak Prescott was pressed into being the starting quarterback. And yet, to hear some fans tell it, Garrett wasn’t fit to coach Pop Warner.

McVay was 30 when the Rams took a chance on him. In his first season, he flipped their record from 4-12 to 11-5, with an exciting offense to boot. Thus began the brief time when anybody who ever coached, had dinner, or stood at a urinal alongside McVay was able to get a head coaching interview. Well, he does have a ring with the Rams, and he still isn’t 40, so maybe some of that hype is fair.

Early success does not always sustain itself. Nagy was hired to coach the Bears and in his first season they went 12-4. Considering his quarterbacks were Mitchell Trubisky and Chase Daniel, that’s quite impressive. Alas, that was the high point. Nagy’s Bears went 8-8 the next two seasons and after going 6-11 in the NFL’s first 17-game campaign, he was fired.

Brothers are now on this list. John had already had a ton of success, including winning a Super Bowl with the Ravens over his brother Jim. He was over a decade into his run by 2019, but it marked a new high point. The Ravens went 14-2, and that got the future Hall of Famer a resume-boosting Coach of the Year.

This was the NFL season most impacted by COVID-19, so any head coach arguably deserves credit for helping to manage that chaos. Stefanski, though, did more than that. He didn’t just help turn the Browns from a 6-10 team to an 11-5 team. Cleveland made the playoffs for the first time since the 2002 season. Ending that drought earned Stefanski his award.

Why this year for Vrabel? Maybe it was the lack of enticing options in the minds of voters. Maybe it is because he lost his offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. In his first three years Vrabel’s Titans had gone 9-7, 9-7, and 11-5, and in 2021 they went 12-5. For whatever reason, this was the time the (now fired) Tennessee head man won.

The 2022 Giants were expected to be a rebuilding team under first-year head coach Daboll, and in a way they were. What happened is that this rebuilding team also went 9-7-1 and made the playoffs. This set expectations a little high, as the Giants went 6-11 in 2023, but Daboll’s first year was a fine proof of concept for what he can do.

Stefanski has joined the list of multiple Coach of the Year winners. He and the Browns went 11-5 and made the playoffs, but overcame a lot to get there. Cleveland started five quarterbacks. P.J. Walker and Jeff Driskel are among them. Joe Flacco, effectively retired, started five games. Even so, Stefanski managed to help coach up the Browns to 11 wins.