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Pete Carroll to the Raiders Rounds Out a Remarkable Quartet of Coaches

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Craig Ellenport | Last updated Jan 24, 2025 3:02 PM ET

With the news Friday that the Las Vegas Raiders have hired Peter Carroll to be their head coach, the AFC West might now lay claim to having the most successful quartet of coaches in NFL history. At the very least, the collective resumes of Carroll, the Kansas City Chiefs’ Andy Reid, the Denver Broncos’ Sean Payton and the Los Angeles Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh dwarfs the rest of the league.

Of course, Reid gives the division an automatic leg up, seeing as he’s fourth on the NFL’s all-time win list with 300 (including postseason) and he’s been to a total of five Super Bowls, four with Kansas City and one with the Eagles. But the addition of Carroll, who’s 16^th on the all-time win list, all four head coaches in the AFC West have been to the Super Bowl at least once. The 73-year-old Carroll got there twice with the Seattle Seahawks, winning once. Payton, 18 ^th on the all-time list, won a Super Bowl with the Saints. Harbaugh is 0-1 in the Super Bowl — but he and Carroll are two of only four coaches who have been to the Super Bowl and also won a college national championship (joining Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer).

There are currently three head coaching vacancies (Dallas Cowboys, Jacksonville Jaguars, New Orleans Saints). If those teams hire anyone who’s been a head coach before, these numbers will change slightly. But as it stands now, here’s a breakdown of the eight conferences by total victories and Super Bowl appearances:

AFC West: 720 wins, 9 Super Bowl appearances
AFC North: 468 wins, 4 Super Bowl appearances
NFC West: 195 wins, 4 Super Bowl appearances
AFC East: 177 wins, 0 Super Bowl appearances
NFC North: 150 wins, 0 Super Bowl appearances
NFC East: 131 wins, 2 Super Bowl appearances
NFC South: 88 wins, 0 Super Bowl appearances
AFC South: 42 wins, 0 Super Bowl appearances

Ironically, Carroll’s rookie year as a head coach might be part of the most successful division of head coaches before the current AFC West group. Carroll’s lone season as New York Jets head coach was in 1993. The other head coaches in the five-team AFC East that season were:

Don Shula, Dolphins
Marv Levy, Bills
Bill Parcells, Patriots
Ted Marchibroda, Colts

Going into the ’93 season, those coaches had combined for 11 Super Bowl appearances. Levy (1), Parcells (1) and Carroll (2) would go on to add another four.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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