Week 15 of the NFL season is almost here and will be kicking off Thursday Night Football with an NFC West Divisional matchup between the Niners and Ram. It's getting close to the time of the year when everyone in the NFL world, including the fans, can vote on many different awards. The obvious biggest honor is the NFL’s regular season MVP. There are also smaller rewards such as the Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Offensive Rookie of the Year, Defensive Rookie of the Year, and even the Comeback Player of the Year. Those are the most notable trophies that are given out after the season concludes. Many of the other less savory honors awarded will include one that solidifies the efforts of whom many feel was the best head coach of the year. In my opinion, there have been several coaches this season for whom you can make a case that fits as a possible COTY candidate.
JIM HARBAUGH, LOS ANGELES CHARGERS- 8-5
Harbaugh
has turned around a franchise that hasn’t been the worst team, although they weren’t
reaching their true potential either.
The Los Angeles Chargers have had one of the best young talents at the
quarterback position Justin Herbert, since the 2020 season when they drafted
him out of Oregon. Sadly, they didn’t
seem to have the right coaching to bring the most out of the rest of the team
around Herbert. Now with Jim Harbaugh,
they have looked like a completely different team than just a year ago. They are dominant on defense, the offense has
been getting better throughout the season, and they are even poised for a
playoff run. Though Herbert and McConkey
are both a little banged up and they await J.K. Dobbins to hopefully get healthy
by the end of the regular season. At 8-5,
the Chargers are firmly in the playoff picture while they’re seemingly back and
may even surprise some teams in the postseason.
It has only taken Harbaugh 14 weeks to take a team, which many thought
was a joke, and turn them into a contender.
JONATHAN GANNON, ARIZONA CARDINALS-
6-7
Jonathan
Gannon is a lesser-known head coach around the league. If you are a Philadelphia Eagles fan you may
remember him as their defensive coordinator for two seasons (2021-2022). He has held other coaching positions, but
none as highly regarded as DC until the Arizona Cardinals hired him last year
to become their head coach. Though he
couldn’t turn the Cardinals' misfortunes around at the pace that Jim Harbaugh
was able to do for the Chargers, what he has done in Arizona is still very
impressive, nonetheless. This year he
has helped ascend their level of play on defense, while also impacting the
overall environment of the locker room. If
you hear how he speaks about the ins and outs of what he preaches to the team
week after week, you start to like the guy and realize he is exactly the type
of presence they have been needing.
Kyler is 100% healthy and has been balling out, Budda Baker is still
balling out as their defensive veteran/captain along with being their number
one defender. The Cardinals just dropped
the torch as the leaders of the NFC West, losing twice to Seattle plus a loss
to Minnesota in between their games with the Seahawks. I still have faith in the Cardinals and
believe they will go on another winning streak like the one they are just a few
weeks removed from. I do however still
like them to wind up winning their division at 10-7 or 9-8. They still pose a 2-2 division record as of
now and have a chance with Seattle’s tough slate of games remaining. Gannon currently has them as the 10th-best
team in the NFC with a 6-7 record.
SEAN PAYTON, DENVER BRONCOS- 8-5
It
hasn’t taken too long for Sean Payton’s offensive ingeniousness to kick in as
the Denver Broncos head coach. Sean
wanted to get rid of Russell Wilson, so he got it. He wanted the Broncos cap to eat over 70
million from Wilson’s deal, so he got it.
Sean wanted to draft Bo Nix, so he got that. There was speculation that he could make this
kid out of Oregon somewhat resemble his once Hall of Fame protégé, quarterback
Drew Brees. Well to his credit Bo is
starting to show a glimmer of that type of play. Payton has Nix looking like the best rookie
QB, which is saying a lot when Bo was the fifth player drafted from his
position. Courtland Sutton is looking
more like the Pro Bowl rookie version of himself now than he has in any of the
past five seasons. We are now going into
week 15, and the Broncos seem to have a top-three, if not the best defense in
the league. Before last week's Monday night
high-scoring affair, the Broncos' offense had been rolling while not committing
a single turnover in their last 15 quarters played, best of all the Broncos are
8-5. Coach Payton has this Denver team
ready to break their 9-year absence from the playoffs as they are presently in
7th place in the AFC playoff picture, having at least two fewer
losses from the next closest team.
MIKE TOMLIN, PITTSBURGH STEELERS-
10-3
Mike
Tomlin is arguably one of the best coaches in the NFL. I strongly believe he has been one of the
best Head Coaches for a long time now.
Yes, Tomlin has only won one Super Bowl, but he has gotten to two of
them as the Steelers head coach. He has
also led Pittsburgh to 11 playoff appearances, won 7 division titles, and
brought them to 3 AFC championship games.
However, the most impressive thing about Mike Tomlin is that he has
never had a losing season in his entire head coaching tenure. Though a lot of those teams had one of the
top quarterbacks in Ben Roethlisberger or posed as one of the elite defenses. Even after a few years without “Big Ben” or
with banged-up defenses that weren’t so elite, Mike Tomlin still managed to find
a way to be a .500 team or better. This
season Tomlin had to coach his way through an unconventional, unique situation
that he had never dealt with before. He
had to choose between a good veteran quarterback Russell Wilson or the young
and upcoming, talented ex-Chicago Bears QB Justin Fields to become his
starter. To start the season Fields was
placed as the Steelers starter due to Wilson getting injured a few weeks before
their opening game. Fields began the
season well, though he seemed to limit their offense. Tomlin chose to go with his gut thus
replacing Fields with Wilson and it’s been sunny skies since. The Steelers currently sit atop the AFC North
division after beating the Baltimore Ravens just a few weeks ago. I believe Tomlin more than deserves a Coach of
the Year award, having them in third place in this extremely tough AFC
conference at 10-3. I also think it is
crazy that he’s never won COTY honors in the past.
DAN QUINN, WASHINTON COMMANDERS- 8-5
It
is only Quinn’s rookie year as the Commanders' head coach, yet he’s looking like
a seasoned vet. Why is that? Well, for one thing, he’s still in the NFC
East. He has done a spectacular job, especially
with a rookie quarterback. Though this
is not your average rookie QB, he set all kinds of records for the Commanders also
has set all-time rookie QB records for completion percentage, while he is also
in the conversation as the favorite for Rookie of the Year. No one would have ever thought that come week
15 we would be talking about a Washington Commanders team heading to the
playoffs. This is not the old Dan Synder-owned
Washington football team, see what I did there haha. Only a complete fool would do what he did to a
sports organization and even with him trying to run them into the ground it
only took one season to pull them out of the depths of despair. That is exactly why I firmly believe that Dan
Quinn should be one of the favorites for Coach of the Year. Furthermore, he also seemed to turn the defense
around from one of the middling-worst units as the season began to a respectable
one that is starting to hold its own. If
Washington does make the playoffs and beats the Philadelphia Eagles in week 16,
I think there should be no question that Dan should win COTY.
I would just like to clarify the reason why I don’t have some of the other great coaches on my list, such as Dan Campbell, Nick Sirianni, Kevin O’Connell, Sean McDermott, and even John Harbaugh. Unlike the head coaches I just named, the coaches in my top 5 list have either been with their teams for less time or like in Mike Tomlin's case have seemed to have less talent to work with. Also, I believe that it is unfair to slight a great future Hall of Fame head coach like Tomlin, never having him as the COTY, yet someone like Kevin Stefanski who has won the award twice with a far less impressive track record while only being a head coach for a whopping four seasons, now in his fifth.
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