# List of Washington Commanders head coaches

The Washington Commanders are a professional American football franchise based in the Washington metropolitan area. They are members of the East division in the National Football Conference (NFC) of the National Football League (NFL). The Commanders were founded in 1932 as the Boston Braves, named after the local baseball franchise. The franchise changed its name the following year to the Redskins and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1937. In 2020, the team retired the Redskins name after longstanding controversies surrounding it and briefly played as the Washington Football Team before becoming the Commanders in 2022.
There have been 31 head coaches for the franchise, four of which played for the franchise during their career. Joe Gibbs is the only coach to have more than one tenure with the team. Ray Flaherty coached teams that won the 1937 and 1942 NFL Championships, while Joe Gibbs coached teams that won Super Bowl XVII (1982), Super Bowl XXII (1987), and Super Bowl XXVI (1991). Gibbs is the franchise leader in games coached and wins, with Dudley DeGroot leading in winning percentage with .737. Seven are Pro Football Hall of Fame members: Flaherty, Turk Edwards, Curly Lambeau, Otto Graham, Vince Lombardi, George Allen, and Gibbs.

## Coaches

| # | Number of coaches |
| GC | Games coached |
| W | Wins |
| L | Loses |
| 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 their entire NFL head coaching career with Washington |
List of Boston Braves / Boston Redskins / Washington Redskins / Washington Football Team / Washington Commanders head coaches :
| # | Image | Coach | Term | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Playoffs | Playoffs | Playoffs | Awards | Ref. |
| # | Image | Coach | Term | GC | W | L | T | Win% | GC | W | L | Awards | Ref. |
| 1 | | Lud Wray | 1932 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 2 | .500 | — | — | — | — | |
| 2 | | Lone Star Dietz* | 1933–1934* | 24 | 11 | 11 | 2 | .500 | — | — | — | — | |
| 3 | | Eddie Casey* | 1935* | 11 | 2 | 8 | 1 | .200 | — | — | — | — | |
| 4 | | Ray Flaherty † | 1936–1942 | 78 | 54 | 21 | 3 | .720 | 4 | 2 | 2 | — | |
| 5 | | Dutch Bergman* | 1943* | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | .667 | 2 | 1 | 1 | — | |
| 6 | | Dudley DeGroot* | 1944–1945* | 20 | 14 | 5 | 1 | .737 | 1 | 0 | 1 | — | |
| 7 | | Turk Edwards* ‡ | 1946–1948* | 35 | 16 | 18 | 1 | .471 | — | — | — | — | |
| 8 | | John Whelchel* | 1949* | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | .500 | — | — | — | — | |
| 9 | | Herman Ball* | 1949–1951* | 20 | 4 | 16 | 0 | .200 | — | — | — | — | |
| 10 | | Dick Todd* | 1951* | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | .556 | — | — | — | — | |
| 11 | | Curly Lambeau † | 1952–1953 | 24 | 10 | 13 | 1 | .435 | — | — | — | — | |
| 12 | | Joe Kuharich | 1954–1958 | 60 | 26 | 32 | 2 | .448 | — | — | — | Sporting News Coach of the Year (1955) UPI NFL Coach of the Year (1955) | |
| 13 | | Mike Nixon | 1959–1960 | 24 | 4 | 18 | 2 | .182 | — | — | — | — | |
| 14 | | Bill McPeak* | 1961–1965* | 70 | 21 | 46 | 3 | .313 | — | — | — | — | |
| 15 | | Otto Graham* ‡ | 1966–1968* | 42 | 17 | 22 | 3 | .436 | — | — | — | — | |
| 16 | | Vince Lombardi † | 1969 | 14 | 7 | 5 | 2 | .583 | — | — | — | — | |
| 17 | | Bill Austin | 1970 | 14 | 6 | 8 | 0 | .429 | — | — | — | — | |
| 18 | | George Allen † | 1971–1977 | 98 | 67 | 30 | 1 | .691 | 7 | 2 | 5 | AP Coach of the Year (1971) Pro Football Weekly Coach of the Year (1971) Sporting News Coach of the Year (1971) UPI NFC Coach of the Year (1971) | |
| 19 | | Jack Pardee | 1978–1980 | 48 | 24 | 24 | 0 | .500 | — | — | — | AP Coach of the Year (1979) UPI NFC Coach of the Year (1979) | |
| 20 | | Joe Gibbs* | 1981–1992* | 184 | 124 | 60 | 0 | .674 | 21 | 16 | 5 | AP Coach of the Year (1982, 1983) Pro Football Weekly Coach of the Year (1982, 1983) Sporting News Coach of the Year (1982, 1983, 1991) UPI NFC Coach of the Year (1982) | |
| 21 | | Richie Petitbon* | 1993* | 16 | 4 | 12 | 0 | .250 | — | — | — | — | |
| 22 | | Norv Turner | 1994–2000 | 109 | 49 | 59 | 1 | .454 | 2 | 1 | 1 | — | |
| 23 | | Terry Robiskie | 2000 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | .333 | — | — | — | — | |
| 24 | | Marty Schottenheimer | 2001 | 16 | 8 | 8 | 0 | .500 | — | — | — | — | |
| 25 | | Steve Spurrier* | 2002–2003* | 32 | 12 | 20 | 0 | .375 | — | — | — | — | |
| — | | Joe Gibbs* | 2004–2007* | 64 | 30 | 34 | 0 | .469 | 3 | 1 | 2 | — | |
| 26 | | Jim Zorn* | 2008–2009* | 32 | 12 | 20 | 0 | .375 | — | — | — | — | |
| 27 | | Mike Shanahan | 2010–2013 | 64 | 24 | 40 | 0 | .375 | 1 | 0 | 1 | — | |
| 28 | | Jay Gruden* | 2014–2019 | 85 | 35 | 49 | 1 | .418 | 1 | 0 | 1 | — | |
| 29 | | Bill Callahan | 2019 | 11 | 3 | 8 | 0 | .273 | — | — | — | — | |
| 30 | | Ron Rivera | 2020–2023 | 67 | 26 | 40 | 1 | .396 | 1 | 0 | 1 | George Halas Award (2022) | |
| 31 | | Dan Quinn | 2024–present | 17 | 12 | 5 | 0 | .706 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | |
| # | Image | Coach | Term | GC | W | L | T | Win% | GC | W | L | Awards | Ref. |
| # | Image | Coach | Term | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Playoffs | Playoffs | Playoffs | | | Awards | Ref. |

## Footnotes

* ↑ A running total of the number of coaches of the Redskins. Thus any coach who has two terms as head coach is only counted once.
* ↑ George Preston Marshall, owner and founder of the franchise, sought to rename the Boston Braves after leaving the stadium they shared with the baseball team of the same name. He chose the name Redskins in honor of Dietz, who was Sioux.
* ↑ DeGroot was a member of the United States rugby team that won an Olympic gold medal during the 1924 competition in Paris.
* ↑ Fired after seven games
* ↑ Fired after three games in the 1951 season.
* ↑ Lombardi died from cancer during the 1970 preseason
* 1 2 Gibbs full coaching record with the Redskins is 248 regular season games coached with a record of 154–94–0 and a W–L percentage of .621. He is also 17–7 in 24 Playoff games.
* ↑ Took over for last 3 games of the season.
* ↑ Fired five games into the 2019 season, with Bill Callahan taking over for the rest of the year.