The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo, New York metropolitan area. They are members of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The Bills franchise was formed in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League (AFL), before joining the NFL as part of the AFL-NFL merger of 1970.
There have been 21 head coaches for the Bills franchise. Buster Ramsey became the first head coach of the Buffalo Bills in 1960, serving for two seasons before being fired by Bills owner Ralph Wilson after the 1961 season. In terms of tenure, Marv Levy has coached more games (182) and seasons (12) than any other coach in franchise history. He coached the Bills to four straight AFC Championships from 1990 to 1993, but failed to lead the team to a victory in the Super Bowl. One of Levy's predecessors, Lou Saban, who coached the team on two occasions, led the team to the victories in the AFL championship in 1964 and 1965. Three Bills coaches—Saban, Levy and Chuck Knox—have been named coach of the year by at least one major news organization. Levy and Jim Ringo are the only Bills coaches to have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
There have been six "interim" head coaches in Bills history. First, in 1968, head coach Joe Collier was fired two games into the season and replaced by Bills personnel director Harvey Johnson. Johnson did not serve as head coach the following season. Then, five games into the 1976 season, Saban unexpectedly resigned as head coach. He was replaced by Ringo, the team's offensive line coach. Ringo returned to coach the team again in the 1977 season. In October 1985, Kay Stephenson was fired and replaced by assistant head coach Hank Bullough. Just over a year later, Bullough was himself fired and replaced by Marv Levy, who had previously served as coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. Levy would then serve as Bills head coach for the next 12 seasons. In 2016, Anthony Lynn replaced Rex Ryan for the final game of the season.
Following Levy's retirement, the Bills experienced limited success under a series of successive head coaches. Wade Phillips, the Bills' defensive coordinator for the last three years under Levy, took over head coaching duties for the 1998 season. Phillips served as head coach for three seasons, making the playoffs in his first two (He was the last coach to lead the Bills to the playoffs until Sean McDermott became coach in 2017). After Phillips' departure following the 2000 season, Gregg Williams was named head coach. Williams served as coach for three seasons. At the end of the 2003 season, Williams' contract was not renewed. Mike Mularkey was named as the new head coach for the 2004 season, leading the Bills to their first winning season since 1999. The Bills experienced less success under Mularkey during 2005, and Mularkey resigned as head coach at the completion of the 2005 season. The Bills then named Dick Jauron as their head coach for the 2006 season. Jauron was the first coach since Phillips' dismissal with prior head coaching experience, having previously served as head coach of the Chicago Bears and interim head coach of the Detroit Lions. Jauron coached the Bills to three consecutive 7–9 seasons before being fired on November 17, 2009, nine games into the 2009 season. Defensive Coordinator Perry Fewell was named as the interim head coach, going 3–4 to finish out the season before all of the Bills coaching staff was fired on January 4, 2010. On January 19, 2010, the Bills named Chan Gailey as their next head coach; Gailey was fired on December 31, 2012. In January 2013, Doug Marrone was appointed. He exercised his option to leave in January 2015 following the change of ownership to Kim and Terrence Pegula and was replaced by Rex Ryan. Rex Ryan was fired from the team on December 27, 2016. Anthony Lynn served as interim head coach until January 11, when the team hired Sean McDermott to serve in the role on a permanent basis. McDermott's tenure as head coach saw the team qualify for the playoffs eight times. Despite the success, McDermott was fired on January 19, 2026, after nine seasons with the team. The Bills then named Joe Brady, the offensive coordinator for the past three seasons under McDermott, as their next head coach, on January 27, 2026.
Key #Number of coaches GCGames coachedWWinsLLossesTTiesWin%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 entire AFL/NFL head coaching career with the Bills **Two coaching tenures for Lou Saban ^Two coaching tenures for Harvey Johnson
Coaches # Image Name TermEach year is linked to an article about that particular NFL season. Regular season Playoffs Accomplishments Ref. Yrs First Last GC W L T Win% GC W L 1 * 2 1960 1961 28 11 16 1 .411 — 2 4 1962 1965 56 36 17 3 .670 3 2 12 AFL Championships (1964, 1965)3 AFL playoff berths2 UPI AFL Coach of the Year Awards (1964, 1965) 3 * 3 1966 1968 30 13 16 1 .450 1 0 11 AFL playoff berth 4 11968 12 1 10 1 .125 — 5 2 1969 1970 28 7 20 1 .268 — – 11971 14 1 13 0 .071 — – 5 1972 1976 61 32 28 1 .533 1 0 11 Playoff berth 6 ‡ 2 1976 1977 23 3 20 0 .130 — 7 5 1978 1982 73 37 36 0 .507 3 1 21 AFC East Championship (1980)2 Playoff berths1 AP NFL Coach of the Year Award (1980)1 Sporting News NFL Coach of the Year Award (1980)1 Pro Football Weekly NFL Coach of the Year Award (1980) 8 * 3 1983 1985 36 10 26 0 .278 — 9 2 1985 1986 21 4 17 0 .190 — 10 † 12 1986 1997 182 112 70 0 .615 19 11 8Inducted Pro Football Hall of Fame (2001)4 AFC Championships (1990, 1991, 1992, 1993)6 AFC East Championships (1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995)8 Playoff berths1 Sporting News NFL Coach of the Year Award (1988)2 UPI NFL Coach of the Year Awards (1988, 1993) 11 3 1998 2000 48 29 19 0 .604 2 0 22 Playoff berths 12 3 2001 2003 48 17 31 0 .354 — 13 2 2004 2005 32 14 18 0 .438 — 14 4 2006 2009 57 24 33 0 .421 — 15 12009 7 3 4 0 .429 — 16 3 2010 2012 48 16 32 0 .333 — 17 2 2013 2014 32 15 17 0 .469 — 18 2 2015 2016 31 15 16 0 .484 — 19 12016 1 0 1 0 .000 — 20 * 9 2017 2025 148 98 50 0 .662 16 8 85 AFC East Championships (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)8 Playoff berths 21 *12026present0 — Totals 67 1960 2025 1,016 498 510 8 45 22 23
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