List of New England Patriots head coaches

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Jerod Mayo, the current head coach of the Patriots, also played for the team as a linebacker from 2008 to 2015.

The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in Foxborough, Massachusetts. They are a member of the East Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The team began as the Boston Patriots in the American Football League, a league which merged with the National Football League before the 1970 season.[1]

There have been 15 head coaches for the Patriots franchise. Lou Saban became the first coach of the Patriots in 1960, although he was fired part way through their second season.[2] The 15th and current head coach is Jerod Mayo, who was hired in 2024.[3] Mayo replaced longtime head coach Bill Belichick, who led the team for more regular season games (387), post-season games (41) and complete seasons (24) than any other head coach. His 266 wins with the Patriots are far and away the most in franchise history, more than five times those of runner-up Mike Holovak. Belichick also led the team to nine of their eleven Super Bowl appearances, winning six of them. Holovak, Raymond Berry and Bill Parcells all led the Patriots to league championship games, with only one (Holovak) failing to reach the Super Bowl. Five Patriots head coaches, Holovak, Chuck Fairbanks, Berry, Parcells, and Belichick, have been named coach of the year by at least one major news organization. Additionally, Raymond Berry and Bill Parcells are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, with Berry being inducted in 1973, and Parcells in 2013.[4][5]

Bill Belichick was the most successful head coach in franchise history, leading the team to six Super Bowl championships in his 24-year tenure.

Twice in Patriots history there were "interim" head coaches. In 1972, John Mazur resigned with five games left in the season.[6] Phil Bengtson was named as the interim head coach for the rest of the season, during which he only won one game, and he was not made the permanent coach the next year. In 1978, head coach Fairbanks secretly made a deal to leave the team to coach the University of Colorado Buffaloes while he was still coaching the Patriots. Team owner Billy Sullivan suspended Fairbanks for the final game of the regular season, stating "You cannot serve two masters," and Ron Erhardt and Hank Bullough took co-head coaching responsibilities for that game.[7] Fairbanks was reinstated when the team qualified for the playoffs, and he lost the first playoff game, his last for the Patriots. Since Dick MacPherson, the Patriots have had only 4 coaches in 32 seasons.

Key[edit]

# Number of coaches
GC Games coached
W Wins
L Losses
T Ties
Win% Winning percentage
00 Elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a coach
00 Elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a player
00* Spent entire NFL head coaching career with the Patriots

Coaches[edit]

Note: Statistics are accurate through the end of the 2023 NFL season.
# Image Name Term Regular season Playoffs Awards Reference
GC W L T Win% GC W L
Boston Patriots
1 Lou Saban 19601961 19 7 12 0 .368 [8]
2 Mike Holovak 19611968 107 52 46 9 .528 2 1 1 UPI AFL Coach of the Year (1966)[9] [10]
3 Clive Rush* 19691970 21 5 16 0 .238 [11]
4 John Mazur* 1970 7 1 6 0 .143 [6]
New England Patriots
John Mazur* 19711972 23 8 15 0 .348 [6]
5 Phil Bengtson 1972[12] 5 1 4 0 .200 [13]
6 Chuck Fairbanks* 19731978[14] 85 46 39 0 .541 2 0 2 UPI NFL Coach of the Year (1976)[15]

Sporting News NFL Coach of the Year (1976)

[16]
7 Ron Erhardt 19791981[17] 49 21 28 0 .428 [18]
8 Ron Meyer 19821984 33 18 15 0 .545 1 0 1 [19]
9 Raymond Berry *‡ 19841989* 87 48 39 0 .551 5 3 2 UPI NFL Coach of the Year (1985)
AFC Championship (1985)
[20][21]
10 Rod Rust* 1990 16 1 15 0 .062 [22]
11 Dick MacPherson* 19911992 32 8 24 0 .250 [23]
12 Bill Parcells 19931996 64 32 32 0 .500 4 2 2 AP NFL Coach of the Year (1994)

Pro Football Weekly NFL Coach of the Year (1994)
Maxwell Football Club NFL Coach of the Year (1994)
UPI NFL Coach of the Year (1994)
AFC Championship (1996)

[24][25]
13 Pete Carroll 19971999 48 27 21 0 .562 3 1 2 [26]
14 Bill Belichick 20002023 387 266 121 0 .687 41 30 12 AP NFL Coach of the Year (2003, 2007, 2010)

Sporting News NFL Coach of the Year (2003)
Pro Football Weekly NFL Coach of the Year (2003)
Maxwell Football Club NFL Coach of the Year (2007)
PFWA Executive of the Year (2021)
6 Super Bowl Championships (2001, 2003, 2004, 2014, 2016, 2018)
9 AFC Championships (2001, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018)

[27][28]
15 Jerod Mayo 2024–present 0 0 0 0 .000 [29]

Notes and references[edit]

  1. ^ "Boston Patriots". Pro Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  2. ^ "Buffalo Bills". Pro Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  3. ^ "Patriots hire ex-LB Mayo as Belichick successor". ESPN.com. 2024-01-12. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  4. ^ "Raymond Berry profile". Pro Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
  5. ^ "Bill Parcells | Pro Football Hall of Fame". pfhof. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  6. ^ a b c Grossfeld, Stan (2005-12-01). "For Mazur, the scars remain". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2008-05-14.
  7. ^ Borges, Ron. "Butt of jokes to last laugh". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  8. ^ "Lou Saban". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  9. ^ Gruver, Ed (1997). The American Football League: A Year-by-year History, 1960–1969. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. p. 276. ISBN 0-7864-0399-3.
  10. ^ "Mike Holovak". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2011-11-22. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  11. ^ "Clive Rush". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2007-02-10. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  12. ^ Phil Bengtson was the interim head coach for five games during the 1972 season.
  13. ^ Phil Bengtson. "New England Patriots (1960–present)". sports e-cyclopedia. Retrieved 2008-05-14.
  14. ^ Chuck Fairbanks was suspended for the last game of the 1978 regular season. He was reinstated for the playoffs, and lost in the first round.
  15. ^ "Chuck Fairbanks Head Coach". New England Patriots. Archived from the original on 2011-05-19. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
  16. ^ "Chuck Fairbanks". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2006-05-30. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  17. ^ Ron Erhardt's record includes one game where he shared head coaching duties with Hank Bullough during Chuck Fairbanks 1978 suspension. His first official year as head coach of the Patriots was 1979.
  18. ^ "Ron Erhardt". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2006-05-26. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  19. ^ "Ron Meyer". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2007-02-08. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  20. ^ "Raymond Berry". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  21. ^ "Raymond Berry". Pro-Football-Reference. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2008-12-30. Retrieved 2008-12-31.
  22. ^ "Rod Rust". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2011-11-21. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  23. ^ "Dick MacPherson". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2011-11-21. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  24. ^ "Bill Parcells". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2007-12-24. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  25. ^ "Bill Parcells". Pro-Football-Reference. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 2008-12-31.
  26. ^ "Pete Carroll". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2007-02-09. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  27. ^ "Bill Belichick". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2007-12-25. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  28. ^ "Bill Belichick Record, Statistics, and Category Ranks". Pro Football Reference. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  29. ^ "Patriots hire ex-LB Mayo as Belichick successor". ESPN.com. 2024-01-12. Retrieved 2024-01-13.