2023 Super Bowl: How coaches in their first trip to the big game, like Eagles’ Nick Sirianni, have fared

Legacy is an overarching theme to any Super Bowl. A win puts you in an exclusive club consisting of the few who have reached the NFL’s mountaintop. For some, it can also be the crown jewel for how they are viewed in league history compared to some of the game’s best. While plenty of that legacy talk will center around both quarterbacks in Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts, there’s also a lot on the line for the head coaches of the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles as well. 

In the case of Philadelphia’s Nick Sirianni, he has reached the Super Bowl for the first time in his head-coaching career. The 41-year-old is in just his second season with the Eagles and off to quite the start leading the team. Philly earned the No. 1 seed in the NFC this season and has dominated throughout the postseason, outscoring its opponents 69-14. 

After digging into the NFL history books to see if Sirianni will have any beginner’s luck on his side, it looks more like a coin flip for the Eagles head coach. 

In the previous 56 Super Bowls, there have been 59 head coaches reaching the big game for the first time in their careers. Combined, those coaches are just below .500, owning a 28-31 record. Of course, it is a bit more difficult to parse through those stats, particularly in the early years of the Super Bowl, as multiple head coaches were playing in the game for the first time. However, even when you look at recent history, it does appear to be more of a 50-50 shot. Since the 2000 season, coaches reaching the Super Bowl for the first time are 13-14.

History of first-time Super Bowl coaches