List of Atlanta Falcons head coaches

The Atlanta Falcons are an American football team based in Atlanta, Georgia. They are members of the South division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The Falcons joined the NFL as an expansion team in 1966 and have compiled an all-time record of 330–432–6 in the regular season with a 7–12 record in the playoffs and division championships in 1980, 1998, 2004, 2010, and 2012 along with an appearance in Super Bowl XXXIII in Miami, Florida.^[1]

There have been 16 head coaches for the Falcons franchise, 12 serving full-time. Mike Smith is the winningest full-time coach in Falcons history by both winning percentage and total number of games won with a 66–46 regular season record (.589 winning percentage) in his tenure as head coach. Under Smith's leadership, the team attained consecutive winning seasons (11–5 in 2008 and 9–7 in 2009), consecutive playoff appearances (2010 and 2011), and consecutive seasons with 10 wins or more (also in 2010 and 2011) for the first time in its history. Also, Smith is the only Falcons coach to win 2 divisional titles (NFC South, 2010 and 2012). Statistically, Jim Hanifan, who has won no games, holds the poorest coaching record. However, Norb Hecker, who has coached 30 games as full-time head coach, won only four.

Five coaches have led the Falcons into the playoffs: Leeman Bennett, Jerry Glanville, Dan Reeves, Jim L. Mora, and Mike Smith. Since the team's debut in 1966, the Falcons have not won a Super Bowl.

Key

#	Number of coaches^[a]
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 entire NFL head coaching career with the Falcons

Coaches

Note: Statistics are correct through the 2015 NFL season.

#	Name	Term^[b]	Regular season					Playoffs			Awards	Ref.
			GC	W	L	T	Win%	GC	W	L
1	Norb Hecker*	1966–1968*	31	4	26	1	.133					[2]
2	Norm Van Brocklin* ‡	1968–1974	89	37	49	3	.430					[3]
3	Marion Campbell^[c]	1974–1976	25	6	19	0	.240					[4]
4	Pat Peppler*	1976*	9	3	6	0	.333					[5]
5	Leeman Bennett	1977–1982	87	46	41	0	.529	4	1	3	UPI NFL Coach of the Year (1977, 1980)[6]	[7]
6	Dan Henning	1983–1986	64	22	41	1	.349					[8]
–	Marion Campbell^[c]	1987–1989	43	11	32	0	.255					[4]
7	Jim Hanifan	1989	4	0	4	0	.000					[9]
8	Jerry Glanville	1990–1993	64	27	37	0	.422	2	1	1		[10]
9	June Jones	1994–1996	48	19	29	0	.395					[11]
10	Dan Reeves	1997–2003	109	49	59	1	.454	5	3	2	AP NFL Coach of the Year (1998)[12]	[13]
11	Wade Phillips	2003	3	2	1	0	.666					[14]
12	Jim L. Mora	2004–2006	48	26	22	0	.541	2	1	1		[15]
13	Bobby Petrino*	2007*	13	3	10	0	.231					[16]
14	Emmitt Thomas* ‡	2007*	3	1	2	0	.333					[17]
15	Mike Smith*	2008–2014*	112	66	46	0	.589	5	1	4	AP NFL Coach of the Year (2008)[18]	[19]
16	Dan Quinn*	2015–present*	16	8	8	0	.500					[20]

Notes

• ^a A running total of the number of coaches of the Falcons. Thus, any coach who has two separate terms as head coach is only counted once.
• ^b Each year is linked to an article about that particular season.
• ^c Marion Campbell's full coaching record with the Falcons is 68 regular season games coached with a record of 17–51–0 and a W–L percentage of .250.

References

1. "Atlanta Falcons". Pro Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2008-05-03.
2. "Norb Hecker". databaseSports.com. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
3. "Norm Van Brocklin". databaseSports.com. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
4. "Marion Campbell". databaseSports.com. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
5. "Pat Peppler". databaseSports.com. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
6. "Leeman Bennett". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved 2008-05-03.
7. "Leeman Bennett". databaseSports.com. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
8. "Dan Henning". databaseSports.com. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
9. "Jim Hanifan". databaseSports.com. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
10. "Jerry Glanville". databaseSports.com. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
11. "June Jones". databaseSports.com. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
12. "Daniel Edward Reeves". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved 2008-05-03.
13. "Dan Reeves". databaseSports.com. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
14. "Wade Phillips". databaseSports.com. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
15. "Jim L. Mora". databaseSports.com. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
16. "Bobby Petrino". databaseSports.com. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
17. "Emmitt Thomas". databaseSports.com. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
18. "Falcons' Smith voted as coach of year". www.espn.com. Retrieved 2009-07-04.
19. "Mike Smith Record, Statistics, and Category Ranks". Pro Football Reference. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
20. "Dan Quinn Record, Statistics, and Category Ranks". Pro Football Reference. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 3, 2011.