Ethical Sports Takes

As a Chiefs fan, there was absolutely no way Big Red was being left off this list.

Andy Reid has been one of the greatest offensive minds the NFL has ever seen, but his greatness goes far beyond Patrick Mahomes, Super Bowl rings, and the dynasty he eventually built in Kansas City. Reid has been winning football games for nearly three decades, across different eras, with different quarterbacks, different rosters, and two completely different franchises.

Before Big Red Became a Head Coach

Before becoming a head coach, Reid spent years learning and developing his offensive philosophy. His coaching career began at BYU before taking him through several college programs. At San Francisco State, he worked as an offensive line coach and offensive coordinator, helping an offense that led the nation in passing and total offense for three consecutive seasons.

His NFL opportunity eventually came with the Green Bay Packers under Mike Holmgren. Reid spent seven seasons in Green Bay, initially working with the offensive line and tight ends before becoming Brett Favre’s quarterbacks coach. He was part of a Packers organization that reached consecutive Super Bowls and won Super Bowl XXXI.

Then, in 1999, the Philadelphia Eagles handed Reid the keys to their franchise. It was a major gamble. Reid had never even been an NFL offensive or defensive coordinator, and Philadelphia was coming off a 3-13 season.

It didn’t take him long to change everything.

Building a Winner in Philadelphia

After going 5-11 in his first season, Philadelphia jumped to 11-5 in 2000 and made the playoffs. That began one of the most successful stretches in Eagles history. From 2001 through 2004, Reid led Philadelphia to four consecutive NFC Championship Games. The Eagles won six NFC East championships during his tenure, reached nine postseasons, and eventually broke through to Super Bowl XXXIX following a 13-3 season in 2004.

Reid never captured the Lombardi Trophy in Philadelphia, and for years that became the biggest criticism attached to his career. But reducing his Eagles tenure to the fact that he didn’t win a Super Bowl ignores just how consistently excellent those teams were.

Across 14 seasons in Philadelphia, Reid finished 130-93-1 in the regular season and added a 10-9 postseason record, giving him 140 total victories as Eagles head coach. He took Philadelphia to five NFC Championship Games, six division titles, nine playoff appearances, and one Super Bowl.

Then his time in Philadelphia ended.

For plenty of coaches, that would have been the beginning of the decline. For Andy Reid, it was only halftime.

Big Red Comes to Kansas City

Kansas City hired Reid in 2013 after the Chiefs had just finished 2-14. Reid immediately turned them into an 11-5 playoff team in his first season.

That turnaround showed Philadelphia wasn’t some fluke created by one roster or one quarterback. Reid could build a winner. Kansas City became a consistent playoff team before Patrick Mahomes ever became the starter, with Reid winning alongside Alex Smith and reaching the postseason four times during Smith’s five seasons in Kansas City.

Then Reid got Patrick Mahomes.

And everything exploded.

Pairing perhaps the greatest offensive coaching mind of his generation with one of the most naturally gifted quarterbacks football has ever seen created one of the defining teams of the modern NFL. Beginning in 2018, Kansas City reached seven consecutive AFC Championship Games. For seven straight seasons, the Chiefs were one of the final four teams standing.

Kansas City then reached the Super Bowl five times in a six-season stretch from 2019 through 2024. Reid finally captured the championship that had escaped him for so long when Kansas City defeated San Francisco in Super Bowl LIV. He won another against his former team, Philadelphia, in Super Bowl LVII, and one year later Kansas City defeated San Francisco again in Super Bowl LVIII to give Reid his third championship and the Chiefs back-to-back titles.

The Résumé

The numbers now put Big Red among the giants of coaching history.

279-157-1 regular-season record

28-17 playoff record

307 total victories

Three Super Bowl championships

Six Super Bowl appearances as a head coach

Five NFC Championship Game appearances with Philadelphia

Seven consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances with Kansas City

Winningest head coach in the history of both the Eagles and Chiefs

Reid became the first coach in NFL history to become the winningest head coach of two different franchises. He built a contender in Philadelphia, rebuilt Kansas City, and eventually turned the Chiefs into a dynasty.

One of Football’s Greatest Offensive Minds

Football constantly changes. Defenses change, rules change, quarterbacks change, and offensive philosophies that dominate one decade can become outdated in the next.

Reid has continued adapting.

The offense he ran with Donovan McNabb wasn’t identical to what he built around Alex Smith, and what he designed around Patrick Mahomes has continued evolving as defenses changed how they defended Kansas City’s explosive passing attack. When opponents began taking away the deep ball, Reid adapted again.

That is what separates a genuinely great offensive mind from somebody who simply discovers one successful system. Reid has spent decades evolving his offense around the players available to him rather than demanding every player fit into the same system.

More Than Wins and Super Bowls

There is another part of Andy Reid’s legacy that statistics can’t properly measure.

People love playing for Big Red.

Listen to former players and coaches talk about Andy Reid and there is an enormous amount of respect for the man behind the playbook. That matters to me when ranking coaches.

A coach isn’t simply someone standing on the sideline holding a playsheet. His job is to lead an entire locker room full of different personalities, develop young talent, build relationships with veterans, keep everyone together after devastating losses, and convince grown men to continue believing in his message year after year.

You rarely hear former players come out and trash Andy Reid. Instead, you hear players and coaches talk about how much he cared about them, how prepared he was, and how much respect they have for him. When someone coaches in the NFL for nearly three decades and people who spent years around him continue speaking highly of him, that tells you something a win-loss record never could.

Reid’s influence also extends beyond his own teams. Coaches who worked underneath him have gone on to become head coaches and major figures throughout the league. His fingerprints are all over modern NFL offense and coaching.

From “Can’t Win the Big One” to a Dynasty

For years, the conversation around Andy Reid centered around what he hadn’t accomplished.

He couldn’t win the big one. He couldn’t finish the job. He was supposedly a great regular-season coach who would never get his ring.

Three Lombardi Trophies later, nobody can say that anymore.

Andy Reid won in Philadelphia. He rebuilt Kansas City. He won before Patrick Mahomes. Then he got Mahomes and built a dynasty.

As a Chiefs fan, I’ll always have a special appreciation for what Andy Reid has done in Kansas City. But fandom isn’t what puts him on this list.

The résumé does.

Andy Reid is one of the greatest coaches the NFL has ever seen, and Big Red checks in at #5 on my list of the Top 5 Greatest Coaches in NFL History.

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