In Week 1, the Los Angeles Rams became the first team in NFL history to record two interception-return touchdowns and a safety in their season-opener. It was a big coming-out party for the new-look Rams and their 3-4 scheme, coordinated by one of the greatest assistant coaches in NFL history: Wade Phillips. Week 2 didn't go quite as swimmingly, but it's clear that Phillips has had a significant impact on the team -- and very quickly.
Phillips' record as a head coach is not as bad as you think: 82-64, with five playoff appearances. But it is as a defensive coordinator that he is legendary. His ferocious pass rushes were part of playoff teams from San Diego to Dallas to Houston. In the greatest years of his career, he ran one of the greatest defenses in history for the Denver Broncos and dragged a depleted Peyton Manning to a Super Bowl title.
We wanted to pay tribute to Phillips and the other great coordinators who move from team to team, building strong units wherever they go. So we looked at our DVOA ratings from the past 25 years to determine which coordinators had the best historical record. (DVOA, or Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, is explained here.)
We set some ground rules to make sure we didn't end up with coordinators who were good only because of the players they had at one stop. Coordinators had to work for at least three franchises, and we removed those who ranked well solely because of one team. (Monte Kiffin is a good example; his Tampa defenses were legendary, but he had poor one-year stops with the 1995 Saints and 2013 Cowboys.)
Also, we're looking here only at coordinators when they served as coordinators. Sometimes head coaches also fill their own coordinator roles, but we left out years in which he filled only the head-coach job So no Dom Capers in Carolina or Josh McDaniels in Denver, though we do mention some of those performances in our commentary. Our rundown begins with defense instead of offense so we can start with the Son of Bum.
Defense
1. Wade Phillips
Tenure: 16 years, average rank 11.6
Teams coached: 1992 Broncos, 1995-97 Bills, 2002-03 Falcons, 2004-06 Chargers, 2009-10 Cowboys, 2011-13 Texans, 2015-16 Broncos, 2017 Rams
Nobody rebuilds a defense like Wade Phillips. His record is not just one of good defense, but of improved defense. He took the Falcons defense from 26th to 12th in 2001. He took the Chargers defense from 30th to 13th in 2003. And he took the Texans defense -- with some help from rookie J.J. Watt, of course -- from 31st to sixth in 2010. Then he took the Broncos to No. 1 in our defensive rankings in both 2015 and 2016.
And Phillips' record looks even better if we extend our analysis past just 25 years. From 1986-88 with the Eagles and 1989-91 with the Broncos, he coordinated five top-five defenses in six seasons.
2. Dom Capers
Tenure: 14 years, average rank 12.6
Teams coached: 1992-94 Steelers, 1999-2000 Jaguars, 2007 Dolphins, 2009-present Packers
Capers' Packers defenses have been extremely inconsistent, going from second in DVOA in 2009 and 2010 to 25th in 2011 and then back to eighth in 2012. His Steelers defenses were stronger, ranking first overall in both 1993 and 1994. Capers also has seven years as a head coach, with Vic Fangio as his defensive coordinator, which are not included in the average rank above. His Panthers had the remarkable accomplishment of ranking fifth in defensive DVOA as a 1995 expansion team, but the Texans had below-average defense in all four of the years Capers and Fangio were there.
3. Romeo Crennel
Tenure: 11 years, average rank 13.4
Teams coached: 2000 Browns, 2001-04 Patriots, 2010-12 Chiefs, 2014-present Texans
Crennel was in charge of four years of above-average Patriots defense, peaking at No. 2 in 2003 and winning three Super Bowl championships. His Houston defenses have all ranked in the top 10. His Chiefs defenses were closer to average, as were his Browns defenses when he was a head coach there from 2005-08.
4. Mike Nolan
Tenure: 17 years, average rank 13.9
Teams coached: 1993-96 Giants, 1997-99 Redskins, 2000 Jets, 2002-04 Ravens, 2009 Broncos, 2010-11 Dolphins, 2012-14 Falcons
Nolan's best years were mostly with the Ravens, but not entirely. The Jets ranked fourth in defensive DVOA in 2000, and Nolan defenses ranked between seventh and 12th for four straight years from 2009 to 2012. However, his Falcons defenses were among the worst in the league in 2013 and 2014. He's now linebackers coach in New Orleans and could get another coordinator job at some point.
5. Jim Schwartz
Tenure: 10 years, average rank 14.0
Teams coached: 2001-08 Titans, 2014 Bills, 2016-present Eagles
Schwartz's defenses oscillated between average and poor in his first six years with the Titans, then suddenly put it all together and ranked No. 1 in defensive DVOA in 2007. His record since then is fantastic (following a sojourn as head coach in Detroit). He ran the No. 2 defense in Buffalo in 2014, and the No. 4 defense in Philadelphia last season.
Offense
1. Al Saunders
Tenure: 9 years, average rank 9.9
Teams coached: 2001-05 Chiefs, 2006-07 Redskins, 2008 Rams, 2011 Raiders
This is primarily about the fabulous mid-'00s Chiefs, with Trent Green, Priest Holmes and Tony Gonzalez. They ranked in the top five in offensive DVOA for five straight seasons. However, Saunders' Rams offense in 2008 ranked dead last; his other three offenses as a coordinator were close to average. Saunders also has a number of seasons with the title of "Senior Offensive Assistant," which we aren't counting here. Those are mostly about building young offenses such as the 2012-2014 Raiders and the current Browns, so the performance isn't great.
2. Ernie Zampese
Tenure: 8 years, average rank 11.4
Teams coached: 1992-93 Rams, 1994-97 Cowboys, 1998-99 Patriots
The greatest progenitor of the "Air Coryell" offense after Don Coryell himself, Zampese led the Cowboys to No. 3 and No. 1 finishes in offensive DVOA in 1994 and 1995 after replacing another Coryell disciple, Norv Turner. Zampese also led the Rams to No. 3 finishes in 1988 and 1989, though they aren't counted in the average above. The only Zampese offense since 1989 that ranked 20th or worse in DVOA was the 1999 Patriots, at No. 22.
3. Cam Cameron
Tenure: 11 years, average rank 11.7
Teams coached: 2002-06 Chargers, 2007 Dolphins, 2008-12 Ravens
Though he hasn't coached in the NFL since 2012, he's still well-respected by coaches at that level; you might remember Rex Ryan referring to a pass route as a "Cam route" during the Week 1 Broncos-Chargers broadcast because Cameron used it so much. Cameron's Chargers offenses peaked at No. 2 in 2006; his Ravens offenses were mostly above average despite having a young Joe Flacco at quarterback and an unimpressive wide receiver corps.
4. Charlie Weis
Tenure: 9 years, average rank 12.0
Teams coached: 1997-99 Jets, 2000-04 Patriots, 2010 Chiefs
You know about the offense Weis ran with Tom Brady, but remember that he also had the 2010 Chiefs at No. 13 in offensive DVOA with Matt Cassel at quarterback, and the 1998 Jets at No. 5 in offensive DVOA despite three starts from Glenn Foley.
5. Rob Chudzinski
Tenure: 5 years, average rank 13.0
Teams coached: 2007-08 Browns, 2011-12 Panthers, 2016-present Colts
Look, there's only so much the guy can do with Scott Tolzien, but Chudzinski coached the 2007 Browns to a No. 10 finish in offensive DVOA with Derek Anderson as the starting quarterback. He also built a dynamic, modern running offense around a rookie Cam Newton and the 2011 Panthers that ranked fourth in offensive DVOA.
Special teams
1. Scott O'Brien
Tenure: 18 years, average rank 8.8
Teams coached: 1992-95 Browns, 1996-98 Ravens, 1999-2001 Panthers, 2007-08 Broncos, 2009-14 Patriots
Thirteen of these 18 units ranked in the top 10 of our special-teams DVOA ratings. O'Brien led the No. 1 special-teams unit with both the 1994 Browns and 1999 Panthers, and his last four Patriots units all ranked fifth or higher. He's now semi-retired and working for New England as an area scout.
2. Jerry Rosburg
Tenure: 16 years, average rank 10.0
Teams coached: 2001-06 Browns, 2007 Falcons, 2008-present Ravens
The Ravens have ranked in the top four of our special teams rankings in six of the past seven seasons, including ranking No. 1 in both 2012 and 2015. Rosburg's record with the Browns was not as strong overall, but the Browns were above average in five of his six seasons there. They were eighth in 2005 and sixth in 2006.
3. Pete Rodriguez
Tenure: 15 years, average rank 10.7
Teams coached: 1992-93 Cardinals, 1994-97 Redskins, 1998-2003 Seahawks, 2004-06 Jaguars
Rodriguez's special-teams units ranked in the top 10 of DVOA for eight of the nine years between 1992 and 2000, even though Rodriguez bounced from Phoenix to Washington to Seattle. He also led top-10 units for the Raiders in 1988 and 1989. However, Rodriguez's units were not as strong in the last part of his career, ranking between 13th and 19th in his final five seasons. Rodriguez passed away in 2014.
4. Brad Seely
Tenure: 24 years, average rank 10.8
Teams coached: 1992-93 Colts, 1994 Jets, 1995-98 Panthers, 1999-2008 Patriots, 2009-10 Browns, 2011-14 49ers, 2015-present Raiders
Nobody is a special-teams lifer quite like Brad Seely, who has been a special-teams coordinator in the NFL for every single season since 1989. Seely hasn't had a streak of strong units like the coaches listed above him, but he has rarely had a bad unit, either; the 2014 San Francisco 49ers are the only Seely unit to rank below 20th in DVOA. Seely led the No. 1 special teams for the 1996 Panthers and then again for the 2009 Browns. In between, his Patriots units were above average for his entire 10-year tenure.
5. Joe DeCamillis
Tenure: 24 years, average rank 12.8
Teams coached: 1993-96 Giants, 1997-2006 Falcons, 2007-08 Jaguars, 2009-12 Cowboys, 2013-14 Bears, 2015-16 Broncos, 2017 Jaguars
Another special-teams lifer, DeCamillis got his first special-teams coordinator job with the 1993 Giants. He's now been a coordinator for 25 straight years, back for a second round with the Jaguars. However, DeCamillis' record is far better in the early part of his career than in the past decade. From 1993 through 2005, DeCamillis had above-average special teams with an average DVOA rank of 7.7 every single season. However, beginning with the 2006 Falcons, DeCamillis has not run a single unit that ranked in the top 10, and the average rank is 18.7.
Note: Dave Toub, whose work was highlighted in this June article, isn't listed above because he has coordinated special teams for only two franchises, Chicago (2004-2012) and Kansas City (2013-present). However, the average rank of his units is a phenomenal 5.5, and he has run a top-10 special-teams unit for 11 straight years.