The Washington Commanders are a professional American football franchise based in the Washington metropolitan area. They are members of the East division in the National Football Conference (NFC) of the National Football League (NFL). The Commanders were founded in as the Boston Braves, named after the local baseball franchise. The franchise changed its name the following year to the Redskins and moved to Washington, D.C. in . In , the team retired the Redskins name after longstanding controversies surrounding it and briefly played as the Washington Football Team before becoming the Commanders in .
There have been 31 head coaches for the franchise, four of which played for the franchise during their career. Joe Gibbs is the only coach to have more than one tenure with the team. Ray Flaherty coached teams that won the 1937 and 1942 NFL Championships, while Joe Gibbs coached teams that won Super Bowl XVII (1982), Super Bowl XXII (1987), and Super Bowl XXVI (1991). Gibbs is the franchise leader in games coached and wins, with Dudley DeGroot leading in winning percentage with .737. Seven are Pro Football Hall of Fame members: Flaherty, Turk Edwards, Curly Lambeau, Otto Graham, Vince Lombardi, George Allen, and Gibbs.
Coaches #Number of coachesGCGames coachedWWinsLLosesTTiesWin %Winning percentage †Elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a coach‡Elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a player *Spent their entire NFL head coaching career with Washington
+ List of Boston Braves / Boston Redskins / Washington Redskins / Washington Football Team / Washington Commanders head coaches#ImageCoachTermRegular seasonPlayoffsAwards GC W L T Win% GC W L1Lud Wray193210442.500 2Lone Star Dietz*1933–1934*2411112.500 3Eddie Casey*1935*11281.200 4Ray Flaherty †1936–19427854213.720422 5Dutch Bergman*1943*10631.667211 6Dudley DeGroot*1944–1945*201451.737101 7Turk Edwards* ‡1946–1948*3516181.471 8John Whelchel*1949*7331.500 9Herman Ball*1949–1951*204160.200 10Dick Todd*1951*9540.556 11Curly Lambeau †1952–19532410131.435 12Joe Kuharich1954–19586026322.448 Sporting News Coach of the Year (1955) UPI NFL Coach of the Year (1955)13Mike Nixon1959–1960244182.182 14Bill McPeak*1961–1965*7021463.313 15Otto Graham* ‡1966–1968*4217223.436 16 Vince Lombardi †196914752.583 17Bill Austin197014680.429 18George Allen †1971–19779867301.691725 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)19Jack Pardee1978–19804824240.500 AP Coach of the Year (1979) UPI NFC Coach of the Year (1979)20Joe Gibbs*1981–1992*184124600.67421165 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)21Richie Petitbon*1993*164120.250 22Norv Turner1994–200010949591.454211 23Terry Robiskie20003120.333 24Marty Schottenheimer200116880.500 25Steve Spurrier*2002–2003*3212200.375 Joe Gibbs*2004–2007*6430340.469312 26Jim Zorn*2008–2009*3212200.375 27Mike Shanahan2010–20136424400.375101 28Jay Gruden*2014–20198535491101 29Bill Callahan201911380 30Ron Rivera2020–20236726401101George Halas Award (2022)31Dan Quinn2024–present 34 17 17 0 .500 3 2 1 #ImageCoachTerm GC W L T Win% GC W LAwardsRegular seasonPlayoffs
Footnotes
References