clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

The GGN All Time Jets Team: Head Coach

New York Jets Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images

We have the winner of the vote at head coach: Weeb Ewbank!

Weeb Ewbank was a professional head coach for 20 years, from 1954 through 1973, the last 11 years with the Jets. Ewbank got his start in 1949 as an assistant to the legendary Paul Brown with the Cleveland Browns, then a franchise in the upstart All-America Football Conference. The AAFC folded after the 1949 season and the Browns were absorbed into the NFL, where they shocked the world by winning the NFL Championship in their first NFL season in 1950.

After five years as an assistant under Brown, Weeb Ewbank left the Browns for the opportunity to become a head coach with the Baltimore Colts, a struggling team in its second year in the NFL. In 1956 Ewbank brought in a young quarterback who had recently been cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers by the name of Johnny Unitas. Unitas blossomed under Ewbank, and by 1958 the tandem produced the first of two back to back NFL championships. In 1963 Ewbank left the Colts to become head coach of the New York Jets. Ewbank brought in Alabama quarterback Joe Namath in 1965, and together they led the Jets to Super Bowl III in the 1968 season. That game featured Ewbank facing his old team, the Baltimore Colts, led by his old quarterback, Johnny Unitas (out for most of the season with an injury), and coached by one of his old Colts players, former defensive back Don Shula. Ewbank and the Jets got the best of all his old Colts connections that day in a stunning 16-7 upset victory. That victory made Ewbank the only head coach ever to win an NFL Championship, an AFL Championship, and a Super Bowl.

Weeb Ewbank was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 1978, and died on November 17, 1998, 30 years to the day after the infamous “Heidi Game” against the Raiders in 1968.

We continue building the GGN All Time Jets Team by adding coaches. We’re going to vote on just three coaches: a head coach, an offensive coordinator and a defensive coordinator. Nominees must have served at least two years with the Jets in the capacity they are nominated for. Each coach can only serve in one capacity.

Let’s continue with the offensive coordinator. Let’s hear from all of you who is the greatest Jets offensive coordinator of all time.

Poll

Who is the best Jets offensive coordinator of all time?

This poll is closed

  • 19%
    Clive Rush
    (50 votes)
  • 1%
    Ken Shipp
    (4 votes)
  • 2%
    John Idzik
    (7 votes)
  • 33%
    Joe Walton
    (86 votes)
  • 3%
    Rich Kotite
    (10 votes)
  • 18%
    Charlie Weis
    (48 votes)
  • 1%
    Paul Hackett
    (4 votes)
  • 9%
    Brian Schottenheimer
    (25 votes)
  • 2%
    Marty Mornhinweg
    (7 votes)
  • 6%
    Chan Gailey
    (16 votes)
257 votes total Vote Now