In this series, I will be looking at the history of coaches, quarterbacks, rushers, and receivers for all 32 franchises. For coaches and quarterbacks, I will be looking at how much their franchise’s career records (regular season only) would change if we removed the games with that person. For rushers and receivers, I will note how many times that player was the team’s leading rusher/receiver over the course of their time with that franchise (regular plus postseason).
Previous Teams:
AFC East: Dolphins, Bills, Jets, and Patriots
NFC East: Cowboys, Eagles, Giants, and Redskins
AFC North: Steelers, Browns, Ravens, and Bengals
NFC North: Packers, Vikings, Bears, and Lions
AFC South: Jaguars, Colts, Texans, and Titans
NFC South: Panthers, Falcons, Saints
The Tampa Bay Bucs have only had two coaches with a winning record in franchise history. Jon Gruden won the team’s lone Super Bowl, of course, but otherwise he isn’t too interesting to analyze: he went 57-55 as the team’s head coach.
That leaves Tony Dungy, clearly the best regular season coach in the history of the franchise. Under Dungy, Tampa Bay won 56% of their games; without him, the Bucs have won just 36% of their games. During his 6 seasons, the Bucs were tied for the 9th-best record in the league; in the previous six years, Tampa Bay won just one out of every three games, making them one of the league’s worst teams. But with Dungy, the more interesting question is did he do his best work here or with the Colts? Dungy had a better record in Indianapolis and coached there longer, but he certainly had a tougher task considering what he inherited at both spots. By this analysis, it’s almost perfectly even: Dungy improved the Colts’ all-time winning percentage by 3.0%, and he improved Tampa Bay’s mark by 2.9%. Dungy is the only coach to improve two teams by such a large amount; Don Shula is the only other head coach to improve two teams by at least two percent, and for him, the Colts were also his other team (Andy Reid ranks third by this metric; he improved the Eagles by 2.1% and the Chiefs by 1.8% so far). How bad have the Bucs coaches been? Dirk Koetter ranks as the third-best both by this metric and overall winning percentage, two facts I can’t wrap my head around. [continue reading…]