The best second-chance coaching tenures in NFL history

Pardee was at the controls of the Run and Shoot Oilers, whom he guided to four playoff berths in four full seasons on the job. This was Pardee’s third coaching gig. After three Bears years, he led Washington to a 10-win season in 1979. He spent the 1980s in pass-crazed systems, first with the USFL’s Houston Gamblers and then with the Houston Cougars. This gave way to another NFL try in 1990. In addition to Warren Moon’s early-’90s dominance, Pardee’s Oilers fielded three top-10 defenses. They were notoriously unreliable in the playoff, however. Three straight January collapses — one towering over the others — preceded his firing.