WASHINGTON — As the search for a new head coach of the Washington Commanders begins, we are taking a look back at the team's history, dating back to 1937 when the NFL organization moved from Boston to Washington, D.C.
WUSA9 wanted to see how long the average tenure of a head coach for Washington's team was, and if Ron Rivera had a shorter career in D.C. than normal.
From our research, there have been 30 coaches in total over the 92-year history of the franchise, with the average tenure of a head coach being a little over three years. In fact, 21 of the team's coaches spent less time as head coach than Rivera did.
Joe Gibbs is the only coach to have more than one tenure. He is also the all-time leader in games coached and wins. Though, Dudley DeGroot leads all Washington coaches in winning percentage.
Gibbs was also the head coach for all three of Washington's Super Bowl wins in 1983, 1988 and 1992. Washington made it to the Super Bowl in 1973 (under George Allen) and 1984 (again under Gibbs) as well, but ended up losing.
Ray Flaherty coached the team to two championships before they were recorded as Super Bowls in 1937 and 1942.
Seven of Washington's coaches have been elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame including Ray Flaherty, Turk Edwards, Curly Lambeau, Otto Graham, Vince Lombardi, Allen, and Gibbs.
Check out the complete list of head coaches, and how long they stayed with Washington, below:
- Lud Wray (1932)
- Lone Star Dietz (1933-1934)
- Eddie Casey (1935)
- Ray Flaherty (1936-1942)
- Dutch Bergman (1943)
- Dudley DeGroot (1944-1945)
- Turk Edwards (1946-1948)
- John Whelchel (1949)
- Herman Ball (1949-1951)
- Dick Todd (1951)
- Curly Lambeau (1952-1953)
- Joe Kuharich (1954-1958)
- Mike Nixon (1959-1960)
- Bill McPeak (1961-1965)
- Otto Graham (1966-1968)
- Vince Lombardi (1969)
- Bill Austin (1970)
- George Allen (1971-1977)
- Jack Pardee (1978-1980)
- Joe Gibbs (1981-1992)
- Richie Petitbon (1993)
- Norv Turner (1994-2000)
- Terry Robiskie (2000)
- Marty Schottenheimer (2001)
- Steve Spurrier (2002-2003)
- Joe Gibbs (2004-2007)
- Jim Zorn (2008-2009)
- Mike Shanahan (2010-2013)
- Jay Gruden (2014-2019)
- Bill Callahan (2019)
- Ron Rivera (2020-2024)
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