We saw the likes of Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, John Elway, Joe Montana, Steve Young, Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers win with multiple head coaches.
And then on the flip side, there are several notable NFL quarterbacks that could only win with one certain coach. And if it weren’t for the right pairing at the right time, they simply wouldn’t have reached the success they went on to endure.
With that said, here are 10 NFL quarterbacks that could only win with one coach.
Joe Flacco: John Harbaugh
His stats with the Baltimore Ravens were never fancy, but this is the fact about Joe Flacco: He was an impressive 96-67-0 over his 11 years with the Baltimore Ravens. He was 10-5 in the postseason, leading Baltimore to three AFC title games and of course a Super Bowl 47 championship.
Flacco always saved his best for the postseason, recording a 25:10 touchdown-to-INT ratio. In fact, only Tom Brady – with 11 — has more career road playoff victories than Flacco — who has eight.
Flacco, however, lost his starting job to rookie Lamar Jackson in the midst of the 2018 season after suffering a hip injury. Jackson caught fire and led Baltimore to the AFC North division title, which ultimately ended the Flacco era in B-more.
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Needless to say, Flacco hasn’t been anything close to a competent starting QB since leaving Baltimore. He was traded to the Denver Broncos in the 2019 season, but lost six of eight starts before the Ravens turned over to Drew Lock.
Flacco would serve as a New York Jets’ backup over the next three years. He went 1-8 in those games and tossed 14 touchdowns against six picks while averaging well under 200 passing yards a game.
Thank goodness for Harbaugh, otherwise Flacco wouldn’t have amounted to much of anything at the NFL level.
Eli Manning: Tom Coughlin
Let’s be clear: Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin needed each other. The way Tom Brady and Bill Belichick needed each other. The way Chuck Noll and Terry Staubach needed each other. Any great QB is better with a great head coach and vice versa. Pure and simple.
Coughlin was Manning’s head coach from 2004 to 2015. It was under Coughlin where Manning earned all four of his Pro Bowl nods. It was under Coughlin where Manning led the New York
Giants to stunning Super Bowl 42 and 46 upset wins over the mighty Patriots on both occasions.
But when the Giants parted ways with Coughlin after the 2015 season, Manning’s career wouldn’t really be the same. Yes, the Giants went 11-5 and made the playoffs under new HC Ben McAdoo – but that was mostly thanks to a defense that allowed the second-fewest points. So yeah.
Manning had a tough 2017 season which resulted in McAdoo controversially benching him in favor of Geno Smith — ending Eli’s consecutive starts streak at 210 games. Eli went 3-and-12 as the starter that year.
2018 wasn’t much better despite the arrival of Saquon Barkley. The Giants finished 5-11 on the year, prompting the front office to think long-term. They drafted Daniel Jones sixth overall in 2019, and he finished that year as the Giants’ primary starting QB.
Over his final three years, Manning had a record of 9-26 with 46 touchdowns against 29 picks.
Matt Hasselbeck: Mike Holmgren
Hasselbeck spent his first two NFL seasons in 1999 and 2000 as a backup to Brett Favre. Ahead of the 2001 season, the Seattle Seahawks acquired Hasselbeck in a blockbuster trade — uniting him with former Packers head coach Mike Holmgren.
Hasselbeck and Holmgren were one of football’s top quarterback-head coach combos over their eight years together from 2001 to ‘08. Hasselbeck earned three Pro Bowl nods and helped turn Seattle into an NFC juggernaut — leading them to a Super Bowl 40 appearance.
Together, the duo led the Seahawks to five straight playoff berths from 2003 to ‘07. But Holmgren stepped down from coaching after a miserable 2008 season that saw Seattle finish 4-and-12, and Hasselbeck wasn’t the same after that.
Hasselbeck never threw 20 touchdowns in a season again after Holmgren’s retirement. In his final two years with the Seahawks away from Holmgren, Hasselbeck went 11-and-17. Yes, Seattle upset the New Orleans Saints in the “Beastquake” 2010 NFC Wild Card Game, but that was Marshawn Lynch’s doing — certainly not Hasselbeck’s.
Hasselbeck would spend the 2011 and 2012 seasons with the Tennessee Titans’ before playing out his final three years as Andrew Luck’s understudy in Indianapolis.
Jay Cutler: Lovie Smith
As a starting quarterback, Cutler finished with a winning record three times. Those all came under Lovie Smith, and in three consecutive years from 2010 to 2012.
In his three years with the Broncos, Cutler went 17-20 with 54 touchdowns against 37 interceptions. Following a blockbuster trade in which the Bears swapped Kyle Orton for Cutler in 2009, the latter went on to enjoy the best football of his career.
Cutler led the Bears to an NFC title game appearance in 2010, where they fell to the Green Bay Packers. He won seven of 10 starts in 2011 before unfortunately suffering a season-ending thumb injury.
In 2012, Cutler won 10 of 15 starts, but the Bears missed out on the postseason via tiebreaker to the Minnesota Vikings. In a bit of a surprise move, Smith was fired after the season.
Smith’s firing would be the beginning of the end for Cutler as a starting-caliber QB. In two seasons under Marc Trestman, he went 10-16 and led the league with 18 interceptions in the 2014 campaign.
Cutler got worse following the hiring of John Fox. In two seasons with Fox, Cutler went 7-and-13 before mercilessly retiring. A season-ending injury to Ryan Tannehill in 2017 prompted the Miami Dolphins to sign Cutler and reunite him with old friend Adam Gase.
Cutler had his moments there but went 6-8 with 19 touchdowns against 14 interceptions. How much did he need Lovie to semi-succeed? 34 of Cutler’s 74 wins as an NFL QB came over his four years playing under Smith.
Matt Schaub: Gary Kubiak
Schaub entered the NFL in 2004 and spent his first three seasons as a backup to Michael Vick in Atlanta. In 2007, the Falcons traded Schaub to the Houston Texans — giving Gary Kubiak and company a new long-term starting QB.
After two “meh” first years in Houston, Schaub broke out under Kubiak in 2009. He led the NFL with 4,770 passing yards to go along with 29 touchdowns against 15 picks — also leading Houston to the franchise’s first winning season at 9-7.
In 2011, Schaub won seven of 10 starts before suffering a season-ending injury, but he had done enough to help Houston secure its first division title and playoff berth. A year later, Schaub led the Texans to a franchise-best 12 wins, again surpassing 4,000 passing yards while throwing 22 touchdowns against 12 picks.
Schaub had a miserable final season with Houston in 2013. Kubiak was fired after a 2-and-11 start, and the Texans cut ties with Schaub after the year. He spent the remainder of his career as a backup in Oakland, Baltimore and Atlanta before retiring after the 2020 season.
How much did Kubiak matter to Schaub? Ahem, 46 of Schaub’s 47 career wins as a starting QB came under Kubiak. So yeah.
Jake Delhomme: John Fox
Under Delhomme and Fox, Carolina went to the postseason three times. They nearly upset the mighty Patriots in Super Bowl 38 and got back to the NFC Championship Game in 2005.
In 2008, Carolina won the NFC South with a 12-and-4 record, only to get crushed by the Arizona Cardinals in the Divisional Round. Bottom line, the Panthers could win with Delhomme playing average. He never hit 4,000 yards passing or 30 TDs in a season.
But Delhomme was practically nobody without Fox. Pure and simple. 53 of his 56 career wins came under Fox in Carolina. Delhomme did next-to-nothing in his brief stints with New Orleans and Cleveland, either.
Also, did you know 120 of Delhomme’s 126 career passing touchdowns came with Fox as his head coach? Somebody couldn’t win. That’s what the Fox says!
Bernie Kosar: Marty Schottenheimer
Many QBs enjoyed great success with Marty Schottenheimer. But perhaps none of them owe their career more to the late Schottenheimer than Mr. Kosar himself.
Together, Kosar and Schottenheimer breathed new life into the Cleveland franchise and helped them to the postseason four straight years from 1985 to 1988. That included trips to the 1986 and ‘87 AFC Championship Games, both heartbreaking losses to John Elway’s Broncos.
Kosar was a one-time Pro Bowler in 1987 who enjoyed his best seasons under Schottenheimer. After the 1988 season, Schottenheimer and the Browns agreed to part ways. Though Kosar and the Browns went on to reach – and lose to! – the Broncos in the AFC title game in 1989, his stats declined considerably that year.
Kosar went 11-25 over the 1990, 91 and ‘92 seasons as Cleveland’s starter. Kosar was released in the midst of the 1993 season and joined the Dallas Cowboys, where he’d win a ring as a backup to Troy Aikman.
Kosar was then a backup to Dan Marino for his final three NFL seasons from 1994 to ‘96. He simply disappeared into irrelevance of NFL QBs long after Schottenheimer had left.
Carson Wentz: Doug Pederson
Does this one need much explanation? Wentz played his best football under Pederson during their five years together from 2016 to 2020. Wentz would’ve likely won 2017 MVP honors if he didn’t suffer a season-ending ACL tear late in the campaign against the Los Angeles Rams.
The Eagles went on to win Super Bowl 52 with Nick Foles anyway. A year later, Philly chose Wentz and parted ways with Foles — who signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars in free agency.
Over the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Wentz had 48 touchdowns against just 14 interceptions. He rallied the Eagles to the NFC East division crown despite a plethora of injuries to Philly’s core offensive players in 2019.
2020 was a miserable final year together for both Wentz and Pederson. The former was benched in favor of Jalen Hurts late in the year, and the Eagles wound up firing Pederson before trading Wentz to the Indianapolis Colts in the offseason.
Wentz and the Colts finished 9-8 in 2021, but a loss to the NFL-worst Jaguars in Week 18 in a win-or-go-home contest prompted Jim Irsay to make a change. Wentz was traded to the Washington Commanders, while the Colts made an ill-fated trade for Matt Ryan.
In seven starts for Washington in 2022, Wentz went 2-5 with 11 touchdowns against nine picks. Realizing their mistake, the Commanders released Wentz after the season.
The No. 2 selection of the 2016 NFL Draft won’t go down as an all-time draft bust. Not even close. We can’t forget his role in helping the Eagles win the franchise’s first Super Bowl.
But at the same time, it’s obvious that Wentz was never able to succeed unless he had Pederson as his coach.
Daunte Culpepper: Mike Tice
We’ll acknowledge that Culpepper had an excellent first year under Dennis Green in 2000 — even helping Minnesota to the NFC title game that year. But the bulk of Culpepper’s prime came under Mike Tice, and the former wasn’t the same after Tice left.
Two of Culpepper’s three Pro Bowl nods came under Tice. Culpepper’s career year in which he threw a league-leading 4,717 yards and 39 touchdowns in 2004 came under Tice.
After both men left Minnesota in 2006, Culpepper’s career went down the toilet. Miami infamously traded for Culpepper instead of signing Drew Brees in the offseason, and we know how that played out.
Injuries limited Culpepper to four games as a Dolphin. He spent the ‘07 campaign with the Oakland Raiders and the 2008 and ‘09 seasons with the Detroit Lions. His record after leaving Minnesota? 3-and-17. 14 touchdowns against 18 interceptions.
Big-time yikes!
Ryan Tannehill: Mike Vrabel
Well, isn’t this one obvious and rather self-explanatory?
Tannehill spent six seasons with the Miami Dolphins from 2012 to 2018 — missing the entire 2017 season to injury. He went 42-46-0 as their starter, leading Miami to just one winning season and playoff berth in that span.
In Miami, Tannehill never topped 27 touchdowns in a season. And as a Dolphin, his quarterback finish rating finished below 90 in three different seasons. Simply put, Tannehill just couldn’t win with Joe Philbin or renowned QB killer coach Adam Gase.
Lo and behold, Tannehill revived his career following a 2019 trade to the Titans. In Week 6, head coach Mike Vrabel got fed up with Marcus Mariota and benched him in favor of Tannehill during a shutout loss to the Broncos.
All Tannehill did from there was win seven of 10 starts while completing an astounding 70.3 percent of his passes for 22 touchdowns against only six interceptions. Tannehill won Comeback Player of the Year honors after leading Tennessee to the AFC title game, where they fell to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Proving 2019 was no fluke, Tannehill led Tennessee to back-to-back double-digit win seasons and AFC South division crowns in 2020 and 2021. He had 54 total touchdown passes in that two-year span.
Tennessee was in the driver’s seat to win the AFC South again in 2022 before suffering a right-ankle injury that sidelined him for the final three games. The Titans dropped their final seven games and missed out on the postseason.
Still, Tannehill’s record under Vrabel in Tennessee over four years speaks for itself: 36-19-0 with 89 touchdowns, 33 picks and three playoff appearances. Moral of the story: Tannehill can only win if he has Vrabel.
Not that he has to apologize for it.
