Of the major sports I think the NFL is the most dependent on coaching. During the 80s and 90s the league was pretty much dominated by 4 coaches:
- Bill Walsh
- Joe Gibbs
- Jimmy Johnson
- Bill Parcells
Whereas the AFC had the better coaches the previous decades like:
- Noll
- Shula (he continued to coach into the 90s but he was mostly ahead of his peers in the 70s.
During his time with the Raiders the Broncos have only won 8 games (8-17) so its not like these 3 wins were against a good team.