Ron Rivera, hired in 2020, is the team's 30th and current head coach
Ron Rivera, hired in 2020, is the team's 30th and current head coach

This is a complete list of head coaches for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). There have been 30 head coaches for the team, including their time as the Boston Braves (1932), Boston Redskins (1933–1936), Washington Redskins (1937–2019), Washington Football Team (2020–2021), and Washington Commanders (2022–present).[1]

Joe Gibbs is the only coach to have more than one tenure.[2] Two different coaches have won NFL championships with the team: Ray Flaherty in 1937 and 1942, and Joe Gibbs in 1982, 1987 and 1991.[3] Gibbs is the all-time leader in games coached and wins, and Dudley DeGroot leads all coaches in winning percentage with .737.[4] Of all the coaches, seven have been elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Ray Flaherty, Turk Edwards, Curly Lambeau, Otto Graham, Vince Lombardi, George Allen, and Gibbs.[5]

Coaches

# Number of coaches[a]
GC Games coached
W Wins
L Loses
T Ties
Win % Winning percentage
00† Elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a coach
00‡ Elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a player
00* Spent their entire NFL head coaching career with Washington
# Name Years Regular season Playoffs Awards Ref.
GC W L T Win% GC W L
Boston Braves
1 Lud Wray 1932 10 4 4 2 .500 – [6]
Boston Redskins
2 Lone Star Dietz*[b] 1933–1934* 24 11 11 2 .500 – [7]
3 Eddie Casey* 1935* 11 2 8 1 .200 – [8]
Washington Redskins
4 Ray Flaherty † 1936–1942 78 54 21 3 .720 4 2 2 [9]
5 Dutch Bergman* 1943* 10 6 3 1 .667 2 1 1 [10]
6 Dudley DeGroot*[c] 1944–1945* 20 14 5 1 .737 1 0 1 [4]
7 Turk Edwards* ‡ 1946–1948* 35 16 18 1 .471 – [11]
8 John Whelchel*[d] 1949* 7 3 3 1 .500 – [12]
9 Herman Ball*[e] 1949–1951* 20 4 16 0 .200 – [13]
10 Dick Todd* 1951* 9 5 4 0 .556 – [14]
11 Curly Lambeau † 1952–1953 24 10 13 1 .435 – [15]
12 Joe Kuharich 1954–1958 60 26 32 2 .448 – Sporting News Coach of the Year (1955)
UPI NFL Coach of the Year (1955)[16] 		[17]
13 Mike Nixon 1959–1960 24 4 18 2 .182 – [18]
14 Bill McPeak* 1961–1965* 70 21 46 3 .313 – [19]
15 Otto Graham* ‡ 1966–1968* 42 17 22 3 .436 – [20]
16 Vince Lombardi †[f] 1969 14 7 5 2 .583 – [21]
17 Bill Austin 1970 14 6 8 0 .429 – [22]
18 George Allen † 1971–1977 98 67 30 1 .691 7 2 5 AP Coach of the Year (1971)
Pro Football Weekly Coach of the Year (1971)
Sporting News Coach of the Year (1971)
UPI NFC Coach of the Year (1971)[16] 		[23]
19 Jack Pardee 1978–1980 48 24 24 0 .500 – AP Coach of the Year (1979)
UPI NFC Coach of the Year (1979) 		[24]
20 Joe Gibbs*[g] 1981–1992* 184 124 60 0 .674 21 16 5 AP Coach of the Year (1982, 1983)
Pro Football Weekly Coach of the Year (1982, 1983)
Sporting News Coach of the Year (1982, 1983, 1991)
UPI NFC Coach of the Year (1982)[16] 		[2]
21 Richie Petitbon* 1993* 16 4 12 0 .250 – [25]
22 Norv Turner 1994–2000 109 49 59 1 .454 2 1 1 [26]
23 Terry Robiskie[h] 2000 3 1 2 0 .333 – [27]
24 Marty Schottenheimer 2001 16 8 8 0 .500 – [28]
25 Steve Spurrier* 2002–2003* 32 12 20 0 .375 – [29]
– Joe Gibbs*[g] 2004–2007* 64 30 34 0 .469 3 1 2 [2]
26 Jim Zorn* 2008–2009* 32 12 20 0 .375 – [30]
27 Mike Shanahan 2010–2013 64 24 40 0 .375 1 0 1 [31]
28 Jay Gruden*[i] 2014–2019 85 35 49 1 .418 1 0 1 [32]
29 Bill Callahan 2019 11 3 8 0 .273 0 0 0 [33]
Washington Football Team / Commanders
30 Ron Rivera 2020–present 50 22 27 1 .450 1 0 1 George Halas Award (2022) [34]

Footnotes

Notes

  1. ^ A running total of the number of coaches of the Redskins. Thus any coach who has two terms as head coach is only counted once.
  2. ^ George Preston Marshall, owner and founder of the franchise, sought to rename the Boston Braves after leaving the stadium they shared with the baseball team of the same name. He chose the name Redskins in honor of Dietz, who was Sioux.
  3. ^ DeGroot was a member of the United States rugby team that won an Olympic gold medal during the 1924 competition in Paris.
  4. ^ Fired after seven games
  5. ^ Fired after three games in the 1951 season.
  6. ^ Lombardi died before the start of the 1970 season.
  7. ^ a b Gibbs full coaching record with the Redskins is 248 regular season games coached with a record of 154–94–0 and a W–L percentage of .621. He is also 17–7 in 24 Playoff games.
  8. ^ Took over for last 3 games of the season.
  9. ^ Fired five games into the 2019 season, with Bill Callahan taking over for the rest of the year.

References

  1. ^ "Washington Redskins (1937-present)". Sportsecyclopedia. Retrieved 2008-03-14.
  2. ^ a b c "Joe Gibbs' Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Retrieved 2008-03-14.
  3. ^ "Washington Redskins Championship History". NFLTeamHistory.com. Archived from the original on 2008-04-22. Retrieved 2008-03-14.
  4. ^ a b "Dudley DeGroot's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Archived from the original on 2008-02-21. Retrieved 2008-03-14.
  5. ^ "Hall of Famers by Franchise". Pro Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved March 14, 2008.
  6. ^ "Lud Wray's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Archived from the original on 2012-11-07. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  7. ^ "Lone Star Dietz's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Archived from the original on 2012-09-02. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  8. ^ "Eddie Casey's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Archived from the original on 2012-09-02. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  9. ^ "Ray Flaherty's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Archived from the original on 2012-08-31. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  10. ^ "Dutch Bergman's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Archived from the original on 2012-09-02. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  11. ^ "Turk Edwards' Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Archived from the original on 2012-09-02. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  12. ^ "John Whelchel's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Archived from the original on 2012-09-02. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  13. ^ "Herman Ball's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Archived from the original on 2012-09-02. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  14. ^ "Dick Todd's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Archived from the original on 2012-11-07. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  15. ^ "Curly Lambeau's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
  16. ^ a b c "NFL Coach of the Year Award". Hickok Sports. Archived from the original on December 5, 2012. Retrieved March 22, 2008.
  17. ^ "Joe Kuharich's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  18. ^ "Mike Nixon's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Retrieved 2008-03-14.
  19. ^ "Bill McPeak's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Archived from the original on 2012-11-07. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  20. ^ "Otto Graham's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  21. ^ "Vince Lombardi's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Archived from the original on 2012-06-29. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  22. ^ "Bill Austin's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Archived from the original on 2012-09-02. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  23. ^ "George Allen's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  24. ^ "Jack Pardee's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  25. ^ "Richie Petitbon's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Archived from the original on 2012-09-02. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  26. ^ "Norv Turner's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Archived from the original on 2012-08-20. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  27. ^ "Terry Robiskie's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  28. ^ "Marty Schottenheimer's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  29. ^ "Steve Spurrier's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  30. ^ "Jim Zorn's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Archived from the original on 2012-10-20. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  31. ^ "Mike Shanahan's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  32. ^ "Jay Gruden". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Sports Reference. Archived from the original on January 5, 2016. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
  33. ^ "Bill Callahan". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Sports Reference. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  34. ^ Selby, Zach. "Ron Rivera Becomes 30th Head Coach In Redskins History". Washington Commanders. Retrieved February 2, 2022.

External links

Washington Commanders
Washington Commanders head coaches
Head coaches of the National Football League
Categories