Which NFL coach has the biggest coaching tree?
Andy Reid has produced the most NFL head coaches since 1999: ten of his assistants went on to run a team, one more than Jon Gruden and Bill Belichick. Brian Billick’s tree runs deepest, with 21 second-generation head coaches, and Reid’s protégés have won the most games. Belichick’s nine branches have the worst record of any big tree, 189-282-2.
- 10of Andy Reid’s assistants have become NFL head coaches, the most of anyone since 1999
- 21second-generation head coaches in Brian Billick’s tree, the deepest in the league
- .402win percentage of Bill Belichick’s nine protégés as head coaches, against his own .671
- 93of the 147 head coaches since 1999 have produced at least one head coach
Based on 690 team-season coaching staffs from 1999 through the 2026 season, covering 147 head coaches, with each team’s regular-season record joined on. Explore the live data.
Which NFL head coaches have the biggest coaching trees?
Andy Reid leads with ten assistants who became NFL head coaches, from Brad Childress in 2006 to David Culley in 2021. Jon Gruden and Bill Belichick have nine each; Brian Billick, John Fox and Mike Nolan have seven. Reid’s branches have also won the most games, 552 in the regular season.
| Head coach | Branches | 2nd gen | Own record | Branches’ record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andy Reid | 10 | 17 | 233-124 (.653) | 552-505-4 (.522) |
| Jon Gruden | 9 | 14 | 84-92 (.477) | 447-417-3 (.517) |
| Bill Belichick | 9 | 10 | 163-80 (.671) | 189-282-2 (.402) |
| Brian Billick | 7 | 21 | 62-50 (.554) | 298-292-2 (.505) |
| John Fox | 7 | 11 | 123-101 (.549) | 210-295 (.416) |
| Mike Nolan | 7 | 9 | 23-41 (.359) | 202-201-1 (.501) |
| Gary Kubiak | 6 | 3 | 72-72 (.500) | 233-234-1 (.499) |
| Sean McVay | 6 | 2 | 92-57 (.617) | 227-190-2 (.544) |
| Mike Shanahan | 5 | 9 | 13-19 (.406) | 304-228-1 (.571) |
| Marvin Lewis | 5 | 7 | 98-76-2 (.563) | 144-189-4 (.433) |
| Mike McCarthy | 5 | 7 | 115-80-1 (.589) | 120-139-1 (.463) |
Three of the eleven never had a winning record themselves. Mike Nolan went 23-41 in San Francisco and still sent seven assistants on to head-coaching jobs, and the two Washington seasons on Mike Shanahan’s staff that the tables cover produced five more. Producing head coaches and winning games are different skills.
Whose NFL coaching tree runs the deepest?
Brian Billick’s. His seven Baltimore assistants who became head coaches went on to produce 21 head coaches of their own, more second-generation branches than any other tree. Andy Reid’s tree has 17, Jon Gruden’s and Al Groh’s 14 each.
| Head coach | Branches | Second generation | Branches’ record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brian Billick | 7 | 21 | 298-292-2 (.505) |
| Andy Reid | 10 | 17 | 552-505-4 (.522) |
| Jon Gruden | 9 | 14 | 447-417-3 (.517) |
| Al Groh | 14 | ||
| John Fox | 7 | 11 | 210-295 (.416) |
Billick’s depth comes from two branches in particular: Marvin Lewis, whose Cincinnati staffs produced five head coaches, and Mike Nolan, whose San Francisco staffs produced seven. Al Groh ran the Jets for one season, 2000, and his tree is almost entirely second generation.
Who came out of Andy Reid’s coaching tree?
Ten head coaches, in two waves. Five came from his Philadelphia staffs of 1999 to 2006 and took jobs between 2006 and 2017, including John Harbaugh, Ron Rivera and Sean McDermott; four more came from his Kansas City staffs after 2012, including Doug Pederson and Matt Nagy. Harbaugh is the best of them at 136-93 over 14 seasons in Baltimore.
| Branch | On Reid’s staff as | First HC job | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brad Childress | position coach, OC | 2006 | 42-38 (.525) |
| John Harbaugh | ST coordinator, position coach | 2012 | 136-93 (.594) |
| Leslie Frazier | position coach | 2012 | 15-16-1 (.484) |
| Pat Shurmur | QB coach, position coach | 2012 | 14-34 (.292) |
| Ron Rivera | position coach | 2012 | 96-97-2 (.497) |
| Doug Pederson | OC, QB coach | 2016 | 64-66-1 (.492) |
| Todd Bowles | DC | 2016 | 49-67 (.422) |
| Sean McDermott | position coach | 2017 | 98-50 (.662) |
| Matt Nagy | QB coach, OC | 2018 | 34-31 (.523) |
| David Culley | position coach | 2021 | 4-13 (.235) |
Together the ten are 552-505-4 as head coaches, a .522 clip against Reid’s own .653. The years shown are the seasons each was on a Reid staff before his first head-coaching job; several, like Childress and Nagy, came back to Kansas City afterwards.
How have Bill Belichick’s assistants done as head coaches?
Badly, by the standard of his own 163-80. His nine branches are a combined 189-282-2 as head coaches, a .402 win percentage that is the worst of any tree with five or more branches. The best of them, Bill O’Brien, finished exactly .500 in Houston; none of the other eight has a winning record.
| Branch | On Belichick’s staff as | First HC job | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Romeo Crennel | DC | 2005 | 10-22 (.313) |
| Eric Mangini | position coach | 2006 | 28-36 (.438) |
| Josh McDaniels | OC, position coach | 2009 | 26-40 (.394) |
| Bill O’Brien | position coach, OC | 2014 | 56-56 (.500) |
| Matt Patricia | DC, position coach | 2018 | 9-22-1 (.297) |
| Brian Flores | position coach | 2019 | 24-25 (.490) |
| Joe Judge | position coach, ST coordinator | 2020 | 10-23 (.303) |
| Brian Daboll | position coach | 2022 | 22-45-1 (.331) |
| Jerod Mayo | position coach | 2024 | 4-13 (.235) |
Jon Gruden is the mirror image: a .477 head coach whose nine branches are above .500, because they include Mike Tomlin (181-110-2), Sean McVay (92-57) and Kyle Shanahan (82-67). The report shows every tree’s own record beside its branches’ record so the two can be compared for any coach.
Where did Sean McVay come from, and who has come from him?
McVay was a position coach under Jon Gruden in Tampa Bay in 2008 and under Mike Shanahan in Washington in 2012 and 2013, then Jay Gruden’s offensive coordinator. Since taking the Rams job in 2017 he has produced six head coaches of his own, led by Matt LaFleur at 76-40-1 in Green Bay, which makes his the eighth-biggest tree in the league after only nine seasons.
| Branch | On McVay’s staff as | First HC job | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matt LaFleur | OC | 2019 | 76-40-1 (.654) |
| Zac Taylor | position coach, QB coach | 2019 | 52-63-1 (.453) |
| Brandon Staley | DC | 2021 | 24-27 (.471) |
| Kevin O’Connell | OC | 2022 | 43-25 (.632) |
| Raheem Morris | DC | 2024 | 19-31 (.380) |
| Liam Coen | position coach, QB coach | 2025 | 13-4 (.765) |
Those two Washington seasons under Mike Shanahan are the most productive staff in the data for their size: Kyle Shanahan, McVay, LaFleur, Mike McDaniel and Raheem Morris were all on it, and all five went on to run a team. The report draws the coaches a head coach came up under to the left of his tree, so a click moves up a generation.
Whose coaching tree has won the most?
Andy Reid’s branches have 552 regular-season wins between them, more than a hundred clear of Jon Gruden’s 447. Among trees whose branches have coached 100 or more games, Mike Tomlin’s protégés have the best win percentage at .624, followed by Anthony Lynn’s at .618 and Bill Callahan’s at .612.
| Head coach | Branches | Branches’ wins | Branches’ record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andy Reid | 10 | 552 | 552-505-4 (.522) |
| Jon Gruden | 9 | 447 | 447-417-3 (.517) |
| Mike Shanahan | 5 | 304 | 304-228-1 (.571) |
| Brian Billick | 7 | 298 | 298-292-2 (.505) |
| Jim Fassel | 277 |
Win totals favour long tenures: Reid’s include John Harbaugh’s 14 seasons and Ron Rivera’s 12. The win-percentage list, which needs only 100 games, rewards a small tree with one or two good branches, which is why Tomlin and Lynn lead it.
How was this measured?
Coaching staffs come from Wikipedia’s team-season articles (CC BY-SA), 1999 to the current season, using the final listed staff for each team-season, so interim head coaches and mid-season moves are approximate. Team records come from the nflverse schedule and are regular season only; the 2026 season is in progress.
A branch is any coach listed on a head coach’s staff in a coaching role (coordinator, position coach, quarterbacks or another coordinator) who later held an NFL head-coaching job in a season after the first season they shared. It does not count front-office, strength or college jobs, and it does not know who actually mentored whom. Anyone who came up before 1999 is only seen from 1999 on, which is why a few long-serving coaches show short own records.
The data lives in a Power BI semantic model on Microsoft Fabric. Every number on this page was produced by an AI assistant running the report’s own query against that model, and the same model powers the live public report.
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