Pro Football Reference Blog

The footballguys message board has a pretty interesting Parcells vs. Gibbs thread going on right now.

We've all heard that Gibbs is the only coach to win Super Bowls with three different quarterbacks. A poster named dgreen takes that a step further to notes that Gibbs has made the playoffs with six different quarterbacks: Joe Theismann, Jay Schroeder, Doug Williams, Mark Rypien, Mark Brunell, and Todd Collins (or Jason Campbell, depending on how you look at it).

Per my typical MO, I'll not spend too much time debating the importance of this as a measurement of coaching success (while at the same time inviting you to debate it in the comments if you like). Instead, I'll focus on the more trivial task of figuring out exactly how this compares to other coaches.

There are a few ways to do this, but ultimately I decided to count a team's quarterback as the guy who started the most games, as opposed to the guy who actually played in the playoff games (if different). I also might be missing a few guys from the 40s and 50s.

It turns out that Gibbs' 6 is surpassed only by Marty Schottenheimer and Dennis Green. Here's the list:

Marty Schottenheimer 8
Steve DeBerg, Drew Brees, Bernie Kosar, Dave Krieg, Philip Rivers, Steve Bono, Elvis Grbac, Joe Montana

Dennis Green 7
Jeff George, Warren Moon, Jim McMahon, Daunte Culpepper, Randall Cunningham, Brad Johnson, Rich Gannon

Joe Gibbs 6
Mark Rypien, Jay Schroeder, Joe Theismann, , Mark Brunell, Collins/Campbell

George Halas 5
Bernie Masterson, Billy Wade, Sid Luckman, Carl Brumbaugh, Johnny Lujack

Bill Cowher 5
Neil O'Donnell, Mike Tomczak, Ben Roethlisberger, Kordell Stewart, Tommy Maddox

John Robinson 5
Dieter Brock, Jim Everett, Steve Bartkowski, Jeff Kemp, Vince Ferragamo

Chuck Knox 5
James Harris, Pat Haden, Joe Ferguson, Dave Krieg, John Hadl

Don Shula 5
Dan Marino, Bob Griese, Earl Morrall, David Woodley, Johnny Unitas

Paul Brown 5
Tommy O'Connell, Otto Graham, Milt Plum, Virgil Carter, Ken Anderson

Bill Parcells 5
Phil Simms, Drew Bledsoe, Vinny Testaverde, Quincy Carter, Tony Romo

Jon Gruden 5
Brad Johnson, Rich Gannon, Chris Simms, Jeff Garcia

Mike Holmgren 4
Brett Favre, Matt Hasselbeck, Jon Kitna,

Sid Gillman 4
Jack Kemp, John Hadl, Norm Van Brocklin, Tobin Rote

Dan Reeves 4
John Elway, Chris Chandler, Phil Simms, Michael Vick

Tom Landry 4
Roger Staubach, Danny White, Craig Morton, Don Meredith

Chuck Noll 4
Terry Bradshaw, Cliff Stoudt, Mark Malone, Bubby Brister

Bud Grant 4
Joe Kapp, Fran Tarkenton, Gary Cuozzo, Tommy Kramer

Tony Dungy 4
Shaun King, Brad Johnson, Peyton Manning, Trent Dilfer

Brian Billick 4
Trent Dilfer, Steve McNair, Kyle Boller, Elvis Grbac