The Way This Strange Campaign Redefined the Typical NFL Coach of the Year Mold.

Ordinarily, the NFL's Coach of the Year trophy follows a simple script. It commonly serves as a kind of apology. We regret we misjudged your franchise in our pre-campaign predictions.

In theory, it's a direct trajectory: the coach who oversaw the largest improvement is handed the award. In practice, it creates an yearly argument about preseason outlooks and whether we're genuinely honoring superior leadership or merely the biggest shock.

Yet this year's race is distinctly different. The group of candidates is unusually deep. It has been the campaign of resurgences. The NFL has been messy, with reigning division champions declining and longtime strugglers rising together. In an typical year, a coach leading the Denver Broncos to the top of the conference would make him the clear favorite. Yet in such a chaotic and fun season, he's facing multiple other outstanding coaches.

Below is how the ideal ballot should be structured.

5) Ben Johnson, His Team, 11-5

Voters for Coach of the Year selectors adore quarterbacks. They always have. Sean McVay in 2017. Another in 2020. Brian Daboll in 2022. If you fix a quarterback, you're well on your way home.

The Bears' head coach not only corrected his young quarterback; he's unlocked him. Given a proper system, Williams has been given the chance to demonstrate his rare talent. Since midseason onward, the Bears sit at number four in offensive Expected Points Added per play. That's not a hot streak – it's prolonged performance. With his guidance, Williams has become more decisive, less careless, and has willingly surrendered to the gameplan instead of freelancing. It is an attack designed entirely in the coach's vision: a physical run game, a heavy dose of play-action and a innovative passing attack that creates wide receiver receivers all over the field. The QB has capitalized. And when easy reads weren't there, he's been capable to conjure big plays out of nothing.

The coach came to Chicago with a specific offensive philosophy. Virtually every gamble – rebuilding the trenches, utilizing the tight ends, turning Williams into a timing-based thrower – has worked. That's uncommon for a first-year head coach. And it's rarer yet for a leader who walked into the building with the immense expectations he did. For two straight cycles, he was the most sought-after candidate on the coaching market. However when it comes to selecting a head coach, there are no sure things. Somehow, Johnson has met the hype – and even surpassed them. He's proven not only to be a offensive wizard but the kind of culture builder that can inject fresh energy into an franchise.

In a typical season, Johnson would be the runaway choice. Yet this is not a normal campaign!

Where his candidacy runs a bit unstuck is on the defensive side. The Bears presently sit in the bottom third in defensive success rate. They are relying on takeaways, and turnovers are notoriously unreliable. Defensive minds can focus on creating turnovers, but no one can ensure it. He is on the ballot because the offensive production is real. He's not higher because variance is doing too much of the defense's heavy lifting. If not for a few bounces of the ball, the team would be two victories worse off. It's been an remarkable turnaround, and the core is established for long-term success. However he falls just short here.

4) The Jacksonville Jaguars Coach, Jacksonville Jaguars, Their Record

The Jaguars' coach is in a comparable spot to Johnson. He's another first-time head coach who has masterminded a rapid resurgence. During the crucial final weeks of the year, he has Trevor Lawrence playing the finest all-around football of his career. And he's also overseen the transformation of a defensive unit that now sits at fifth in the league in EPA per play.

Even more impressively, he has excelled at the off-field aspects, which was not a certainty after his early press conference introduction and some of his offseason moves.

The coach took over Jacksonville with an exceptionally inexperienced coaching staff. In contrast to Johnson, who surrounded themselves with the ideal coaching cocktail of new ideas and experience, Coen hired first-timers. From the head coach on down to assistants to assistant coaches, the Jaguars are filled with first-timers. That type of approach is exciting in theory, but frequently collapses in reality – with other teams are a warning – because everybody is figuring out a new job in real-time. But he has pulled the entire group and everything together.

Following an early strong beginning, there was a risk that the season would veer off the track. A mid-year setback caused the team wobbling again. That's typically when leaders panic and change too much. He didn't. Instead, he streamlined the approach. The offense stopped chasing explosive plays and started hunting sustainable ones. The coach recentered the attack around his playmakers and the ground attack, and asked his QB to use his legs more often.

The results are clear. The Jags have won seven games in a row and will be the conference's No 3 seed. He gets the tiniest deduction in the rankings because he took over a talented roster, but he has demonstrated he can get the most out of that roster.

3) The Seattle Seahawks Coach, His Team, Their Record

Each Strong of the Year narrative has a defining decision. For the Seahawks coach, it was his quarterback move.

Moving on from a veteran, bringing in a different quarterback and partnering him with an innovative play-caller might have derailed the campaign in the early weeks. Rather, it shaped it. Through the middle point of the year, the new QB was an Most Valuable Player candidate. He has cooled off since that time, dropping to a lower rank in EPA per pass attempt over the latter part of the season, putting him only one place ahead of peers.

Still