National Football League

NFL Head Coaches Challenges Record for All 32 Teams

Updated Sep. 21, 2025 12:00 p.m. ET

Some NFL coaches are better than others when deciding when to throw the challenge flag.

Mike McDaniel has struggled during his time as the Miami Dolphins head coach. While he survived the hot seat for now, after keeping pace with the Buffalo Bills on Thursday Night Football, McDaniel has other things to worry about.

When challenging calls on the field, he has the worst among active head coaches who have coached three or more NFL games, and the third-worst rate of any coach with 10+ challenges since 2022.

McDaniel has mustered a 28-26 record while he's been at the helm for four seasons in Miami, and has undoubtedly lost games because of ill-advised challenges. His lack of success challenging calls is another factor in his struggles as a head coach because, if you look at the history of which coaches have the best success rate for challenging calls, the elite coaches are at the top.

Here's a look at which coaches have challenged the most plays, which have had the most and least success doing so, and where McDaniel stacks among his peers.

Coach	Record	Success rate
Brian Callahan	3/4	75%
Brian Daboll	10/14	71.40%
Johnathon Gannon	3/5	60%
Nick Sirriani	10/17	58.80%
Kevin O'Connell	12/21	57.10%
Kyle Shanahan	24/44	54.50%
Mike Vrabel	14/27	51.90%
Kevin Stefanski	10/20	50%
Zac Taylor	10/20	50%
Dave Canales	1/2	50%
Sean McVay	19/40	47.50%
Todd Bowles	13/28	46.50%
Pete Carroll	51/112	45.50%
Andy Reid	37/82	45.10%
Dan Campbell	9/20	45%
Shane Steichen	3/7	42.90%
Mike Tomlin	41/96	42.70%
Matt LaFleur	19/45	42.20%
Jon Harbaugh	55/131	42.00%
Dan Quinn	12/29	41.40%
Sean Payton	6/15	40%
Raheem Morris	14/36	38.90%
Jim Harbaugh	12/38	31.50%
Sean McDermott	11/38	29%
Demeco Ryans	2/7	28.60%
Mike McDaniel	4/19	21.10%
Liam Coen	0/1	0%
Mike Macdonald	0/1	0%
Ben Johnson	0/1	0%
Aaron Glenn	0/0	N/A
Kellen Moore	0/0	N/A
Brian Schottenheimer	0/0	N/A

Sean Payton leads the way with 136 calls challenged, while Pete Carroll is right behind him with 112. They each have a decent success rate, with Payton going 60 of 136 (44.1%) over 16 seasons in New Orleans and two in Denver; and Carroll going 51 of 112 (45.5%) over 14 seasons with Seattle. (Carroll has yet to challenge a call in two games with Las Vegas).

Other medium-term coaches who have accumulated a wealth of challenges include Kyle Shanahan with 44 calls challenged and Sean McVay with 40. Shanahan has an impressive success rate of 24 of 44 (54.5%), while McVay has gone 19 of 40 (47.5%).

The most successful coaches when it comes to challenging (a minimum of 10 challenges) calls are the New York Giants' head coach Brian Daboll (10 of 14), Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni (10 of 17), and Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell (12 of 21).

On the other hand, the Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott is 11 of 38 (28.9%) on calls challenged. And Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans is 2 of 7 (28.6%)

But nobody has been as consistently bad at challenging calls as McDaniel. Over his 54 games in Miami, he's 4 of 19 (21.1%).

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