By Stephen Juza,

April 12th, 2025

Last week, the NFL Competition Committee voted to recognize statistics from the All-American Football Conference (AAFC) as their own. While the AAFC was only around for a mere four years before having the top teams absorbed into the NFL (while the rest of the teams were divided up amongst the remaining teams), this act does reshape some aspects of the NFL record book.

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One notable inclusion is Paul Brown’s early dominance with the Cleveland Browns. Four seasons that lead to four championships in the AAFC before continuing the team’s dominance into the NFL. Few coaches have seen that amount of early success, so in today’s blog we thought we would look at the coaching career wins leader through the first X number of games in their career, starting with the first 100 games of their career.

In this cart above, each column represents the “Ones” digit, while each row represents the “Tens” digit into a coach's career.

Games 1-14: Jim Caldwell Sets the Standard

Lots of coaches start their career with a win streak. In fact, 180 coaches to date have won their first-ever NFL game as a head coach. As the weeks continue, the list of undefeated coaches shrinks by about half, until we have our first ever sole career wins leader at 9-0 to start his career in Jim Caldwell.

Caldwell may have started his head coaching career in about as great of circumstances as possible. The long-time quarterbacks coach for the Colts inherited a winning team from Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy, with future Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning behind center. With an offense loaded to the brim with talent, and a defense full of playmakers, Caldwell’s first season was record-breaking. The 2009 Colts started the season incredibly hot, eventually getting to 14-0 before the question that always follows a playoff-clinching win. Would Caldwell rest key players down the stretch?

The answer would be “yes”. While Manning and others sat considerable portions of the final two games, the offense was dismal behind backup quarterback Curtis Painter, who completed eight of twenty eight passes in the final two games of the season. The Colts would ultimately drop both games, ending Caldwell’s record of 14 wins to start the season as the mark to beat for any coach. While the season started hot for the Colts, it unfortunately ended in disappointment at the hands of the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl.

Games 16-30: George Seifert Takes the Crown

While Caldwell sat the starters for the final two games of the 2009 season, his run as the wins leader ended at 15 games into his career when others caught up. While a total of six coaches have started their coaching career 14-2, George Seifert emerges as the next record holder by his 20th game.

If Caldwell started in great circumstances, that may pale in comparison to the team that Seifert took over. Seifert inherited a team that had just won the Super Bowl (with three wins in the prior eight years). While Seifert had been the team’s defensive coordinator during their run, the offensive talent was loaded: Joe Montana at quarterback, throwing passes to Jerry Rice and Dwight Clark, and handing the ball off to Roger Craig. No matter which direction the opposing defense looked, All-Pro or Hall of Famers were making plays.

Seifert started his head coaching career with a Super Bowl victory in his first season, followed by a loss in the conference championship in his second, at one point reaching 27 wins in his first 30 games. But a loss in Week 15 to the Saints would allow the next coach to step up and tie Seifert’s remarkable pace to begin his career.

Games 31-100: Paul Brown’s Sustained Dominance

While Seifert may have had the best two seasons to start a career, it pales in comparison to the sustained success of Paul Brown. With the incorporation of the AAFC record books into NFL history, the league recognizes the Cleveland Browns success during the late 40s. With that recognition, Paul Brown holds the record of career wins through X games from 33 games through the end of the chart (100 games).

Last week, we wrote how the Browns dominance over the fledgling league partly led to the downfall of the AAFC. Four seasons, four championships. But the Browns dominance didn’t end there. Even after the Browns joined the NFL (game 53 in the above chart), Brown and the Browns kept the winning vibes going, winning three NFL championships in the first decade in the NFL. Not only that, they appeared in every championship game from 1950-1955. Overall, there would be only a single losing season for Brown in Cleveland, a 5-7 showing in 1956.

Over the next week, we will continue the deep dive into the career wins record through X game into a coaches career.

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