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 1932 as the Boston Braves, named after the local baseball franchise. [1] The franchise changed its name the following year to the Redskins and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1937. [1] In 2020, the team retired the Redskins name after longstanding controversies surrounding it and briefly played as the Washington Football Team before becoming the Commanders in 2022. [1]
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. [2] Two different coaches have won NFL championships with the team: Ray Flaherty in 1937 and 1942, and Joe Gibbs in 1982, 1987 and 1991. [3] Gibbs is the all-time leader in games coached and wins, and Dudley DeGroot leads all coaches in winning percentage with .737. [4] Of all the coaches, seven have been elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Flaherty, Turk Edwards, Curly Lambeau, Otto Graham, Vince Lombardi, George Allen, and Gibbs. [5]
# | Number of coaches [lower-alpha 1] |
GC | Games coached |
W | Wins |
L | Loses |
T | Ties |
Win % | 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 |
# | Image | Name | Term | Regular season | Playoffs | Awards | Reference | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GC | W | L | T | Win% | GC | W | L | |||||||||||
Boston Braves | ||||||||||||||||||
1 | Lud Wray | 1932 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 2 | .500 | – | [6] | |||||||||
Boston Redskins | ||||||||||||||||||
2 | Lone Star Dietz* [lower-alpha 2] | 1933–1934* | 24 | 11 | 11 | 2 | .500 | – | [7] | |||||||||
3 | Eddie Casey* | 1935* | 11 | 2 | 8 | 1 | .200 | – | [8] | |||||||||
Washington Redskins | ||||||||||||||||||
4 | Ray Flaherty † | 1936–1942 | 78 | 54 | 21 | 3 | .720 | 4 | 2 | 2 | [9] | |||||||
5 | Dutch Bergman* | 1943* | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | .667 | 2 | 1 | 1 | [10] | |||||||
6 | Dudley DeGroot* [lower-alpha 3] | 1944–1945* | 20 | 14 | 5 | 1 | .737 | 1 | 0 | 1 | [4] | |||||||
7 | Turk Edwards* ‡ | 1946–1948* | 35 | 16 | 18 | 1 | .471 | – | [11] | |||||||||
8 | John Whelchel* [lower-alpha 4] | 1949* | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | .500 | – | [12] | |||||||||
9 | Herman Ball* [lower-alpha 5] | 1949–1951* | 20 | 4 | 16 | 0 | .200 | – | [13] | |||||||||
10 | Dick Todd* | 1951* | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | .556 | – | [14] | |||||||||
11 | Curly Lambeau † | 1952–1953 | 24 | 10 | 13 | 1 | .435 | – | [15] | |||||||||
12 | Joe Kuharich | 1954–1958 | 60 | 26 | 32 | 2 | .448 | – | Sporting News Coach of the Year (1955) UPI NFL Coach of the Year (1955) [16] | [17] | ||||||||
13 | Mike Nixon | 1959–1960 | 24 | 4 | 18 | 2 | .182 | – | [18] | |||||||||
14 | Bill McPeak* | 1961–1965* | 70 | 21 | 46 | 3 | .313 | – | [19] | |||||||||
15 | Otto Graham* ‡ | 1966–1968* | 42 | 17 | 22 | 3 | .436 | – | [20] | |||||||||
16 | Vince Lombardi † [lower-alpha 6] | 1969 | 14 | 7 | 5 | 2 | .583 | – | [21] | |||||||||
17 | Bill Austin | 1970 | 14 | 6 | 8 | 0 | .429 | – | [22] | |||||||||
18 | George Allen † | 1971–1977 | 98 | 67 | 30 | 1 | .691 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 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) [16] | [23] | ||||||
19 | Jack Pardee | 1978–1980 | 48 | 24 | 24 | 0 | .500 | – | AP Coach of the Year (1979) UPI NFC Coach of the Year (1979) | [24] | ||||||||
20 | Joe Gibbs* [lower-alpha 7] | 1981–1992* | 184 | 124 | 60 | 0 | .674 | 21 | 16 | 5 | 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) [16] | [2] | ||||||
21 | Richie Petitbon* | 1993* | 16 | 4 | 12 | 0 | .250 | – | [25] | |||||||||
22 | Norv Turner | 1994–2000 | 109 | 49 | 59 | 1 | .454 | 2 | 1 | 1 | [26] | |||||||
23 | Terry Robiskie [lower-alpha 8] | 2000 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | .333 | – | [27] | |||||||||
24 | Marty Schottenheimer | 2001 | 16 | 8 | 8 | 0 | .500 | – | [28] | |||||||||
25 | Steve Spurrier* | 2002–2003* | 32 | 12 | 20 | 0 | .375 | – | [29] | |||||||||
– | Joe Gibbs* [lower-alpha 7] | 2004–2007* | 64 | 30 | 34 | 0 | .469 | 3 | 1 | 2 | [2] | |||||||
26 | Jim Zorn* | 2008–2009* | 32 | 12 | 20 | 0 | .375 | – | [30] | |||||||||
27 | Mike Shanahan | 2010–2013 | 64 | 24 | 40 | 0 | .375 | 1 | 0 | 1 | [31] | |||||||
28 | Jay Gruden* [lower-alpha 9] | 2014–2019 | 85 | 35 | 49 | 1 | .418 | 1 | 0 | 1 | [32] | |||||||
29 | Bill Callahan | 2019 | 11 | 3 | 8 | 0 | .273 | 0 | 0 | 0 | [33] | |||||||
Washington Football Team / Commanders | ||||||||||||||||||
30 | Ron Rivera | 2020–2023 | 67 | 26 | 40 | 1 | .396 | 1 | 0 | 1 | George Halas Award (2022) | [34] | ||||||
Washington Commanders | ||||||||||||||||||
31 | Dan Quinn | 2024–present | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 | 0 | 0 | [35] |
The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays its home games at Commanders Field in Landover, Maryland; its headquarters and training facility are in Ashburn, Virginia. The team has played more than 1,000 games and is one of only five in the NFL with more than 600 total wins. Washington was among the first NFL franchises with a fight song: "Hail to the Commanders", played by their marching band after every touchdown scored by the team at home. The Commanders are owned by a group managed by Josh Harris, who acquired the team from Daniel Snyder in 2023 for $6.05 billion.
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