NFL Power Rankings: 30 Best Coaches of All-Time
By Will Osgood
6. Chuck Noll (1969-1991)
Lynn Swan recently represented the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Chuck Noll teams in Canton when he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The interesting thing about Swann is that his play was somewhat atypical of Noll’s Steelers teams. They were always very physical, smart and hard-working. That’s not to say that Swann was not any of those things.
But the first thing anyone would remember about Swann were his spectacular catches, not his blocking or coach’s tape route-running. In some ways, Noll’s ability to fit in a player like Swann shows how great of a coach he was. While no player would have ever been bigger than the team for Noll, he also understood that a system needs to fit the talent, not the vice-versa. Most coaches today mess that up.
Noll’s incredible stats: 23 seasons, .566 regular season winning percentage, 12 playoff apperances, .667 playoff win percentage and 4 Super Bowl championships. And he mentored Tony Dungy, among others. He had an Okay Coaching Tree.
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