Andy Reid's Coaching Legacy: A Dynasty in the Making or the Final Chapter?

For most of his prolific coaching career, Andy Reid was viewed as one of the best coaches ever who couldn't quite close the deal and win a Super Bowl. During his 14-year stint coaching the Eagles, Reid reached five NFC Championship Games and appeared in one Super Bowl, but he didn't have a title to show for his efforts. His first six seasons in Kansas City didn't produce a championship, either, but Reid has rewritten the narrative over the past five seasons, reaching four Super Bowls and winning three. After back-to-back titles in Super Bowls LVII and LVIII, Reid is one of only five head coaches in NFL history to win three Super Bowls, along with Bill Belichick (six), Chuck Noll (four), Bill Walsh (three), and Joe Gibbs (three). Even before this two-year run, he had become one of only 12 coaches to reach the Super Bowl three times. 

Reid is undoubtedly a Hall of Fame coach at this point, as he ranks fourth on the all-time regular season wins list with 258 and has added three championships after his 60th birthday. When asked about the possibility of retiring in the aftermath of Kansas City's thrilling 25-22 overtime victory in Super Bowl LVIII, the 65-year-old Reid said he hasn't even considered ending his coaching career. Given his advanced age and the Chiefs' recent success under his leadership, is Reid writing the final chapter of his legendary coaching career, or could Reid still add substantially to his accolades as the Chiefs continue their dynastic run? Recent coaching trends suggest the latter scenario is certainly on the table.

Reid, Belichick, and Tom Coughlin are the only coaches to win multiple Super Bowls after age 60. Belichick and Reid have three apiece, while Coughlin's titles with the Giants at the expense of Belichick's Patriots came when Coughlin was 61 and 65 years old. Bruce Arians is the oldest head coach to win a Super Bowl, doing so in Super Bowl LV at age 68 with quarterback Tom Brady, who also brought Belichick all six of his titles. George Halas won his last NFL championship with the Bears at age 68 in 1963, but that was a few years before the Super Bowl era. Other coaches to win a Super Bowl after age 60 are Dick Vermeil (Super Bowl XXXIV; age 63), Pete Carroll (Super Bowl XLVIII; age 62), and Weeb Ewbank (Super Bowl III; age 61).

Disregarding Halas' pre-Super Bowl era title, that's 12 titles for sexagenarian head coaches, split among seven coaches. Luckily for Reid, we're in the era of older leaders thriving. Nine of the last 13 Super Bowls were won by a coach over the age of 60, and Reid is at least 12 years younger than both leading US Presidential candidates. Those two candidates each won a presidential election after the age of 70, so a football coach winning a Super Bowl after that milestone doesn't seem too far fetched, especially when that coach has Patrick Mahomes as his quarterback. Reid's in no danger of losing the head coaching job in Kansas City after the team's recent success, and much like the Brady-Belichick partnership, Reid-Mahomes looks like a combination that's poised to continue contending for titles year in and year out.

Both Carroll and Belichick were relieved of head coaching duties after the 2023 season, at the respective ages of 72 and 71. Their exits leave the 65-year-old Reid as the NFL's oldest active head coach, ahead of 61-year-old John Harbaugh in Baltimore. The oldest head coach in NFL history was 73-year-old Romeo Crennel, who served as Houston's interim head coach for 12 games in 2020. Halas and Marv Levy both coached until age 72 as well. If Reid coaches six more seasons until age 71 to match Belichick, he would have a realistic chance of surpassing Belichick (302), Halas (318), and NFL record holder Don Shula (328) on the all-time regular-season wins list. Reid needs 70 wins to match Shula, and getting 12 per season for six years would net him an additional 72 wins. In the last six seasons, which coincide with Mahomes' first six campaigns as a starting quarterback in the NFL, the Chiefs have compiled 75 regular-season wins (12.5 per season), as well as a 15-3 playoff record. An even more reachable record for Reid is the top all-time mark in postseason wins, as he needs only five more to match Belichick's NFL record of 31.

The biggest obstacles to Reid's pursuit of additional Super Bowl titles could be a trio of coaches each more than 20 years his junior: 44-year-old Kyle Shanahan, 40-year-old Zac Taylor and 38-year-old Sean McVay. Shanahan's 49ers have lost to Reid's Chiefs in the Super Bowl twice in the past five years, including the most recent Super Bowl, but San Francisco appears poised to remain a top contender after reaching at least the NFC Championship Game in four of the past five seasons. With 64 wins since taking over as 49ers head coach in 2017, Shanahan's quickly climbing up the all-time list, and he has a chance to end up near the top of the list one day if he coaches into his 60's, or at least to catch his father Mike Shanahan's career total of 170 wins. Taylor's Bengals are one of the two teams to defeat Reid's Chiefs in the playoffs over the past five seasons, and Taylor has 31 regular-season wins in the last three seasons after notching only six wins across his first two campaigns in Cincinnati. McVay theoretically has an even better chance to climb the all-time lists than Shanahan, as the Rams' head coach already has 70 wins on his resume, as well as a Super Bowl title. McVay has seriously considered retiring already, though, so he seems unlikely to have Reid's level of staying power.

To see where Reid stacks up against the other NFL coaches with the most Super Bowl success in league history, the below table contains all 12 coaches to appear in at least three Super Bowls, as well as their ages when they won.