Jump to content

Four Straight Winning Seasons


cooperbh

Recommended Posts

In the 92 year history of the NFL, there have been 49 head coaches who have posted four (or more) straight winning seasons. Not counting Mike Smith, they are:

Bill Belichick, NFL

Raymond Berry, AFC

Marv Levy, AFC

Lou Saban, AFL

Don Shula, NFL

Mike Tomlin, NFL

Bill Cowher, NFL

Chuck Noll, NFL

John Harbaugh, AFCD

Blanton Collier, NFL

Paul Brown, NFL

Jack Pardee, AFCWC

Tom Coughlin, NFL

Tony Dungy, NFL

Tom Flores, NFL

John Madden, NFL

Mike Shannahan, NFL

Dan Reeves, AFC

Don Coryell, AFCD

Sid Gillman, AFL

Marty Schottenheimer, AFCD

Hank Stram, NFL

Jim Lee Howell, NFL

Steve Owen, NFL

Tom Landry, NFL

Andy Reid, NFC

**** Vermeil, NFL

Greasy Neale, NFL

Joe Gibbs, NFL

George Allen, NFC

Ray Flaherty, NFL

Mike Sherman, NFCWC

Mike Holmgren, NFL

Vince Lombardi, NFL

Curly Lambeau, NFL

Joe Schmidt, --

Buddy Parker, NFL

Potsy Clark, NFL

Mike Ditka, NFL

George Halas, NFL

Dennis Green, NFCD

Jerry Burns, NFCD

Bud Grant, NFC

George Seifert, NFL

Bill Walsh, NFL

Buck Shaw, NFC

Chuck Knox, NFCD

John Robinson, NFCD

* NFL (in bold) = won league championship

* NFC/AFC = won conference championship

* NFCD/AFCD = won divisional round game

* NFCWC/AFCWC = won wild card round game

* -- = no playoff victories

Of the 48 coaches listed above...

31 (65%) have won a league championship.

38 (79%) have made it to a league championship game.

46 (96%) have made it to a conference championship game.

47 (98%) have won a playoff game.

Anybody wanna lay their money on Mike Smith finishing his career without winning a playoff game? Before you answer, you should consider one more thing.

With just 7 more wins, Smith will become the Falcons' all time winningest head coach. There have been only 19 head coaches in NFL history with four straight winning seasons who also led a franchise in all time wins. Of those 19, 18 (95%) coached in a league championship game. Only four - Marv Levy, Andy Reid, Bud Grant and John Robinson - failed to win a championship.

No way am I betting against Smitty. History says he will not only get his playoff wins, he is also highly likely to at least make it to the big dance, if not win it all. I only hope he is still a Falcon when the inevitable occurs, and not leading some other team due to an impatient owner giving in to a fickle and ignorant vocal minority.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep cause it is against the rule here to have a positive outlook on a team with 4 straight winning seasons.

Don't you guys know it is the IN thing to hate on your home team 24/7 no matter what they do?

Shame isn't it? What kills me the most is how folks can rag a team that is in the early stages of completely turning this around? It's hard to erase 40 years of being pathetic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm much happier with this regime then the one and done 98 Falcons, they had playoff wins but we sucked for 4 years after that. A consistent winner to me is better than a slight push once of twice a decade.

You can't get to the playoffs without winning in regular season.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is Arthur Blank happy knowing these stats? How does he feel about us losing every 1st round playoffs that we're in?

What the owner wants from his business and what the customers want from that business are two entirely different things.

Ask Mr. Blank if he wants a profittable business year after year after year or just 1 year of great profits and many many years of losses and he how he answers.

Edited by delaigle
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What the owner wants from his business and what the customers want from that business are two entirely different things.

Ask Mr. Blank if he wants a profittable business year after year after year or just 1 year of great profits and many many years of losses and he how he answers.

Not sure how big of a deal profits are on an NFL franchise. With the 3/4 of a $billion Arthur has in this franchise, he could make much more cash profit investing. It's all about winning and pride at this point.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We are basing our coaches production against other teams that were not in our situation. There is only one coach there that we should draw comparisons with: Dan Reeves. He was here and was successful 2 or 3 years of his time. I believe he was the greatest coach we have had in the past. Smitty has surpassed him in my mind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

solid research coop . Im a fan of Smitty .

How many of those coaches have started their career 0-3 in playoffs ?

Don Coryell and Denny Green.

Shula comes close with 0 wins in 2 postseasons during his first 5 years as a head coach.

Noll had 1 win in 2 postseasons during his first 5 years.

Belichick was 1 for 1 in his first 6 years. And then fired.

Landry was 1 for 4 in his first 10 years. He didn't lead a team to the postseason until year 6.

A single playoff win means squat to me in the long run. Smitty has to put up some back-to-back losing seasons before I start to lose faith.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don Coryell and Denny Green.

Shula comes close with 0 wins in 2 postseasons during his first 5 years as a head coach.

Noll had 1 win in 2 postseasons during his first 5 years.

Belichick was 1 for 1 in his first 6 years. And then fired.

Landry was 1 for 4 in his first 10 years. He didn't lead a team to the postseason until year 6.

A single playoff win means squat to me in the long run. Smitty has to put up some back-to-back losing seasons before I start to lose faith.

Wow...Great research. And I agree with your sentiment on Smith. The team is in position to win in the playoffs 3 out of the 4 years we have been there. The only issue is that they haven't closed the deal. Those who have lost faith in Smitty already have no patience, and exemplify the term "Microwave Generation".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Smith won't survive a losing season....maybe not any regression.

Depends on the reason. If the team is fully healthy and yet unfocused and uncompetitive (highly unlikely,) then he's in big trouble. If we are ravaged by injuries and still fighting to the final whistle in close games, then Blank would be a fool to let Smith go.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe Smith , TD , and Ryan all get a pass next season no matter what happens . Then 2013 season will be deep playoff run or start retooling process . I think thats extremely fair by end of 6th season a deep playoff run . Then we fire Smitty and TD and bring in a new GM to decide what to do with Ryan

6 years no playoff success is it fair to start rebuild or do we go on beaten path to what year like 10?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep cause it is against the rule here to have a positive outlook on a team with 4 straight winning seasons.

Don't you guys know it is the IN thing to hate on your home team 24/7 no matter what they do?

I'm about 99.9% sure that was sarcasm. Have you guys never run across Rad before on these boards?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...