List of Buffalo Bills head coaches The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo , New York metropolitan area . They are members of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference ( AFC ) in the National Football League ( NFL ) . The Bills franchise was formed in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League ( AFL ) , before joining the NFL as part of the AFL - NFL merger of 1970 . There have been 16 head coaches for the Bills franchise . Buster Ramsey became the first head coach of the Buffalo Bills in 1960 , serving for two seasons before being fired by Bills owner Ralph Wilson after the 1961 season . In terms of tenure , Marv Levy has coached more games ( 182 ) and seasons ( 12 ) than any other coach in franchise history . He coached the Bills to four straight AFC Championships from 1990 – 1993 , but failed to lead the team to a victory in the Super Bowl . One of Levy ' s predecessors , Lou Saban , who coached the team on two separate occasions , led the team to the victories in the AFL championship in 1964 and 1965 . Three Bills coaches — Saban , Levy and Chuck Knox — have been named coach of the year by at least one major news organization . Levy and Jim Ringo are the only Bills coaches to have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame . There have been five " interim " head coaches in Bills history . First , in 1968 , head coach Joe Collier was fired two games into the season and replaced by Bills personnel director Harvey Johnson . Johnson did not serve as head coach the following season . Then , five games into the 1976 season , Saban unexpectedly resigned as head coach . He was replaced by Ringo , the team ' s offensive line coach . Ringo returned to coach the team again in the 1977 season . In October 1985 , Kay Stephenson was fired and replaced by assistant head coach Hank Bullough . Just over a year later , Bullough was himself fired and replaced by Marv Levy , who had previously served as coach of the Kansas City Chiefs . Levy would then serve as Bills head coach for the next 12 seasons . Following Levy ' s retirement , the Bills experienced limited success under a series of successive head coaches . Wade Phillips , the Bills defensive coordinator for the last three years under Levy , took over head coaching duties for the 1998 season . Phillips served as head coach for three seasons , making the playoffs in his first two ( the second of which was the last time the Bills made the playoffs ) . After Phillips ' departure following the 2000 season , Gregg Williams was named head coach . Williams served as coach for three seasons . At the end of the 2003 season , Williams ' contract was not renewed . Mike Mularkey was named as the new head coach for the 2004 season , leading the Bills to their first winning season since 1999 . The Bills experienced less success under Mularkey during 2005 , and Mularkey resigned as head coach at the completion of the 2005 season . The Bills then named Dick Jauron as their head coach for the 2006 season . Jauron was the first coach since Levy ' s retirement with prior head coaching experience , having previously served as head coach of the Chicago Bears and interim head coach of the Detroit Lions . Jauron coached the Bills to three consecutive 7 - 9 seasons before being fired on November 17 , 2009 , nine games into the 2009 season . On January 19 , 2010 , the Bills named Chan Gailey as their next head coach .