The Way This Strange Campaign Broke the Traditional Coach of the Year Mould.
Usually, the National Football League's Coach of the Year honor adheres to a simple pattern. It often serves as a form of mea culpa. Our apologies we underestimated your squad in our preseason predictions.
In theory, it's a direct trajectory: the skipper who orchestrated the largest resurgence wins the award. However, it fuels an annual argument about expectations and whether we're truly honoring excellent leadership or simply the most shocking shock.
However the latest field is fundamentally unique. The list of candidates is unusually deep. It has been the season of resurgences. The league has been messy, with recent division winners declining and longtime also-rans rising together. Under an typical season, Sean Payton guiding the his team to the summit of the conference would make him the clear favorite. Yet in this turbulent and fun season, he's facing several other outstanding candidates.
This is how the hypothetical vote should be structured.
5) The Chicago Bears Coach, Chicago Bears, 11-5
Coach of the Year voters love quarterbacks. This is a tradition. Sean McVay in 2017. Another in 2020. A third in 2022. Should you solve a franchise QB, you're halfway to winning the award.
Ben Johnson didn't merely corrected his young quarterback; he's unleashed him. In the right system, the QB has been given the opportunity to demonstrate his otherworldly talent. Since Week 9, the Bears rank fourth in offensive Expected Points Added per play. That's not a hot streak – it's sustained dominance. With his guidance, the quarterback has become increasingly decisive, far less careless, and has eagerly submitted to the gameplan instead of going rogue. It is an attack designed solely in the coach's vision: a bully-ball run game, a steady helping of play-action passes and a innovative aerial game that springs wide-open receivers consistently. The QB has capitalized. And when easy reads weren't there, he's been capable to create big plays from nothing.
Johnson came to Chicago with a specific offensive blueprint. Virtually each gamble – rebuilding the trenches, utilizing the tight ends, turning the QB into a rhythm passer – has worked. This is rare for a rookie head coach. And it's even more uncommon yet for a leader who walked into the building with the kind of pressure Johnson did. For two straight cycles, he was the top name on the coaching carousel. But when it comes to hiring a leader, there are no guarantees. Remarkably, he has lived up to expectations – and even surpassed them. He's demonstrated not just to be a scheme dork but the type of culture builder that can inject new life into an franchise.
During a ordinary year, Johnson would be the clear-cut choice. But the current isn't a normal year!
Where his candidacy comes slightly into trouble is on defense. The Bears presently sit in the bottom third in defensive success rate. They are relying on turnovers, and turnovers are notoriously inconsistent. Defensive minds can focus on creating turnovers, but nobody can ensure it. He is on the list because the offense is sustainable. He's not higher because variance is doing an outsized share of the defensive heavy lifting. If not for a couple breaks of the ball, the Bears would be several victories behind. It's been an exceptional turnaround, and the core is in place for long-term success. But he falls short in this ranking.
4) Liam Coen, His Team, Their Record
Coen is in a comparable spot to Johnson. He's another first-time leader who has masterminded a rapid resurgence. Over the stretch run of the year, he has Trevor Lawrence playing the finest all-around ball of his professional life. And he's also spearheaded the overhaul of a defensive unit that now ranks number five in the NFL in EPA per play.
What's more impressively, he has mastered the leadership aspects, which wasn't a given following his initial press conference appearances and some of his preseason moves.
Coen took over the Jaguars with an exceptionally raw staff. In contrast to Johnson, who packed themselves with the ideal coaching blend of new ideas and veteran savvy, Coen trusted newbies. From the head coach himself to assistants to assistant coaches, the Jags are stocked with first-timers. That kind of approach is exciting on paper, but often collapses in practice – as past failures are a cautionary tale – because everyone is figuring out a their job on the fly. But Coen has managed to bring everyone and everything together.
Following an initial strong beginning, there was a possibility that the season would go off the track. A mid-year setback caused the Jags wobbling once more. That's usually when coaches overcorrect. He didn't. Instead, he streamlined things. Jacksonville stopped chasing explosive answers and started seeking consistent ones. The coach refocused the attack around key players and the running game, and encouraged Lawrence to use his legs more.
The results are clear. The Jaguars have won seven games consecutively and will be the conference's number three seed. He gets the slightest deduction in the standings because he inherited a talented team, but he has proven he can get the most out of that roster.
3) Mike Macdonald, His Team, Their Record
Each Coach of the Year argument has a defining decision. For Mike Macdonald, it was his quarterback decision.
Moving on from a veteran, bringing in a new quarterback and partnering him with an new offensive coordinator could have ended the season in the early weeks. Rather, it defined it. By the middle point of the season, the acquisition was an MVP front-runner. He has regressed after that hot streak, dropping to 23rd in efficiency per pass attempt over the second half of the schedule, placing him just one place ahead of peers.
Still
