11. Jeff Fisher
Regular-season record: 173-165-1
Postseason record: 5-6
Houston/Tennessee Oilers, 1994-1998
Tennessee Titans, 1999-2010
St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams, 2012-2016
Lost in the miasma of his “7-9 bull[bleep]” years with the Rams, and Jared Goff’s nightmare rookie season of 2016 in which he may have been the worst first-year quarterback in NFL history is the fact that, for the most part, Jeff Fisher was a pretty good coach. A safety for Buddy Ryan’s Bears defenses in the 1980s, Fisher suffered a broken leg in the 1983 season when he was tackled by an Eagles linebacker by the name of Bill Cowher. Both men would go on to be NFL head coaches. Fisher’s journey started in 1985 when he assisted Ryan while recovering from an ankle injury. Fisher joined Ryan’s coaching staff in Philadelphia after Chicago’s 1985 Super Bowl season and became Ryan’s defensive coordinator in 1989 at age 31. His first opportunity as a head coach came after he replaced Ryan as the Houston Oilers’ defensive coordinator in 1994, and then replaced head coach Jack Pardee with six games left in the season.
Fisher stayed with the Oilers/Titans franchise through the 2010 season, making the playoffs in six different seasons. His closest brush with a Super Bowl win was as close as any coach can get — the Titans lost Super Bowl XXXIV at the end of the 1999 season when Rams linebacker Mike Jones tackled receiver Kevin Dyson one yard from the goal line with the clock running out and the Rams up 23-16. He didn’t make the playoffs in five seasons with the Rams, and was fired after Week 14 in 2016. Fisher’s final loss tied him with Dan Reeves with the most regular-season defeats (165) in NFL history.