The most notable interim NFL coaches

The rare interim coach to steer his team to the playoffs, Bisaccia took over in an unusual circumstance. Jon Gruden’s problematic emails to Bruce Allen, emerging during the Dan Snyder investigation, led to the Raiders coach resigning in mid-October 2021. Separate off-field incidents — including Henry Ruggs’ vehicular homicide — led to the Raiders cutting both their 2020 first-round picks (Ruggs and cornerback Damon Arnette). Despite this and Las Vegas losing Darren Waller for a stretch, they won their final four games — including a do-or-die Chargers clash — to go 10-7. The Raiders nearly ousted the AFC champion Bengals in Round 1, but Mark Davis hired Josh McDaniels over Bisaccia.

This coalition came about because the Patriots suspended their sixth-year coach, Chuck Fairbanks, for negotiating with Colorado late in the 1978 season. Reaching a deal to leave for the then-Big 8 program, Fairbanks was exiled hours before the Pats’ Week 16 game against the Dolphins. New England lost 23-3 to Miami, and Fairbanks — under the threat of legal action from the Pats — returned to coach in the playoffs. The Oilers eliminated the 11-5 Pats, whose lame-duck coach left for Colorado. The Pats OC, Erhardt replaced Fairbanks, keeping Bullough on as DC. Later, Bill Parcells’ Giants OC, Erhardt stayed on with the Pats for three years. Bullough was a Bills interim coach in 1985.

The football world received an unexpected sneak preview of Campbell as a head coach in 2015 when the Dolphins moved around their coordinator ranks and promoted their tight ends coach to replace Joe Philbin. Early in his fifth season coaching Miami’s tight ends, Campbell received the call to coach the final 12 games of the Dolphins’ season. The former NFL tight end went 5-7 coaching the then-Ryan Tannehill-quarterbacked team, drawing interest from Sean Payton, who hired him as the Saints’ tight ends coach. Despite never being a coordinator, the current Lions leader has now secured two HC jobs.

This Campbell made a strong impression as well. His interim stay preceded two separate stints as the Falcons’ head coach. Owner Rankin Smith fired prickly HC Norm Van Brocklin eight games into the 1974 season, doing so a day after the unpopular coach challenged a host of writers to a fight. While Van Brocklin’s defensive coordinator went 1-5 in his audition, Smith kept him on as HC until firing him midway through the 1976 season. Campbell went 6-19 in his first run as Falcons HC, but after being the architect of dominant Eagles defenses in the early 1980s, Smith rehired him in 1987. Not the team’s first choice, Campbell was again fired midway through a season (1989).

Prior to the 7-9 memes connected to his Rams stay, Fisher received his coaching start by replacing Jack Pardee during a dreadful 1994 Oilers season. Ownership effectively greenlit a rebuild that year, trading Warren Moon to the Vikings after he and Pardee’s Run and Shoot attack was part of three straight blown leads in playoff exits (one being quite memorable). Fisher went 1-5, and the Oilers closed the year 2-14. But he ended up retaining his job longer than any interim coach in NFL history. Fisher coached the Oilers (later the Titans) for the next 16 years, taking them to Super Bowl XXXIV and five other playoff brackets. 

The longest-tenured coach in Lions history started as an interim option late in the 1988 season. Detroit’s defensive coordinator replaced Darryl Rogers late that year, and after being a DC for the Buccaneers previously, Fontes coached the Lions for the next eight seasons. He inherited a 2-11 team at the right time; a stacked 1989 draft class awaited. The Lions had a Barry Sanders-Deion Sanders-Derrick Thomas choice to make; they took the Heisman winner, setting up Fontes’ offenses with a top-shelf running back. Fontes struggled to get the quarterback position right and fought off firing rumors for years, but he coached the Lions to four playoff berths.

There was a time when Cowboys fans celebrated Garrett’s rise from offensive coordinator to head coach. The Cowboys canned Wade Phillips during his fourth season as HC (2010) and promoted the former Troy Aikman backup. Garrett had been Dallas’ OC throughout Phillips’ run, receiving deserved credit for Tony Romo’s rise. Jerry Jones fired Phillips after a 45-7 loss to the eventual champion Packers, and Garrett went 5-3 during his interim season. Cowboys fans ended up growing quite tired of Garrett, who evaded firing calls to last until 2019. He did guide Dallas to the playoffs thrice, but its divisional-round hurdle remains.

The former Chargers AFL-winning coach was in place as Oilers GM in 1973. The coach hired in 1972, a college offensive guru named Bill Peterson was 1-18 in Houston. Gillman fired the struggling leader and stepped in for a coaching return. Gillman had already been horning in on Peterson’s coaching upon arrival, and he coached the Oilers through the 1974 season. After finishing a 1-13 Houston season, Gillman’s full Oilers year ended 7-7. He earned AFC Coach of the Year honors for the turnaround, though a power struggle with the coach Gillman hired to replace him (Bum Phillips) led to a 1975 resignation from his GM post.

The Oilers went through three coaches in the years after firing Phillips. Hugh Campbell held the reins from 1984-85, but owner Bud Adams pulled the trigger late in his second season. Formerly the leader of the Falcons’ “Grits Blitz” defense in the 1970s, Glanville brought a brash attitude to his first head-coaching post. The Oilers sported aggressive defensive tactics that rubbed a few rivals — Sam Wyche and Chuck Noll among them — the wrong way. Glanville stayed on as Oilers HC until 1989 when his team set a then-penalty record with 148. The Oilers made the playoffs from 1987-89. Glanville coached the Falcons from 1990-93.

The same team twice tapped Johnson to serve as its interim coach. The Bills fired Joe Collier, future innovator of the 3-4 defense in the NFL, two games into the 1968 season. They brought in Johnson, who had worked with the team as an assistant during its mid-1960s glory years and through 1968. Buffalo went 1-10-1 under Johnson, who soon moved into a scouting role. In 1971, however, coach John Rauch’s abrupt resignation — after a dispute with owner Ralph Wilson — prompted the team to give Johnson a full season. Buffalo’s record: 1-13. Even in a category that features coaches battling uphill, Johnson’s 2-23-1 interim record stands out.

This unprecedented situation brought a two-pronged interim setup. The NFL suspended Sean Payton for the 2012 season, and although this part did not come up during Kevin James’ Payton portrayal, Vitt also was handed a six-game ban for the Bountygate scandal. That left Kromer, then in his fourth season as New Orleans’ O-line coach, as the guy. The Saints went 2-4 under Kromer and 5-5 under Vitt. Despite the Payton void on offense, the Drew Brees-led unit still ranked third in scoring. The defense? Not as good. The 31st-ranked group effectively kept the Saints out of the playoffs. Vitt did not coach again for five years; Kromer became the Bears’ OC in 2013.

Not unlike the “Major League”-universe Cleveland team, who hired manager Lou Brown from Tire World, Houston pulled its 1961 interim head coach out of a sporting goods store. The team’s 1960 defensive coordinator had quit to run the Illinois-based store, but after Bud Adams fired AFL-winning HC Lou Rymkus five games into the ’61 season, he rehired Lemm. The result: the greatest interim HC stretch in football history. The Oilers started 1-3-1 but went 10-0 under Lemm and stampeded to their second straight AFL title behind pro football’s first 500-point season. Lemm parlayed this season into HC gigs with the Cardinals and then back with the Oilers. 

Since the Chiefs fired him after the 1982 strike season, Levy only had one coaching gig — a 1984 stay with the USFL’s Chicago Blitz. The Bills brought him back in 1986 when he replaced Hank Bullough. Levy only went 2-7 with the ’86 Bills, who were in their first season with USFL refugee/former Bills first-round draftee Jim Kelly, but the franchise was wise to stick with him. After the Bills went 7-8 in 1987, Levy guided them to eight of the next nine playoff brackets. The Bills struck gold on this hire, with Levy, who was a special teams coach in the NFL prior to his Chiefs stay, coaching through 1997 and winning four AFC titles. 

Marrone is the most recent interim head coach to be promoted to the full-time gig. Illustrating how far the league has swung in the other direction, this happened six years ago. Amid their fourth straight season with 11-plus losses, the Jaguars fired Gus Bradley late in the 2016 season. The OC on that team, Marrone, took over and proceeded to author one of the strangest seasons in modern NFL history. Buoyed by a No. 1-ranked defense featuring Jalen Ramsey and expensive free agents, the Jags emerged from nowhere to qualify for the AFC title game. While the Myles Jack what-if hangs over this team, Marrone’s full-time debut was fluky. Though, he lasted until the 2020 season.

McVay authored a wildly successful second act as a 49ers front office czar during most of their dynasty. Sean McVay’s grandfather, however, also had a run as Giants head coach — a stay remembered mostly for one bad moment. The Giants fired Bill Arnsparger during the 1976 season and made the unusual move to bump McVay, hired that year to be the team’s research and development director, to the interim role. The Giants kept McVay on after a 3-5 interim year but fired him two years later — weeks after the “Miracle at the Meadowlands” debacle (Nov. 19, 1978). The Joe Pisarcik-Larry Csonka fumbled exchange led McVay out of coaching — to the 49ers’ benefit. 

Prior to Nathaniel Hackett’s Boxing Day firing, only one first-year coach — Urban Meyer — had been fired before season’s end since the 1970s. During their franchise nadir, the 49ers employed the previous one. Unpopular GM Joe Thomas, who had given up five draft picks (including No. 1 overall) for a faded O.J. Simpson in March 1978, fired Pete McCulley nine games into the season. This move came both after Thomas engaged in a bathroom fight with a reporter and after the 49ers had employed one-and-done HCs in 1976 and ’77. O’Connor, hired that year as OC, went 1-6 to finish the dysfunctional team’s 2-14 season. The 49ers dug out of this hole in 1979, firing Thomas and hiring Bill Walsh. 

Phillips is both a three-time interim coach and a three-time head coach, stepping in as a temp for the Saints (1985), Falcons (2003), and Texans (2013). He also coached the Broncos, Bills, and Cowboys in a prolific career better remembered for his defensive coordinator acumen. Eight years before his Denver opportunity, Phillips took over in New Orleans. Wade’s father, Bum Phillips, resigned 12 games into the ’85 season. Wade had been the Saints DC since Bum’s 1981 arrival. The younger Phillips went 1-3 in his first crack as a head coach before migrating to Philly to be Buddy Ryan’s DC. The Saints finally began a turnaround in 1986, hiring Jim Mora.

Joe Thomas and Robert Irsay have a special place in interim coach lore. Their first chapter came in 1972. The Rams and Colts managed to make a franchise-for-franchise swap that year, giving Irsay the Baltimore team. He brought in Thomas as GM, and despite Don McCafferty being less than two years removed from winning Super Bowl V, the Colts axed him after a 1-4 start. The new Colts bigwigs had been in Baltimore five months when they fired McCafferty, who had the team in the 1971 AFC title game. Sandusky, Baltimore’s D-line coach since 1959, managed to go 4-5 as a fill-in. He was out by season’s end, leading to Howard Schnellenberger taking over. More on this below.

Jim Irsay enjoyed an interesting 2022. From insisting on three QB moves (trading Carson Wentz after one season, trading for Matt Ryan, and benching Ryan for Sam Ehlinger), the outspoken owner fired two-time playoff coach Frank Reich and replaced him with Saturday. A former Pro Bowl Colts center who was working at ESPN, Saturday brought no college or NFL coaching experience to the sideline. Thus far, the results have been predictable. Though Saturday won his first game, he lost his next five and was on the sideline when the Colts blew an NFL-record 33-point lead in Minnesota. This eventful stay will likely be short-lived.

Before beginning a career that ended with his name in the top 10 for all-time coaching wins, Schottenheimer was the Browns defensive coordinator under Sam Rutigliano. The man behind the 1980 “Kardiac Kids” Browns team was fired during the 1984 season, and Art Modell promoted Schottenheimer. Brian Sipe, the MVP of that ’80 season, had left for the USFL, leaving his backup, Paul McDonald, at the controls. Despite this setup, Schottenheimer went 4-4 and did keep the gig. The Browns were rewarded for this choice; they won the next three AFC Central crowns and authored their best stretch since the 1950s. Schottenheimer (200 wins) later coached in Kansas City, Washington, and San Diego.

Mike Shanahan’s head coaching career did not start well. Al Davis fired him four games into his second season (1989). While Shanahan would later become a Hall of Fame-caliber coach who collected rings with the 49ers and Broncos, the Raiders made history by naming Shell HC. The Hall of Fame tackle is the NFL’s first Black head coach. Shell moved from retirement to Raiders O-line coach immediately, and Shanahan kept him in that position upon being hired. The Raiders, who started 1-3, won in Shell’s debut and finished 8-8. Shell guided the then-L.A.-based team to three playoff berths in the 1990s, staying on through the 1994 season. He later returned for a less effective 2006 one-off.

On Mike Nolan’s staff as linebackers coach from the start, Singletary received the promotion in 2008. He made an immediate impression. In his first game running the show, Singletary benched QB J.T. O’Sullivan and sent Vernon Davis off the sideline and to the locker room. Singletary’s explanation — wanting winners and the like — is what lives on most from this three-season tenure. Still, the 49ers kept the Hall of Fame linebacker on through the 2010 season. San Francisco went 8-8 in ’09 but fell off in 2010, leading to Singletary’s firing with one game to go. He resurfaced with ex-Bears teammate Leslie Frazier in Minnesota but was out of the NFL by 2017.

Following the trade of Norm Van Brocklin to the Eagles, the Rams hit a rough patch. This involved Bob Waterfield, hired to coach his former team in 1960, resigning his post — submitting said resignation to his former target, then-GM Elroy Hirsch — after a 1-7 start in 1962. The Hall of Fame QB leaving led to the Rams promoting their 32-year-old defensive line coach. Svare, an ex-Giants linebacker, went 0-5-1 to close the season. The Rams kept him on for three more seasons, each one a sub-.500 slate. The Chargers later hired Svare as GM, and he became an interim coach again after Sid Gillman’s 1971 resignation. That tenure did not go well, either.

Thomas’ third appearance on this list may be the strangest. Future Miami Hurricanes kickstarter Howard Schnellenberger booted a reportedly drunken Robert Irsay off the Colts’ sideline during a 1974 game and was fired at halftime. Irsay informed the team in the locker room Thomas, unbeknownst to Thomas, would take over as coach. In his third year as Colts GM, Thomas coached the team he built and went 3-9 to finish a 2-12 season. In well over his head as a coach, Thomas did hire a quality replacement. Ted Marchibroda revived the team and led it to three straight playoff berths. Irsay fired Thomas, who feuded with Marchibroda, in 1977.

The 2018 Browns were a real mess, though they were a perfect “Hard Knocks” team. GM John Dorsey fired both Hue Jackson and OC Todd Haley midway through the season. That cleared the runway for one of the most polarizing assistants in NFL history. The Bountygate ringleader, Williams, received four more defensive coordinator chances. His Browns opportunity resulted in a late-season improvement, with the team going from 0-16 in 2017 to 7-8-1. Unfortunately, this gave Dorsey and Co. false hope. Dorsey promoted interim OC Freddie Kitchens over Williams in 2019, leading to a disastrous one-and-done season.