He began his NFL career as a quarterbacks' coach and later as an offensive coordinator with the San Francisco 49ers, where they won Super Bowls XXIII and XXIV.

Holmgren is noted for his role in molding quarterbacks such as Steve Young, Brett Favre, and Matt Hasselbeck during his tenures in San Francisco, Green Bay, and Seattle, respectively.

In total, Holmgren won eight division titles as a head coach to go along with twelve playoff appearances, three NFC Championships and one Super Bowl.

Holmgren started out as a tight end before becoming a standout quarterback and punter at San Francisco's Abraham Lincoln High School where he was named "Prep Athlete of the Year" in 1965 and graduated in 1966.

Holmgren continued his playing career in Los Angeles as a quarterback at the University of Southern California from 1966 to 1969, and was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

Holmgren's coaching career began in 1971 at his alma mater, Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco, where he also taught history.

He also coached at Oak Grove High School in San Jose, California, from 1975 to 1980[1] and won one Central Coast Section championship.

Bosco would make it to Green Bay several years before Holmgren, but his eventual appointment as Packers head coach would bring him back into contact with Andy Reid and Steve Young.

Under Holmgren, Bosco led the Cougars to a national championship in 1984, finished third in Heisman Trophy balloting and was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in 1985.

His years with the 49ers have led to later success mentoring other young assistants and Holmgren is one of the larger branches of the Sid Gillman coaching tree, from which Walsh and Seifert descended.

Holmgren's Packers posted an NFL-best 48–16 (75.0%) record, finished first in the NFC Central Division three times and second once, and set a 7–3 mark in the playoffs between 1995 and 1998.

By taking the Packers to six consecutive postseasons (1993–1998), Holmgren set a franchise record with a team that had had just two winning seasons in the 19 years before he was hired.

Marty Mornhinweg, an assistant hired later in Holmgren's tenure at Green Bay, also became an NFL head coach, and was previously an offensive coordinator under Reid with the Philadelphia Eagles from 2006 to 2012.

Doug Pederson, a backup quarterback for Holmgren's Packers from 1996 through 1998, would also serve as an assistant under Reid in both Philadelphia and with the Kansas City Chiefs, later winning Super Bowl LII as the head coach of the Eagles in 2018.

[3] Holmgren resigned from the Green Bay Packers after the 1998 season to accept an eight-year, $32 million head coach contract offered by the Seattle Seahawks.

With the 2005 NFC Championship win, Holmgren became the fifth member of a small coaching fraternity that has taken two different NFL franchises to the Super Bowl, joining Bill Parcells, Dan Reeves, Don Shula, Dick Vermeil, and later John Fox and Andy Reid.

[16] The Holmgren family is heavily involved in the Evangelical Covenant Church and the denomination's North Park University in Chicago.

Holmgren's grandfather, Jens Bugge,[17] who served briefly as a commandant at West Point and wrote a book on military strategy, also had the distinction of being eulogized by Gen. Douglas MacArthur.