Andy Reid is approaching lofty territory Sunday in Tampa.
This Sunday, Big Red will coach in his third Super Bowl, hunting for his second win. He’s the 12th head coach all-time to reach the Super Bowl three times. A win in Super Bowl LV will put him in the pantheon of all-time NFL head coaches.
I’m talking top five, dead or alive.
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He’s amassed 238 coaching wins, counting the postseason. That ranks fifth all-time, behind only Don Shula, George Halas, Bill Belichick, and Tom Landry. Rare air.
The 2020 season was Reid’s 15th 10-win season. Only Shula (20), Belichick (19), and Landry (17) have more all-time. Consider this: Reid has been coaching for 22 seasons. So more than two-thirds of his seasons on the sideline, he’s won at least ten games.
He’s had more 12-win seasons in his career (seven) than seasons where his team didn’t make the playoffs (six).
His .629 regular season winning percentage is fifth among those who have coached at least 240 games (that’s 15 16-game seasons).
NFL
And he’s doing all this in the here and now. The game gets faster, more complex, more nuanced every season. No one with a cerebral cortex and working eyeballs could say things like “Those George Halas Bears teams would clobber the 2004 Eagles!” or “Curly Lambeau’s Packers would eat these Chiefs for lunch!”
Stop it. The NFL continues to evolve, and Big Red evolves right along with it.
Eagles fans still have a bitter taste in their mouth because Reid didn’t win a Super Bowl in Philadelphia, I understand. But you can’t deny that Reid is the most successful head coach this franchise has ever had while he was an Eagle.
Reid won ten postseason games with the Eagles. There are only 14 head coaches who have ever won more than ten postseason games in their careers.
And then he went to Kansas City, and get measurably better as a head coach.
I honestly believe that if Reid and the Chiefs close the deal Sunday – no easy task against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers – that you can rank Reid no lower than fifth among NFL head coaches all-time.
Belichick, Vince Lombardi, Chuck Noll, Joe Gibbs, Big Red.
Tom Landry? Tom Landry won two Super Bowls, 17 10-win seasons. He also missed the playoffs in each of his final TEN seasons as Cowboys head coach. Nice hat, though.
The aforementioned Halas and Lambeau? They both had their way with the league far before the league evolved to anywhere close to what it is today.
Bill Walsh? Three rings is admirable. But he was lucky enough to have a top-five all-time QB AND the greatest wide receiver to put on cleats.
Andy Reid does two things: grow a fine mustache, and win. If things go his way in Tampa Sunday, You can carve that mustache on the NFL’s Mount Rushmore.