Cowher is off the list because he achieves only with "star heavy teams?" But Gruden's achievement is "undeniable?" The Steelers are notorious for letting top talent leave and developing draft picks and depth to replace it. Cowher has seen the loss of numerous talented players and always adjusted. The Tampa Bay Bucaneers won the Super Bowl under Gruden with a Hall of Fame safety(Lynch) two Hall of Fame lineman(Sapp, Rice), a Hall of Fame linebacker(Brooks) and two very good wide receivers in Keyshawn and McCardell. I highly doubt there is another Super Bowl team in the last ten years that approached that level of talent and accomplishment. And as for Gruden's success with the Raiders, well, they're still trying to recover from the cap implications of those years. -X-
Are you serious? Cowher's biggest single acheivement - his victory over the Colts - was, by his own admission, the result of a game plan he stole from San Diego, who stole it from New England. Kordell Stewart was not considered a disaster of a quarterback until he was dismantled in the playoffs. He even had a ProBowl year, as hard as that is to believe. After his epic collapse in the AFC Championship, the guy never recovered to play a useful down of football ever again. Bill Cowher's legacy should be that he had year after year of superbly talented teams - particularly his defenses - in divisions stocked with losers for teams, and he was best known for the absence of championships. If Carson Palmer weren't knocked out of that last playoff game, I suspect that reputation would have continued.
1.Belichick 2. Cowher 3. Parcells 4. Fox 5. Reid Another good one, while certainly not top 5 material, but an honorable mention IMO is Jack Del Rio.