Ranking the Top 5 Lions head coaches of all-time

It has been almost 100 years of existence for the Detroit Lions, and still no Super Bowl wins. Heck, there still hasn't been an appearance.

But, the current mold is looking to change things. Maybe, just maybe, Dan Campbell has the right thing going, here.

Now, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Right now, instead of looking ahead, we're going to look back a bit. Detroit's coaching history is a little tough to try and rank, in terms of a top five, but here is our best shot at making sense of them.

5. Joe Schmidt

Checking in at number five, Joe Schmidt took over as Lions head coach just two years after his playing career came to an end. A Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, as a player, Schmidt would go on to coach Detroit from 1967 to 1972.

Overall, Schmidt went 43-34-7 as head coach and would lead Detroit to just one playoff appearance. However, what puts him on this list over Monte Clark, who also has the same amount of career wins, is the fact that Schmidt's overall winning percentage is much stronger.

Clark coached one more season and saw one more playoff appearance than Schmidt, but his record as a head coach was just 43-61-1, giving Schmidt an edge.

In Schmidt's first two seasons as head coach, he and the organization enjoyed two of the strongest draft classes to ever come through Detroit, including a pair of Hall of Famers, Lem Barney and Charlie Sanders. He was able to take over a roster that was in full-on rebuild mode and give them new life. After those two initial years, Schmidt enjoyed four winning seasons in a row.