Who is the best NFL playoff coach of all time? The calculations have been made and the results are not all that surprising. When it comes to postseason performance on the gridiron, the best field general in the history of the game is none other than New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.
Since taking the reigns of the franchise in 2000, Belichick has turned the Patriots into the most dominant team in the history of professional football. In the last fifteen seasons, New England has captured the the AFC Division title an astounding thirteen times! During the same period, the franchise reached the Super Bowl on six different occasions, winning four (2001, 2003, 2004, 2014). Belichick's career playoff record stands at 22-9 (including 1-1 with the Cleveland Browns), whereas the other coaches on the list average just eleven total career playoff wins.
At the start of the 2015-16 season, Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin were the only two active head... [+]
Second on our list is legendary Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry, who accumulated a 20-16 playoff record during the almost three decades he spent as the franchise's head coach. After going winless in his first season, Landry's Cowboys would go on to play in five Super Bowls, winning it all twice (1971, 1977).
In third is Landry's greatest coaching adversary, Don Shula, who shares an almost mirror record. Shula went 19-17 in the playoffs with the Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins, helping the latter play in five Super Bowls, winning two (1972, 1973). Shula also helped guide the Colts to Super Bowl III, his six total appearances matching Belichick for the most all time.
Our rankings includes seven head coaches who were still at the helm of an franchise during the 2015-16 NFL Season, including: No. 1. Bill Belichick - New England Patriots, No. 8. Tom Coughlin - New York Giants, No. 18. John Harbaugh - Baltimore Ravens, No. 19. John Fox - Chicago Bears, No. 21. Andy Reid - Kansas City Chiefs, No. 24. Pete Carroll - Seattle Seahawks, and No.25. Mike McCarthy - Green Bay Packers. During the last two decades, these seven coaches have combined to win 1/3 (77 of 220) of all NFL playoff games.
Even more impressively, the coaches on our list have won a combined 40 of the 49 Super Bowls ever played.
Methodology: In compiling the ranking, Forbes used a simple formula to determine which coach had the most successful playoff record. The NFL has had 448 head coaches since the league was established in 1920, but only 114 of them have coached in the playoffs since the postseason system was established in 1932. We then assigned a score to each of those 114 coaches based on their postseason win-loss record, where: a playoff loss was worth .5 points, a playoff win was 2 points, and a Super Bowl win was worth 3 points. Because the first Super Bowl was not played until 1970, we gave an NFL Championship a value of 3 points as well. In the event that two or more coaches received the same score, the one with the most Super Bowl titles won the tiebreaker.
Full List: The Most Successful NFL Playoff Coaches Of All Time
Jason Belzer is Founder of GAME, Inc. and a Professor of Organizational Behavior and Sports Law at Rutgers University. Follow him on Twitter @JasonBelzer.
