Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers Coordinator Became 8th Best Head Coach in NFL History

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have seen many people leave and go on to bigger and better things, and coach Joe Gibbs might be one of the biggest.

David Harrison | Jul 14, 2024

Oct 7, 2007; Landover, MD, USA; Washington Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs during pre-game warmups before the start of the game against the Detroit Lions at FedEx Field in Landover, MD. Mandatory Credit: James Lang-USA TODAY Sports Copyright Â© James Lang / James Lang-USA TODAY Sports

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Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The 1978 Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished the year with just five wins and 11 losses.

It was their third season in existence and a new franchise record for wins since the Buccaneers won a total of two games in the two years prior.

Doug Williams was the quarterback after being drafted by Tampa Bay in the first round of the NFL Draft, John McKay was three seasons into a nine-year run as the head coach of the franchise and Joe Gibbs was in his one and only year as the team's offensive coordinator and running backs coach.

Three years later, in 1981, Gibbs would become the head coach in Washington and would go on to win three Super Bowls there and become the eighth-best head coach in NFL history according to a recent top 10 list by 33rd Team.

NFL head coaching legend and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coordinator, Joe Gibbs.

"Gibbs has one fewer career win than John Harbaugh over the same number of seasons, but that completely undersells the impact he had as Washington’s coach. During his first 12-year run with Washington, his teams finished with fewer than eight wins just once, a 7-9 season in 1988, and that includes an 8-1 record in the strike-shortened 1982 season," says 33rd Team's Dan Pizzuta in his column ranking the top 10 NFL head coaches of all-time. "Gibbs led teams to the playoffs nine times with four Super Bowl appearances and three wins. Despite being a Don Coryell pupil and building up an explosive passing game as San Diego’s offensive coordinator, Gibbs’s Washington teams were built through the offensive line and dominant ground game. He’s the only head coach to win a Super Bowl with three different quarterbacks."

One of the quarterbacks Gibbs set that record with is none other than Williams himself. Years after Gibbs was the only coach to work Williams out in the pre-draft process, he was the only one to come calling in 1986 when the quarterback was in search of a new football opportunity.

The two reunited in Washington that year, and in the 1987 season, they won a Super Bowl. It was Gibbs' second and Williams's only one.

And it all started within the walls of the Buccaneers franchise.

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Published Jul 14, 2024

DAVID HARRISON

David Harrison has been in sports media since 2015 using written, audio, and video media to cover athletes, coaches, and games. In addition to covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for BucsGameday and Locked On Bucs he also covers the Washington Commanders for Commander Country and Locked On Commanders and the Washington Wizards for Inside the Wizards. David also covers the NFL as a whole as one of the Friday hosts for Locked On NFL. He is a graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and previously spent 20 years as an active member of the United States Army. Contact David via email at david.w.harrison82@gmail.com or on Twitter @DHarrison82.