The Kansas City Chiefs entered the AFL in the 1960 season as the Dallas Texans and eventually becoming the Kansas City Chiefs in 1963. Since the Chiefs entered the football scene, they've had their fair share of incredible head coaches but have also had some head coaches that fans wish they could forget.
The Chiefs have had 13 head coaches dating back to the 1960 season with the most notable names being Andy Reid, Hank Stram, and Marty Schottenheimer. Who are the other names that people might have forgotten about?
Every Kansas City Chiefs head coach in team history
Name (Tenure with KC) | Record with KC (Winning Percentage) | Playoff record with KC (Winning Percentage) |
|---|---|---|
Hank Stram (1960-1974) | 124-76-10 (.619) | 5-3 (.625) |
Paul Wiggin (1975-1977) | 11-24 (.314) | N/A |
Tom Bettis (1977) | 1-6 (.143) | N/A |
Marv Levy (1978-1982) | 31-42 (.425) | N/A |
John Mackovic (1983-1986) | 30-34 (.469) | 0-1 (.000) |
Frank Gansz (1987-1988) | 8-22-1 (.274) | N/A |
Marty Schottenheimer (1989-1998) | 101-58-1 (.634) | 3-7 (.300) |
Gunther Cunningham (1999-2000) | 16-16 (.500) | N/A |
Dick Vermeil (2001-2005) | 44-36 (.550) | 0-1 (.000) |
Herm Edwards (2006-2008) | 15-33 (.313) | 0-1 (.000) |
Todd Haley (2009-2011) | 19-26 (.422) | 0-1 (.000) |
Romeo Crennel (2011-2012) | 4-15 (.211) | N/A |
Andy Reid (2013-Present) | 128-51 (.715) | 16-7 (.696) |
Hank Stram
The first coach in franchise history was the great Hank Stram, who coached the Chiefs from 1960 to 1974. Under Stram's tutelage, the Chiefs won two AFL Championships and one Super Bowl title. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003. Before Andy Reid and the Chiefs went on to win three Super Bowl titles, Stram was the unquestioned best coach in franchise history.
Paul Wiggin
Following Stram's departure from Kansas City, the team had to find the second-ever head coach and landed on Paul Wiggin, who had been serving as the defensive line coach of the San Francisco 49ers. Unfortunately, Wiggin was not successful in Kansas City, winning just 11 games before he was canned in 1977.
Tom Bettis
Following the firing of Paul Wiggin, the Chiefs named Tom Bettis interim head coach in 1977. Bettis had previously served as the defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator during his time with the Chiefs organization. He didn't do well in the interim role, as the Chiefs went a lackluster 1-6 with him at the helm.
Marv Levy
The Chiefs hired Marv Levy to be their head coach in 1978, hoping that he could get them back to being contenders. While he wasn't as bad as his predecessors, Levy only notched a winning record once during his four seasons in Kansas City. Chiefs fans weren't exactly thrilled, however, when he went on to have tremendous success in Buffalo, leading the Bills to four straight Super Bowls in the early 1990s.
John Mackovic
John Mackovic was hired by KC in 1983 and he spent four years as the head coach of the Chiefs. The 1980s were not a good decade for the Chiefs but Mackovic did manage to tally one winning season during his tenure. The Chiefs went 10-6 in 1986 but lost in the first round of the playoffs. Mackovic was fired at the end of the season despite reaching the playoffs for the first time in 15 years.
Frank Gansz
The next head coach for the Chiefs was Frank Gansz, who the team hired in 1987. He only spent two years running the show in Kansas City and failed to do much of anything, winning just eight games during his two seasons in charge.
Marty Schottenheimer
One of the best head coaches in franchise history was hired after Gansz was fired, as the Chiefs brought in Marty Schottenheimer to help turn the ship around. The Chiefs were a bad football team in the 1980s but Schottenheimer immediately turned them around.
Under Schottenheimer's tutelage, the Chiefs had a winning record in all but one season, which ended up being his last season as the head coach in KC. Schottenheimer led the Chiefs to the playoffs in seven of his 10 seasons but the problem was always that his teams couldn't win games whenever the postseason arrived, winning just three playoff games in the Schottenheimer era.
Gunther Cunningham
After Schottenheimer resigned, the Chiefs had some big shoes to fill at the head coach spot and ultimately settled on Gunther Cunningham, who served as the team's defensive coordinator during the Schottenheimer era. Cunningham's Chiefs went 9-7 during his first year but then dropped to 7-9 the following year. This was enough for the Chiefs to hand him his walking papers.
Dick Vermeil
The Chiefs were thrilled to pry Dick Vermeil out of retirement considering he had won a Super Bowl with the Rams a few years prior. It took the Chiefs a few years to win under Vermeil but in his third year on the job, they went 13-3 behind an explosive offense. Unfortunately, they fizzled out in the first round of the playoffs in the infamous "No Punt Game". He retired following the 2005 season.
Herm Edwards
With Vermeil retired, the Chiefs needed to find a new head coach and decided to bring in Herm Edwards, who was fresh off a head coaching stint with the Jets. The Edwards experiment started off on a decent enough note with the Chiefs reaching the playoffs with a 9-7 record. The Chiefs got worse every year under Edwards' guidance though and a franchise-worst 2-14 record in 2008 was enough to send him packing after three years.
Todd Haley
Todd Haley rose to fame as the offensive coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals in 2007 and 2008 and helping them get to the Super Bowl in the 2008 season. That success led to the Chiefs hiring him as their next head coach. Haley's first year left little to be desired but the Chiefs won the AFC West in the 2010 season, which got fans excited and thinking Haley could be a mainstay as the head coach.
Unfortunately, the 2011 season got away from KC and Haley was given his walking papers after a blowout loss to the Jets. He never got another head coaching opportunity again in the NFL but served as the Steelers offensive coordinator for six years after he was fired by the Chiefs. Sometimes guys are great coordinators but terrible head coaches and that was clearly the case with Todd Haley.
Romeo Crennel
Since Haley was fired during the season, the Chiefs had to name an interim head coach to fill his shoes for the rest of the 2011 season. They went with Romeo Crennel, who had been serving as their defensive coordinator up until that point. Crennel impressed during his short time in the head coaching role in 2011 that the Chiefs hired him to remain in the role for 2012.
This ended up being a huge mistake, as the Chiefs went just 2-14 with Crennel at the helm. It was tied for the worst season in franchise history record-wise but for those who were fans during both the 2008 and 2012 seasons, the 2012 season was leaps and bounds worse than that 2008 season. Crennel was promptly fired following the conclusion of the 2012 season and we all know what happened next.
Andy Reid
After 14 years leading the way with the Philadelphia Eagles, Andy Reid was fired and the Chiefs immediately tried their best to sway him into coming to Kansas City. Their efforts worked and the rest is history.
Reid immediately turned the Chiefs into a winning franchise and the team has missed the playoffs just one time since he came to Kansas City in 2013. While the postseason problems still lingered during his first five years with the team, Patrick Mahomes changed everything for Big Red. He finally had a quarterback that he could unleash and trust to run his system and it's made all the difference.
As soon as Reid won his first Super Bowl in the 2019 season, he became a lock for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That didn't stop him from adding to his trophy collection, adding two more Super Bowls in the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
At one point, Andy Reid was second and even third on the list of best head coaches in Chiefs history but he's easily cemented himself as the best coach in franchise history. It's not even a contest at this point.