The Way This Strange Campaign Redefined the Conventional Coach of the Year Mould.
Typically, the National Football League's Coach of the Year award follows a simple script. It commonly acts as a type of apology. Our apologies we underestimated your squad in our pre-campaign projections.
On paper, it's a direct trajectory: the coach who engineered the biggest turnaround is handed the award. However, it sparks an annual discussion about expectations and whether we're genuinely honoring excellent coaching or simply the greatest upset.
However the latest field is distinctly unique. The list of contenders is remarkably talented. It has been the campaign of turnarounds. The NFL has been chaotic, with recent division winners fading and recent also-rans ascending together. During an typical year, Sean Payton leading the his team to the summit of the AFC would make him the clear favorite. But in this wild and thrilling year, he's up against five other outstanding coaches.
This is how the hypothetical vote could shake out.
5) The Chicago Bears Coach, Chicago Bears, 11-5
Voters for Coach of the Year selectors adore QBs. This is a tradition. Sean McVay in 2017. Kevin Stefanski in 2020. A third in 2022. Should you fix a quarterback, you're well on your way to winning the award.
The Bears' head coach didn't merely corrected his young quarterback; he's freed him. Within an ideal ecosystem, the QB has been afforded the opportunity to display his otherworldly ability. Since Week 9, the Bears rank number four in offensive Expected Points Added per play. This isn't a hot streak – it's prolonged performance. With his guidance, Williams has become increasingly decisive, less careless, and has eagerly submitted to the scheme rather than improvising. It is an attack designed solely in the coach's image: a bully-ball ground attack, a consistent dose of play-action passes and a imaginative passing attack that springs wide receiver targets all over the field. Williams has taken advantage. And when easy reads weren't available, he's been capable to create big plays out of nothing.
The coach came to Chicago with a defined offensive blueprint. Almost every gamble – rebuilding the offensive line, utilizing the tight ends, turning the QB into a rhythm passer – has succeeded. This is rare for a first-year head coach. And it's rarer still for a coach who entered the building with the level of pressure he did. For consecutive straight cycles, he was the most sought-after name on the head coaching market. However when it comes to selecting a head coach, there are zero guarantees. Somehow, he has met the hype – and even exceeded them. He's proven not only to be a offensive wizard but the kind of leader that can inject new life into an organization.
During a ordinary season, he would be the clear-cut choice. Yet this isn't a typical year!
Where his candidacy comes slightly unstuck is on the defensive side. The Bears presently rank in the bottom third in defensive efficiency. They are living on turnovers, and turnovers are notoriously fickle. Defensive minds can focus on creating turnovers, but no one can guarantee it. Johnson is on the ballot because the offensive production is legitimate. He's not higher because luck is doing an outsized share of the defensive heavy lifting. If not for a few bounces of the ball, the team would be two wins worse off. It's been an exceptional turnaround, and the core is in place for sustained success. But Johnson comes up short in this ranking.
4) The Jacksonville Jaguars Coach, Jacksonville Jaguars, Their Record
The Jaguars' coach is in a similar situation to Johnson. He's a fellow first-time head coach who has engineered a swift resurgence. Over the crucial final weeks of the year, he has his franchise quarterback playing the most complete all-around ball of his professional life. And he's also overseen the overhaul of a defensive unit that now ranks number five in the NFL in Expected Points Added per play.
Even more notably, Coen has nailed the leadership aspects, which wasn't a given following his initial public appearances and some of his preseason decisions.
The coach took over Jacksonville with an uncommonly inexperienced staff. In contrast to other coaches, who surrounded themselves with the ideal staff mix of new ideas and veteran savvy, he trusted first-timers. From the head coach on down to coordinators to position coaches, the Jaguars are stocked with first-timers. That kind of setup is intriguing on paper, but often fails in reality – with other teams are a warning – because everybody is figuring out a new job in real-time. But Coen has pulled the entire group and all elements into sync.
Following an early strong beginning, there was a chance that the season would veer off the rails. A midseason setback had the team wobbling once more. That's usually when coaches panic and change too much. He didn't. Instead, he streamlined the approach. The offense stopped pursuing home-run plays and started hunting consistent ones. The coach recentered the attack around key players and the ground attack, and encouraged his QB to use his legs more.
The outcomes are evident. The Jags have won multiple games in a row and will be the AFC's number three playoff seed. He gets the slightest knock in the rankings because he took over a talented team, but he has proven he can get the most out of that roster.
3) The Seattle Seahawks Coach, His Team, 13-3
Each Coach of the Year case has a defining moment. For the Seahawks coach, it was his quarterback choice.
Moving on from a veteran, bringing in a different signal-caller and pairing him with an innovative offensive coordinator might have ended the campaign in October. Rather, it made it. By the middle point of the season, the new QB was an MVP front-runner. He has regressed since that time, slipping to 23rd in efficiency per pass attempt over the second half of the schedule, placing him just one place ahead of other QBs.
Still
