Who is the worst NFL head coach of all time?

Marty Morninwheg? Chris Palmer? Rich Kotite? Someone else?

Ground rules for worst head coach nominees:

  1. Must have coached at least one full season (i.e. interim head coaches of brief tenure don’t count, no Terry Robiskie)

  2. Must have an overall losing record in his NFL head coaching career

  3. The coach must have exhibited poor judgment or other ineptness on a regular basis (i.e. a few isolated mistakes, no matter how unbelievably stupid, are not enough)

  4. The fact that a particular coach was very successful as an offensive/defensive coordinator or college head coach is not a mitigating factor in judging them as a worst head coach nominee.

  5. If a coach’s team(s) have engaged in a pattern of quitting/“mailing it in” at the first sign of adversity, this factor will strengthen that coach’s candidacy for worst NFL head coach of all time.

  6. Thin-skinned coaches who point the finger at everyone but themselves when things go wrong will be especially strong candidates.

  7. Think of it in terms of this hypothetical–if you were the owner of an NFL team with a head coach vacancy, and you absolutely had to select a head coach from the short list of worst NFL head coaches of all-time, which coach would be your last choice among those coaches?

Tough call. I’d have to go with four coaches who popped into my head right off:


Ray Handley: Giants  1991-1992  14-18 
Dave Shula: Bengals  1992-1996  19-52 

…but those two, IIRC, seemed to at least be likeable. In terms of unlikeable it’s:


Buddy Ryan:  Eagles  1986-1990  43-38-1
Rich Kotite: Eagles  1991-1994  37-29

…those are winning records but then…


Rich Kotite: Jets    1995-1996  4-28

definitely hits on ground rules 1, 2, 3, (dunno maybe 4), 5, 6, 7.

That’s easy, Dave Campo. Then again, biased. But you really should see the mushroom cloud in Texas.

Richie Pettibon (sp?) was a disaster with his one season with the Redskins, circa early 1990s.

As a die-hard Bills fan, I would say Gregg Williams, as I believe his overt lack of confidence in his players and his inability to rely on a potent running game cost my beloved Bills the playoffs (you’re on the opponent’s 32 and you PUNT???). However, he did lead the team to .500 this season, so I guess he pales in comparison to one very special man.

I am proud to be the first to name this man in this thread.

This man is, of course, Dick LeBeau!
Ok, I’m not really sure if he hits on all points (I haven’t caught very many Bengals games this year), but sweet Jesus, 12-33 (2-14 in his third, and according to rumors, final season). All that with one of the better running backs in the league! I guess the only thing he did do right is getting his Bungles the first pick in the 2003 draft. I’m sure they’ll find some way to pick a loser, though.

  1. That was a big barrel o’ laughs. Then, the steady, mind-numbing mediocrity of Norv Turner.

Ray Handley had Bill Parcels’ charming personality and Rich Kotite’s coaching skills. Nice mix.

All of these guys were, however, always smart enough not to win the toss in overtime and then elect to kick. I thought I was in the Twilight Zone.

Yesterday, Marty tried to review a judgement call (Holding or something similar.) Matt Millen needs to take Marty’s lil’ red hanky away from him.

Jets fan here. Easy answer: Rich Kotite. A truly awful coach.

I am not familiar with enough coaches to give an all-time worst, but I would have to add to the criteria of the OP. That is a comparison of the team’s record immediately before and after he became coach. This would give some indication of how much impact his actual coaching had, as opposed to players.

With this in mind, I second the calls for Rich Kotite to recieve special consideration (again, without fully assessing the competition). His winning record in Philadelphia is misleading, as he took over a good team and ground ran it into the ground. And his performance in NY was also markedly worse than his predecesor’s. So I think he gets a 2 for 2 as a lousy coach, and you might be hard pressed to find someone else who can match that.

(By the same criteria, I think Bill Parcells has to rank at or near the top, as he took three consecutive big-time losing teams and turned them into winners. But that is another thread.)

I put a lot of weight on consistency. So my votes must go to Dave Shula and Dick LeBeau.

Most coaches get two years or less of really bad results. Those two have been able to pile up the losses year after year.

Bruce Coslet has to figure into this thread somewhere, doesn’t he?

Who was the head coach of Tampa Bay when they came into the league? I seem to remember he sucked. A guy I work with said he had this response to the question “What do you think about your team’s excecution?” He said “I’m in favor of it.”

Jim Mora. He doesn’t fit rule #2, but he’s the poster boy for #5 and #6.

Regular season record: 125-106
Playoff record: 0-6

In one playoff game in the early 90’s, the Saints and Falcons went to OT. The Saints won the toss, and Mora elected to kick. Of course, the Falcons scored.

No matter how much talent he has, Mora consistently fashions mediocre, underachieving teams. He does enough to bring the fans hope but never delivers. At least if your team hires Kotite, you know he’ll be gone pretty fast. If you get stuck with Mora, he’ll ruin you for years to come.

Tampa Bay’s first coach was John McKay. The team did suck at first, but he quickly brought the Bucs to respectability in only a few years and they made it to an NFC championship game only a few years into their existence.

[old fart]

While I remember the horror of Kotite, and the bungling of Coslet, they weren’t even the Jets worst. Hedging just a little, I give you Lou Holtz, who quit on his own with one game left, going 3-10. He won 3 games, yes, but they were over the 2-12 Bungling Bills and the winless Suckaneers. He also reportedly does NOT have this, his only NFL job, on his web page. (thin skinned?)

[/old fart]

When I researched Holtz record (which I knew sucked, just wanted specifics) I saw this guy:

BILL PETERSON, OILERS

First season: 1972
Stint: Two seasons, 1-18.

and as skilled an orator as a coach:

Caught by NFL Films in a Porky Pig moment trying to blurt out to his players, “If you think for one damn minute I’m going to take a loss standing down, you just have another though-thig coming.”

Told his team, “I’m the coach around here, and don’t you remember it.”

above from
http://sports.nfl.com/ce/feature/0,3783,4850640,00.html

You’ve got to take into consideration the talent of the players and the quality of player-personel direction. Statistically, Dick LeBeau is one of the worst ever, but his team sucks with very little chance of improvement during his tenure. That wasn’t his fault. He didn’t draft Akili Smith and fail to sign a non-mongoloid QB for a solid 3 seasons. A really bad coach has the inate ability to make great teams good, and good teams horrible.

I’m thinking a guy like Jim Haslett could qualify. His team is endlessly talented but he’s 2 for 2 in having them fold like a cheap folding chair. Not to mention a consistent ability to botch fairly simple in-game decisions. Not as grotesquely as Morninwheg, but pretty bad.

Tom Coughlin has developed a really wonderful skill of crushing the spirit, soul and health of his players.

Coslet seems to be the worst overall coach that at least had a modicum of talent at his disposal. But sadly in his prime years I didn’t follow close enough to cite any details.

First, let me say that BobT is my absolute favorite poster on all subjects sporting. However…

John McKay was one hell of a hard luck coach.

His career record with the Bucs is 44-88-1, with one playoff win. He led the Bucs on a spectacular 26 game losing streak during the team’s first two years.

In spite of that abysmal career record, he managed to take the Bucs to the playoffs in all three of the team’s winning seasons. That’s pretty impressive.

And, he was genuine comedy in front of the press. While the execution comment was one of the best, he had dozens of others.

My favorite McKay story is this one. One day at a press conference, McKay got annoyed with the reporters and barked at them, “you guys don’t know the difference between a football and a bunch of banannas.”

Naturally, a mirthful reporter had a bunch of banannas sent to McKay that week.

At the following week’s press conference, McKay made sure to note, “you guys don’t know the difference between a football and a Mercedes-Benz.”

My favorite John McKay line was, when asked what he thought of his team’s execution, “I’m all in favor of it.”

McKay was a pretty good coach who happened to build a team in an era when starting an expansion franchise was much more difficult.

If you want a real loser of a Bucs coach you need to look at Leeman Bennett, who is the real answer to the question in the OP.

Just found this data to support my assertion:

YEAR COACH W-L-T PCT.

1976-84 John McKay 45-91-1 .329

1985-86 Leeman Bennett 4-28-0 .125

1987-90 Ray Perkins 19-41-0 .317

1990-91 Richard Williamson 4-15-0 .211

1992-95 Sam Wyche 23-41-0 .359

1996-01 Tony Dungy 54-42-0 .563

2002 Jon Gruden 12-4 .750

Please notice that Richard Williamson might have been just as bad but they got rid of him before he had a chance to reach Bennett’s level of ineptitude. I’m sorry, Jets fans, but give me a break. Rich Kotite would have been considered a smashing success here.

I’d take Kotite’s 4-28 with the Jets over Bennett’s 4-28 with the Bucs. Bennett didn’t exactly inherit a team with a great past. Also, we should take into consideration how hated Kotite was in NYC.

I wouldn’t be as harsh on Gregg Williams as StickyIcky. Sticky, at the beginning of the season, would you have taken 8-8? Be honest now…

It has to go to either Kotite or Gregg Williams for doing less with more. Let’s just look at Williams (because of I have to look at Kotite’s record, too, I’ll puke). Williams had:

A 4,000 yard passer.

A 1,400 yard rusher.

Two 1,200 yard receivers.

A ridiculously easy schedule.

The second best pass defense in the AFC.

This translates to 8-8 how? I mean, come on, sure the rush defense was lousy, but 8-8 with the offensive weapons he had and a good secondary? Truly awful.

Of course, the fact that Belichik owns Bledsoe had a little to do with it. But still…8-8 with that team? Come on.