Top 10 Greatest Coaches That Never Won a Super Bowl

[T master]

This is for all those here that have questions about or want to fire Beane & McDermott the 2 men soley in charge of turning the Buffalo Bills after a 17 yr play of drought into a Super Bowl contender year after year .

 

I'll start from 10 & work up to #1 .

 

10) Marv Levy which started as a failure in KC but went on & took our Bills to 4 AFC championships & a 112 & 70 W/L record in the regular season + 4 SB's .

 

9)Chuck Knox also a Bills coach over 14 yrs took teams to the play offs 6 times & 1 AFC championship game in 1983 - W/L record 186 -141- 1

 

8) Marty Schottenheimer Bills player that as a HC led 4 teams to the play offs 13 times with a combined W/L record of 200 - 126 

 

7) Sam Wyche took his team the Bengals to the SB but lost his recorded W/L wasn't very good .

 

6) Dan Reeves coached for 3 different teams including 4 SB appearances with a W/L record of 190 - 165 & went 11 - 9 in the play offs . With 5 total SB appearances winning 2 as a player & coach .

 

5) Don Coryell won 5 division titles 6 play off appearances with a W/L record of 111 - 83 - 1 

 

4) Bud Grant with a W/L record of 158 - 95 - 5 & made the play offs 12 yrs out of his 18 yr career with 11 division titles but never won the big one .

 

3) Sid Gillman in 18 yrs as a HC had a W/L record of 123 -104 -7 and the only coach to win in both the AFL & NFL .

 

2) George Allen in 12 seasons had a W/L record of 116 - 47 - 5 with 1 Super Bowl appearance .

 

1) Bum Phillips the developer of the 3/4 defense while working for Sid Gillman won 2 AFC Championship game appearances .

 

All of these coaches had a huge input to the NFL game as we know it today yet none have ever won a Super Bowl which after reading this i would imagine those of you that that fact will be the only thing that you focus on & 1 Bud Grant is among the winningest coaches of all time 3rd only to Shula & Halas .

 

I like every one here that is a Bills fan would like nothing more than to see the Bills bring home a Lombardi but none of us can say that the history of our franchise have any less great achievements than these coaches or the franchise that they were the head of & until we get that Lombardi or if we never do i will always be a life long fan of our Buffalo Bills !! 

 

Always remember the Bills do have back to back AFL Championship we can brag about to the Bills legacy .

 

GO BILLS !!! 

Edited February 5, 2023 by T master

[Fallser]

Are these your rankings?  Sam Wyche above Marv?  Surely you jest...

[MiltonWaddams]

Dan Reeves? Winner of two SB’s? 
is everything OK at home?

[Billz4ever]

How is Marv Levy, a HOFer, #10 with a .615 winning % and four consecutive AFC Titles?

 

And Bum Phillips #1?  He never reached the SB and was 82–77 (.516) in the regular season.

Edited February 5, 2023 by Billz4ever

[Fallser]

7 minutes ago, MiltonWaddams said:

Dan Reeves? Winner of two SB’s? 
is everything OK at home?

No, I think he's right, Reeves never won a SB as head coach...if you're thinking Broncos, that was Mike Shanahan

[folz]

1 hour ago, T master said:

 

 

10) Marv Levy which started as a failure in KC but went on & took our Bills to 4 AFC championships & a 112 & 70 W/L record in the regular season + 4 SB's .

 

 

Just wanted to make a point regarding the bold statement above. I wouldn't say Marv's time in KC was a big success, but it also wasn't a total failure, based on the circumstances. This is part of what I wrote in a thread about Marv a while back:

 

"- Five years Head Coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. People knock his record here, but he took over a 2-12 team, the worst team in the league, that also just had their two best defensive players retire. Not counting the strike year, his record was 28-36. Not great, but there was improvement every year (from that 2 win season before he arrived) to 4 wins, then 7 wins, then 8 wins, and to a 9-7 record in 1981. And remember, this was pre-free agency. Rebuilds took a lot longer back in the day (and that's if you had a good GM and ownership). It wasn't like today where teams can go worst to first in one year with a good free agency class."

 

Also, just to note, Marv went to 3 Grey Cups in the CFL, winning 2, and being named CFL Coach of the Year before coming to Buffalo as well.

[Shaw66]

8 minutes ago, folz said:

 

Just wanted to make a point regarding the bold statement above. I wouldn't say Marv's time in KC was a big success, but it also wasn't a total failure, based on the circumstances. This is part of what I wrote in a thread about Marv a while back:

 

"- Five years Head Coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. People knock his record here, but he took over a 2-12 team, the worst team in the league, that also just had their two best defensive players retire. Not counting the strike year, his record was 28-36. Not great, but there was improvement every year (from that 2 win season before he arrived) to 4 wins, then 7 wins, then 8 wins, and to a 9-7 record in 1981. And remember, this was pre-free agency. Rebuilds took a lot longer back in the day (and that's if you had a good GM and ownership). It wasn't like today where teams can go worst to first in one year with a good free agency class."

 

Also, just to note, Marv went to 3 Grey Cups in the CFL, winning 2, and being named CFL Coach of the Year before coming to Buffalo as well.

Lamar Hunt, or whoever ran the Chiefs at the time, said firing Marv was the dumbest thing he ever did as an owner. 

[T master]

58 minutes ago, MiltonWaddams said:

Dan Reeves? Winner of two SB’s? 
is everything OK at home?

 

In the article that i read he won 1 as a player & 1 as a coach not sure what team he was coaching but that's what it said .

Edited February 5, 2023 by T master

[Albany,n.y.]

6 minutes ago, T master said:

 

In the article that i read he won 1 as a player & 1 as a coach not sure what team he was coaching but that's what it said .

Reeves never won a Super Bowl as a head coach.  He was an assistant coach on the 1977-8 Cowboys Super Bowl winning team.  

[First Round Bust]

original poster is generally correct but sloppy as Reeves indeed has two super bowl rings - neither as head coach:

 

source wikipedia:

 

Reeves made his first two Super Bowl appearances during his playing career, winning one in Super Bowl VI...1971

 

He then began his coaching career in 1972 as an assistant for Cowboys, where he made three championship appearances and was part of the staff that won Super Bowl XII...which is 1977 season

 

the internet remains undefeated....

[Ethan in Cleveland]

What's your point OP?  That McDermott will be on this list and he will be in good company? 

Most of those coaches were fired at some point for not winning.  Some more than once like Schottenheimer with Cleveland, KC, and San Diego, and Reeves also three times with Denver, Atlanta, and NY Giants.  

Let's let Buffalo be the first team McD gets fired from, we bring in a winner, and he can build perrenial playoff contenders/losers for some other franchise.

 

4 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

Lamar Hunt, or whoever ran the Chiefs at the time, said firing Marv was the dumbest thing he ever did as an owner. 

Yeah well not telling Kelly to stop throwing and just give the ball to Thurman is the dumbest thing Marv ever did and cost us a championship.  Nice guy but I never thought he belonged in the HOF.  

[RyanC883]

4 hours ago, T master said:

 

In the article that i read he won 1 as a player & 1 as a coach not sure what team he was coaching but that's what it said .

 

assistant coach on Cowboys. 

[Buftex]

3 hours ago, RyanC883 said:

 

assistant coach on Cowboys. 

Super Bowl 12...ironically the Cowboys beat the Broncos

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

4 hours ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

What's your point OP?  That McDermott will be on this list and he will be in good company? 

Most of those coaches were fired at some point for not winning.  Some more than once like Schottenheimer with Cleveland, KC, and San Diego, and Reeves also three times with Denver, Atlanta, and NY Giants.  

Let's let Buffalo be the first team McD gets fired from, we bring in a winner, and he can build perrenial playoff contenders/losers for some other franchise.

 

Except the odds of that happening are very low.  There are many more failures than successes with either brand new coaches, or retreads.

[US Egg]

4 hours ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

Yeah well not telling Kelly to stop throwing and just give the ball to Thurman is the dumbest thing Marv ever did and cost us a championship.  Nice guy but I never thought he belonged in the HOF.  

Clearly Marv wasn’t talking about football. 😬

[Lost]

10 hours ago, T master said:

This is for all those here that have questions about or want to fire Allen & Diggs the 2 men soley in charge of turning the Buffalo Bills after a 17 yr play of drought into a Super Bowl contender year after year

 

FIFY.   Without Allen and Diggs, this team is still a perennial 7-9 to 9-7 team.  Conversely you could throw almost any HC or GM in the mix and I would bet Allen and Diggs still string out 11+ win seasons.  

[Dr.Sack]

2 hours ago, Lost said:

 

FIFY.   Without Allen and Diggs, this team is still a perennial 7-9 to 9-7 team.  Conversely you could throw almost any HC or GM in the mix and I would bet Allen and Diggs still string out 11+ win seasons.  

McD is a 10 win per season coach. Regardless of QB. He went 9-7 without Allen and Tyrod / Peterman. Dude deserves some credit. More wins than McVay in same 6 seasons (2017-2022) and the margin should only grow in 2023. 

[stevestojan]

Problem is, Marv is also the main reason we don’t have a ring. 
 

I’ll never get over this stat line from SB 25: 

 

Thurman Thomas: 15 carries for 135 yards, AVG 9 yards a carry.
 

Even removing his longest run of 31 yards, he’s 14 for 104 or 7.4 yards per. 
 

He was running at will against them. Couldn’t be stopped. 
 

Im not saying he would have ripped nine  yards per carry if we ran it 35 times (Belichick would have adjusted), but 20 carries? 25? That loss, in my opinion, will always come down to that “strategy” or lack of willingness to go away from Jim’s arm when Belichick was begging us to run with 2 down lineman.