Worst NFL Head Coaches of All Time

These worst NFL coaches set their respective teams back years, or even decades.

There are just 32 jobs available as an NFL head coach, and it may be the most difficult coaching job in all of sports. You have 53 players to manage, which means 53 egos to massage, not to mention the egos of your superiors that work in NFL front offices. Then, there’s the work on the field, as you’re tasked with maximizing each player’s potential while also finding how to make sure their contributions are for the greater good of the team, rather than just themselves.

Some people have done a better job than others at managing all aspects of being an NFL head coach, and they are known by just one name: Belichick, Shula, Madden, Lombardi, etc. But others … not so much. Some coaches have almost made a mockery of the profession — and certainly of themselves — with their boneheaded coaching tactics, harsh personalities or a combination of both.

But who is the worst of the worst when it comes to NFL head coaches? There are so many to choose from, but here are our picks for the worst NFL coaches of all time.

30. Jeff Fisher

Butch Dill / AP Photo

Record: 173-165 (.512 W-L%)

Career: 22 seasons (1994-2010, 2012-16)

Teams coached: HOU/Ten Oilers/Tennessee Titans, St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams

Bottom line: With 165 career losses, Fisher is the biggest loser in NFL coaching history, as no coach has ever lost more games. People often celebrate either July 9 or Aug. 8 as “Jeff Fisher Day” because the man seemingly always went either 7-9 or 8-8. In fact, during his 20 full seasons as coach, his teams won either 7 or 8 games 10 different times. Yet, even though he spent over two decades at the helm, he managed just five postseason wins with three of those coming when the Titans made the Super Bowl in 1999.

29. Norm Van Brocklin

Harry Cabluck / AP Photo

Record: 66-100-7 (.398 W-L%)

Career: 13 seasons (1961-66, 1968-74)

Teams coached: Minnesota Vikings, Atlanta Falcons

Bottom line: No one has coached more games, more seasons or won more games than Norm Van Brocklin without a postseason appearance. He was an MVP as a player and a two-time champion, but Van Brocklin went into coaching right after hanging up his cleats and didn’t experience the same success he had as a player.

His first stint involved six years with the Vikings, which only looks worse in retrospect as his successor in Minnesota, Bud Grant, proceeded to make four Super Bowl appearances. Van Brocklin, who was a former QB, also infamously feuded with QB Fran Tarkenton, which eventually led to Van Brocklin resigning and heading to Atlanta. With the Falcons, he led the team to its first winning season, but still, that wasn’t good enough for the postseason.

28. Mike Nolan

Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP Photo

Record: 18-37 (.327 W-L%)

Career: 4 seasons (2005-08)

Teams coached: San Francisco 49ers

Bottom line: Nolan was a throwback coach, and he lobbied the NFL to wear a suit on the sideline, just as coaches did back in the day. The league acquiesced, but looking good didn’t translate to good coaching when he led the 49ers. Nolan also doubled as the team’s GM, and he chose Alex Smith first overall in 2005 over Aaron Rodgers because he didn’t believe Rodgers’ personality meshed well with his. Nolan then proceeded to make Smith look like a bust and then later questioned his toughness for not playing through a shoulder injury. Nolan would go on to lose his GM position after the 2007 season and would then be canned midway through the 2008 season.

27. Steve Spagnuolo

Jeff Roberson / AP Photo

Record: 11-41 (.212 W-L%)

Career: 4 seasons (2009-11, 2017)

Teams coached: St. Louis Rams, New York Giants

Bottom line: “Spags” was the defensive mastermind behind the 2007 Giants preventing the 18-0 Patriots from winning the Super Bowl and authoring a perfect season. That success led to him becoming the Rams’ head coach in 2009, but Michael Strahan, Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora didn’t tag along with him to St. Louis. The Rams finished with the league’s worst record in two of the three seasons Spagnuolo coached them, and his .212 winning percentage is the third-worst in NFL history. He got a second shot as a head coach as the Giants’ interim in 2017, but he didn’t fare much better, losing three of his four games.

26. Bill Callahan

Amy Sancetta / AP Photo

Record: 18-25 (.419 W-L%)

Career: 3 seasons (2002-03, 2019)

Teams coached: Oakland Raiders, Washington Redskins

Bottom line: It’s hard for a coach to lead his team to a Super Bowl appearance but still land on a “Worst Coaches” list. But Callahan certainly did enough, and said enough, to warrant inclusion in this article. His 2002 Raiders came up short against former coach Jon Gruden and the Buccaneers, and afterward, several Raiders accused Callahan of sabotaging the game. He decided to abruptly change the team’s game plan just two days before the Super Bowl, and he didn’t even change the terminology from when Gruden coached, so Tampa’s defense knew every audible called out by Oakland.

After getting embarrassed in the Super Bowl, Callahan then embarrassed himself the following season. Despite having a team that featured Hall of Famers Jerry Rice, Tim Brown and Rod Woodson, Callahan said in a press conference that the Raiders must have been “the dumbest team in America in terms of playing the game.” Unsurprisingly, he was fired just one month later.

25. Rod Marinelli

Duane Burleson / AP Photo

Record: 10-38 (.208 W-L%)

Career: 3 seasons (2006-08)

Teams coached: Detroit Lions

Bottom line: Marinelli’s Lions went from three wins in his first season to seven wins in his second season, so expectations were pretty high for his third season in 2008. Detroit won four straight during the preseason, and they went on another streak during the regular season — a 16-game losing streak. Marinelli became the first coach to lead a 0-16 team, and the biggest culprit was the team’s 32nd-ranked defense. Marinelli’s specialty was on the defensive side of the ball, but Detroit gave up the second-most points in a season in NFL history.

Predictably, that would be Marinelli’s last season as a head coach, and he couldn’t even get a coordinator’s job the next year, settling for a positional coaching job. The one good thing about this 0-16 Lions season is that it gave the team the No. 1 overall pick in the next year’s draft, which Detroit used to draft Matthew Stafford.

24. Mike McCormack

Rusty Kennedy / AP Photo

Record: 29-51-1 (.364 W-L%)

Career: 6 seasons (1973-75, 1980-82)

Teams coached: Philadelphia Eagles, Baltimore Colts, Seattle Seahawks

Bottom line: One of the finest offensive linemen in NFL history, McCormack’s bust resides in the Pro Football Hall of Fame due to his contributions as a player. But whatever is the opposite of the Hall of Fame would likely get McCormack’s bust as a coach, with emphasis on bust.

He coached three teams over six seasons and had just one winning record but no playoff appearances. The low mark of his coaching career came with the 1981 Baltimore Colts who went 2-14 but weren’t nearly as good as their horrid record indicated. Those Colts had arguably the worst defense in NFL history, setting records for both points allowed and yards allowed. They allowed both the most rushing TDs and the most passing TDs, while also having the fewest turnovers and allowing every opponent to score at least 21 points.

23. Dave Campo

Tom Gannam / AP Photo

Record: 15-33 (.313 W-L%)

Career: 3 seasons (2000-02)

Teams coached: Dallas Cowboys

Bottom line: Campo was an assistant during the Cowboys’ 1990s dynasty and was well-liked within the organization. But that didn’t necessarily make him a competent coach, as he made several scoring and time-management mistakes. For example, in one game, Dallas scored a fourth-quarter touchdown to cut a deficit to 10 points, but instead of going for the two-point conversion and making it a one-score game, Campo kicked the extra point. They would then proceed to lose that game by two points.

Another example came when he elected for a fourth-quarter field goal on 4th-and-1 when his team was up by three points. It was the wrong analytical move to make; even if he made the try, the other team could still win with a touchdown. It would be moot as Dallas missed the kick, gifting the opponent great field position, and they went down to score a touchdown and win the game. After three seasons, Campo was fired, and he remains the only coach in Cowboys history to never post a winning season or coach in a postseason game.

22. Ray Handley

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Record: 14-18 (.438 W-L%)

Career: 2 seasons (1991-92)

Teams coached: New York Giants

Bottom line: The Giants won the Super Bowl in 1990 under coach Bill Parcells, but Parcells then retired. New York could have gone with Giants’ assistants Bill Belichick or Tom Coughlin as Parcells’ successor, but they chose Ray Handley whose only previous head-coaching experience was at a high school.

Handley was overwhelmed with the job and squabbled with both his players and the media. He was previously the offensive backfield coach under Parcells, and he was never able to earn the respect of the Giants’ defense, especially after hiring a defensive coordinator who had just coached the league’s third-worst scoring defense at his previous job. The Giants went from Super Bowl champions in 1990 to missing the playoffs the next year.

21. Mike Tice

Tom Olmscheid / AP Photo

Record: 32-33 (.492 W-L%)

Career: 5 seasons (2001-05)

Teams coached: Minnesota Vikings

Bottom line: Tice was a pretty good coach and has the third-highest winning percentage of anyone on this list. But what earned him a spot here was his involvement in a Super Bowl ticket scalping operation after the 2004 season. Every NFL player and coach — even those not competing in the game — have the option of buying Super Bowl tickets at face value. Tice admitted that he illegally scalped some of those tickets when he was assistant and also sold some of the 12 he got as Vikings head coach. He also allegedly received kickbacks for steering fellow Vikings coaches and players to sell some of their tickets to a friend of his. The NFL caught wind of this scheme and let Tice off fairly easily, only fining him $100,000.

20. Jim Mora

Ric Feld / AP Photo

Record: 31-33 (.484 W-L%)

Career: 4 seasons (2004-06, 2009)

Teams coached: Atlanta Falcons, Seattle Seahawks

Bottom line: The younger Jim Mora started off his head-coaching career with an NFC Championship Game appearance behind the legs and arm of Michael Vick. But after winning 11 games during that 2004 season, his win total would decrease in each of his subsequent seasons. He won eight games in 2005, seven games in 2006 and then five games in 2009 when he was the coach of the Redskins.

Besides his worsening record, Mora’s mouth also earns him a spot on this list. While coaching Atlanta during the 2006 season, Mora said during a radio interview that he would take the coaching job at his alma mater of the University of Washington despite being employed by the Falcons at the time. Atlanta was 7-6 and in the hunt for a playoff spot, but his comments made their way back to the Falcons locker room. Perhaps feeling that they were playing for a coach with one foot out the door, the Falcons would lose their last three games of the season, and Mora would be fired shortly thereafter.

19. Marty Mornhinweg

David Duprey / AP Photo

Record: 5-27 (.156 W-L%)

Career: 2 seasons (2001-02)

Teams coached: Detroit Lions

Bottom line: Apart from his hideous record, Mornhinweg had a notable moment in Detroit that earned him his spot on this list. At the start of an overtime game in 2002 — back when the OT rules stated that whoever scored first won — Mornhinweg’s team won the coin toss, but he elected to defer! He felt that having the wind advantage was more beneficial to his team than having the ball, so he chose to go on defense while the Bears went on offense. It proved to be one of the worst calls in NFL history, as Chicago marched down the field and kicked a field goal, thus winning the game. Detroit’s offense never took the field.

18. Gus Bradley

Stephen Morton / AP Photo

Record: 14-48 (.226 W-L%)

Career: 4 seasons (2013-16)

Teams coached: Jacksonville Jaguars

Bottom line: Bradley was the defensive coordinator of the 2012 Seahawks that led the NFL in scoring defense, and he parlayed that role into a head-coaching job. But his Jacksonville Jaguars weren’t blessed with the likes of Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman and Bobby Wagner, and Bradley could never turn around the Jags’ defense. Jacksonville never finished any better than 25th in defense under Bradley, and the team never won more than five games. His tenure looks even worse when you see that, the season after he was fired, the Jags won 10 games and made the AFC Championship Game.

17. Marvin Lewis

David Kohl / AP Photo

Record: 131-122-3 (.518 W-L%)

Career: 16 seasons (2003-18)

Teams coached: Cincinnati Bengals

Bottom line: In terms of winning percentage, Marvin Lewis is the winningest coach on this list. But in terms of postseason winning percentage, Lewis is the worst playoff coach of all time. His seven playoff games without a win are the most in NFL history, with four of those defeats coming at home. His 16 years as a head coach and 131 wins are also the most ever for a coach without a playoff win.

And just a few years after he was fired, Cincinnati broke through and advanced to a Super Bowl, which makes Lewis look even worse in retrospect.

16. Freddie Kitchens

Ron Schwane / AP Photo

Record: 6-10 (.375 W-L%)

Career: 1 season (2019)

Teams coached: Cleveland Browns

Bottom line: After Baker Mayfield had a successful rookie season, his offensive coordinator in Kitchens received lots of credit for that success. Thus, Cleveland promoted him to head coach in 2019 despite him A) having never been a head coach at any level and B) only having a single season of coordinator experience. Kitchens seemed to be overwhelmed by the job, as Mayfield regressed as well as the Browns as a whole.

Kitchens also didn’t carry himself like an NFL head coach off the field, as evident by his poor wardrobe choice during the season. Shortly after his star DE, Myles Garrett, infamously swung a helmet at Steelers QB Mason Rudolph, Kitchens wore a T-shirt that said, “Pittsburgh started it,” and then allowed himself to be photographed. Two days later, Pittsburgh would defeat the Browns, and a month later, Kitchens would be without a job.

15. Marion Campbell

Art Wilkinson / AP Photo

Record: 34-80-1 (.300 W-L%)

Career: 9 seasons (1974-76, 1983-85, 1987-89)

Teams coached: Atlanta Falcons, Philadelphia Eagles, Atlanta Falcons

Bottom line: At one extreme, you have former Dolphins coach Don Shula who is a record 172 games over .500. And at the other end, you have Marion Campbell, who is a record 46 games under .500. That’s a testament to his ability to A) lose games and B) keep getting jobs. Campbell had three coaching stints — two coming with the Falcons — and all of them resulted in losing seasons and non-playoff finishes. Campbell never came close to a winning year, having never finished higher than third in his respective division in any season.

Before coaching, Campbell was one of the last two-way players in the NFL. But his knowledge of both sides of the ball didn’t carry over as a coach because his teams finished last in scoring twice and last in scoring defense twice as well.

14. Greg Schiano

LM Otero / AP Photo

Record: 11-21 (.344 W-L%)

Career: 2 seasons (2012-13)

Teams coached: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Bottom line: Football isn’t as bad as baseball when it comes to the unwritten rules of the game, but Schiano infamously violated one of those rules, which earns him a spot on this list. His two-year record with the Bucs was bad enough, but Schiano instructed his defensive line to attack the opponent’s offensive line when in the victory formation. It was poor etiquette and could have led to injury, as no one on the offense expected the D-line to rush them and poor Eli Manning fell onto his backside. Schiano probably wouldn’t have liked it if his unsuspecting offense was in the same position, but he simply didn’t win enough games to have his own victory formation opportunities.

13. Jim Zorn

Nick Wass / AP Photo

Record: 12-20 (.375 W-L%)

Career: 2 seasons (2008-09)

Teams coached: Washington Redskins

Bottom line: “I just feel like the worst coach in America to have to lose the way we’re losing,” Zorn said in 2008.

Yes, an NFL head coach actually uttered that during a press conference after losing five of six games. But to be fair, Zorn probably should have never been a head coach in the first place, as he was hired despite never having any coordinator experience at the pro level. He also wasn’t put in the best of positions, succeeding Washington legend Joe Gibbs, who had made the playoffs the year prior. Zorn’s specialty was offense, but the GM removed playcalling duties from him early in the 2009 season, and predictably, he was canned at the end of that year.

12. Josh McDaniels

Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP Photo

Record: 11-17 (.393 W-L%)

Career: 3 seasons (2009-10, 2022-present)

Teams coached: Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders

Bottom line: McDaniels made his name as the Patriots offensive coordinator when he unlocked Tom Brady and allowed him to reach his full potential. But, of course, the Patriots were also known for Spygate when McDaniels was in New England, and he had his own videotaping scandal when he became a head coach with the Broncos. The team’s video coordinator videotaped a 49ers’ walkthrough ahead of the two teams’ game in London, England, during the 2010 season. McDaniels reportedly knew nothing of the act and didn’t view the video, but it was a horrible look considering what his former employer at the Patriots did just a few years earlier.

McDaniels also didn’t report the incident to the league, which played a part in his firing from Denver. It also didn’t help that he traded away the team’s two biggest stars in Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall, while also surprisingly drafting Tim Tebow with a first-round pick.

11. Eric Mangini

Bill Kostroun / AP Photo

Record: 33-47 (.413 W-L%)

Career: 5 seasons (2006-10)

Teams coached: New York Jets, Cleveland Browns

Bottom line: Mangini has one of the best winning percentages of any coach on this list, but it was his personality and demeanor that rubbed people the wrong way. He was a former Bill Belichick assistant and tried to implement several of his former boss’ hard-nosed ways without the success to match. One former Jets player nicknamed him “The Penguin” because of the way he waddled and his intense stares, while Mangini certainly didn’t ingratiate himself in Cleveland when he coached the Browns.

One of the first things he did when he got to Cleveland was tear down a mural highlighting many of the former great Browns players that was located in the team’s headquarters. Another former player of Mangini’s said that the coach’s style alienated many of the players just soon after he was hired in Cleveland. That would help explain Mangini’s dismal record with the Browns, as he went 5-11 in back-to-back seasons before being fired.

10. Adam Gase

Steven Senne / AP Photo

Record: 32-48 (.400 W-L%)

Career: 5 seasons (2016-20)

Teams coached: Miami Dolphins, New York Jets

Bottom line: Gase made his fame on the back of Peyton Manning because he was the offensive coordinator during Manning’s 2013 MVP season. But he had no Peyton Manning with him as coach of the Dolphins and Jets and struggled with both veteran QBs like Ryan Tannehill and Jay Cutler as well as young QBs like Sam Darnold.

Gase’s offensive wizardry simply didn’t work without a Hall of Famer under center, and his teams were never even simply average on offense. Not once during his five seasons did one of Gase’s teams finish in the top half of the league in scoring. In fact, the teams finished in the bottom 10 in scoring offense in four of his five seasons. And, of course, you can’t mention Adam Gase without bringing up his introductory press conference with the Jets when his “crazy eyes” went viral on social media.

9. Steve Spurrier

Koji Sasahara / AP Photo

Record: 12-20 (.375 W-L%)

Career: 2 seasons (2002-03)

Teams coached: Washington Redskins

Bottom line: After becoming the winningest coach in Florida Gators history and a national champion, Spurrier became the NFL’s highest-paid coach in 2002. But his collegiate success didn’t carry over to the NFL, even though Spurrier brought seemingly half of the Gators program with him to Washington, D.C. He brought nearly his entire Florida coaching staff with him and also signed a number of his former players. But being a good college player or coach doesn’t mean you’ll be a good NFL player or coach. Spurrier’s offensive wizardry was quickly decoded at the professional level, and he quit after two years, leaving $15 million on the table, and went back to coach college shortly thereafter.

8. Matt Patricia

Rick Osentoski / AP Photo

Record: 13-29-1 (.314 W-L%)

Career: 3 seasons (2018-20)

Teams coached: Detroit Lions

Bottom line: One of many of Bill Belichick’s former assistants who flopped as coaches, Patricia both stunk as a head coach and upset many of the players he coached. Many stories came out after his firing about him showing up players, such as mocking star cornerback Darius Slay because Slay posted a photo on social media of himself covering Odell Beckham Jr. Patricia then showed that photo to the entire team during a meeting and essentially called Slay a brownnoser for the photo.

Another report said that Patricia called another of Detroit’s best players an “effing c-word” during a practice which obviously rubbed the entire team the wrong way. Patricia would be fired before he could complete his third season in Detroit and promptly returned with his tail between his legs to Belichick and New England.

7. Bert Bell

Sam Myers / AP Photo

Record: 10-46-2 (.179 W-L%)

Career: 6 seasons (1936-41)

Teams coached: Philadelphia Eagles

Bottom line: Bell did lots of good things for the NFL. After all, he was the league commissioner for 14 years and helped introduce parity via the NFL Draft. But as great as he was as commish, he was equally as poor at coaching professional football. A native of Pennsylvania, Bell coached both the Eagles and Steelers, and his .179 winning percentage remains the worst in NFL history.

Of his five full seasons coaching, he won two or fewer games four times and never posted a winning record in any year. He wasn’t some novice to the job either, as he has 12 years of assistant coaching experience in college before becoming a head coach in the NFL. He just wasn’t very good at his job. But his lack of success as a coach paved the way for him to become commissioner, so it all worked out in the end.

6. Chip Kelly

Matt York / AP Photo

Record: 28-35 (.444 W-L%)

Career: 4 seasons (2013-16)

Teams coached: Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers

Bottom line: After 13 years of coaching in college, Chip Kelly made the jump to the NFL with the Eagles in 2013. But, according to his former players, Kelly didn’t realize that you can’t treat professionals who are grown men the same way you treat college teenagers. That is best encapsulated by a quote from LeSean McCoy, who played two years under Kelly before the coach traded him to Buffalo.

“You can’t treat people different, you can’t treat ’em badly,” McCoy said of Kelly. “You can’t come and yell at them. They ain’t kids, they [are] grown-ups. I think he learned that, though. I think if he came back, he’d be different, but I don’t think he’s coming back. Some coaches need to stay on the collegiate level.”

Another former player described Kelly as being “uncomfortable around grown men of our culture,” as the demographics of a college team are different than that of an NFL team. Kelly actually had back-to-back winning seasons to begin his NFL career before two losing seasons. Chances are he won’t pursue the opportunity for a fifth NFL season.

5. Tom Cable

Chris O’Meara / AP Photo

Record: 17-27 (.386 W-L%)

Career: 3 seasons (2008-10)

Teams coached: Oakland Raiders

Bottom line: The Cable’s Guy’s record is bad enough, but what he allegedly did off the field is even worse. He was accused of several violent incidents, including one by a Raiders assistant coach, who says that Cable punched him in the face and broke his jaw during training camp. No charges were ever filed, but a civil case was settled between the two parties in arbitration.

More serious allegations of violence from Cable followed, and these came from two ex-wives and an ex-girlfriend. They filed a civil suit against Cable — while he was Raiders head coach — in which they alleged domestic violence. Cable denied the accusations but did admit to slapping his wife some 30 years earlier, and the civil suit would eventually be settled. Raiders owner Al Davis cited both the incident with the assistant and the allegations from former partners in his decision to fire Cable.

4. Lane Kiffin

Paul Sakuma / AP Photo

Record: 5-15 (.250 W-L%)

Career: 2 seasons (2007-08)

Teams coached: Oakland Raiders

Bottom line: One only has to look at the image of Raiders owner Al Davis’ press conference in which he announced the firing of Kiffin to see just how negatively the owner thought of his former coach. Davis, then 79 years old, busted out a projector akin to a PowerPoint presentation that detailed every one of Kiffin’s transgressions during his 20 games as Raiders coach. Davis called Kiffin “a flat-out liar” and said he was guilty of “bringing disgrace to the organization”.

As for Kiffin’s coaching ability, he left much to be desired. He’s also pointed to for the lack of development of JaMarcus Russell, who was drafted first overall in Kiffin’s first season. At 32, Kiffin became the youngest head coach in NFL history to coach a game, and at 33, Kiffin became the youngest head coach in NFL history to be fired.

3. Hue Jackson

Joe Mahoney / AP Photo

Record: 11-44-1 (.205 W-L%)

Career: 4 seasons (2011, 2016-18)

Teams coached: Oakland Raiders, Cleveland Browns

Bottom line: Jackson’s winning percentage is the second-lowest in league history and the worst since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. His tenure actually started off rather well, as he went 8-8 in his lone year with the Raiders, which was the franchise’s best record in nine years. But a new regime in Oakland got rid of him after one year, and he would surface five years later in Cleveland.

With the Browns, Jackson set numerous marks for futility, including a 0-16 season and another 0-14 start to another season. The Browns never won a road game under Jackson, and he burned bridges on the way out of Cleveland, saying he never had a problem with QB Baker Mayfield as a player. Jackson emphasized “the player” part, thus implying he had a problem with the former No. 1 overall pick as a person.

2. Bobby Petrino

John Bazemore / AP Photo

Record: 3-10 (.231 W-L%)

Career: 1 season (2007)

Teams coached: Atlanta Falcons

Bottom line: In July 2006, Petrino signed a 10-year contract extension with the University of Louisville. Six months later, he joined the Atlanta Falcons, so there’s that. Then, there’s Michael Vick’s dogfighting situation that came to light just months after Petrino joined Atlanta, meaning he spent the entire 2007 season with many backups at QB.

As you would expect, Atlanta struggled mightily, but Petrino said he was in for the long haul. He personally told the team owner exactly that and just 24 hours he reneged again and resigned to become the coach of the University of Arkansas. Petrino didn’t even have enough dignity to address his team before departing, as he simply left a four-sentence note in each player’s locker. His 13-game tenure as head coach is tied for the shortest in NFL history.

1. Urban Meyer

John McCoy / AP Photo

Record: 2-11 (.154 W-L%)

Career: 1 season (2021)

Teams coached: Jacksonville Jaguars

Bottom line: After 30 years as a college coach, Urban Meyer landed his first NFL job, and it was an unmitigated disaster from start to finish. To begin, he signed his neighbor Tim Tebow and tried to convert him to a tight-end position that he had never played before. Then during OTAs, Meyer incurred a $100,000 fine for violating league-mandated practice rules.

Then, once the season actually began, Meyer was photographed at a bar getting what amounted to a lapdance from someone who was not his wife. The video was taken just one day after his Jaguars lost a road game in Cincinnati, and Meyer elected to stay in Ohio rather than fly with his team back to Jacksonville. Also, all during the season, Meyer seemed out of touch with the NFL, even apparently not knowing much about Aaron Donald and asking a staffer, “Who’s this 99 guy for the Rams?”

There’s also various reports of Meyer publicly humiliating and/or challenging his assistant coaches and veteran players, him kicking the team’s kicker and him making players play through injury. After winning just two of the team’s first 13 games, Meyer was fired from his first, and undoubtedly last, NFL coaching job.