NFL: Each team’s greatest head coach in franchise history

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Tony Dungy (1996-01)

Tony Dungy was already named the best coach in Indianapolis Colts history. He makes the list again, but this time as the top shot-caller the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have ever employed. Before helping Peyton Manning win his first title with the Colts, Dungy was changing the image of the Buccaneers franchise.

Perennial losers, the Buccaneers had just three winning seasons since their inception in 1976 until the time Dungy was hired in 1996. With him coaching, they had only one losing season over the next six years — which happened to be the 6-10 campaign they had during his rookie season as a coach.

Just to show how great of a coach he really was, this was also Dungy’s only losing season in his career. Only once did he finish with an even 8-8 record which came in 1998.

Dungy took the Buccaneers to the postseason four times but started to gain a reputation as a coach who couldn’t get it done in the playoffs. That led to them making a high-profile trade for Jon Gruden in 2002.

To replace Dungy with Gruden, Tampa Bay gave up two first-round picks and a second-round pick — plus $8 million in cash. The move paid off, as the Buccaneers won a Super Bowl in Gruden’s first season as a coach against his former team in the Oakland Raiders.

While that win makes Gruden the only coach to win a Super Bowl in Tampa Bay, he did so with the team Dungy built. He then ended up with three losing seasons in the following four years and had an overall record of just 57-55 compared to Dungy’s 54-42 mark.