The Way The Bizarre Season Redefined the Traditional NFL Coach of the Year Mould.

Ordinarily, the NFL's Coach of the Year honor adheres to a straightforward formula. It often serves as a kind of mea culpa. Sorry we underestimated your franchise in our preseason projections.

Theoretically, it's a clear-cut line: the coach who oversaw the largest improvement is handed the award. In practice, it creates an annual argument about preseason outlooks and whether we're genuinely honoring excellent leadership or just the greatest upset.

Yet this year's competition is distinctly unique. The list of candidates is remarkably deep. It has been the season of comebacks. The league has been messy, with reigning conference champions falling away and longtime also-rans improving collectively. Under an typical year, Sean Payton leading the Denver Broncos to the summit of the AFC would make him the overwhelming front-runner. But in this turbulent and entertaining year, he's facing multiple other outstanding coaches.

This is how the ideal vote should look.

5) The Chicago Bears Coach, Chicago Bears, Their Record

Voters for Coach of the Year selectors adore QBs. This is a tradition. Sean McVay in 2017. Another in 2020. Brian Daboll in 2022. Should you fix a franchise QB, you're well on your way to winning the award.

Ben Johnson hasn't just corrected Caleb Williams; he's freed him. Given a proper system, the QB has been afforded the opportunity to demonstrate his special ability. From midseason onward, the Bears rank number four in offensive EPA per play. That's not a lucky run – it's prolonged excellence. Under Johnson, Williams has become increasingly confident, far less careless, and has willingly surrendered to the gameplan rather than improvising. It is an attack built solely in the coach's vision: a physical run game, a steady helping of play-action passes and a innovative aerial game that creates wide receiver receivers consistently. The QB has capitalized. And when openings weren't there, he's been capable to spin magic from broken plays.

The coach came to the Bears with a defined offensive vision. Almost every decision – overhauling the trenches, utilizing the pass-catchers, transforming the QB into a timing-based thrower – has paid off. That's uncommon for a first-year head coach. And it's rarer still for a leader who entered the building with the kind of pressure Johnson did. For two straight offseasons, he was the hottest candidate on the coaching carousel. But when it comes to hiring a head coach, there are zero guarantees. Somehow, Johnson has met expectations – and even exceeded them. He's demonstrated not only to be a scheme wizard but the kind of culture builder that can breathe new life into an organization.

In a typical season, he would be the overwhelming choice. Yet the current is not a normal year!

The area where his case comes slightly into trouble is on defense. The Bears presently rank 25th in defensive efficiency. They are surviving on takeaways, and takeaways are famously fickle. Defensive minds can focus on ball disruption, but no one can ensure it. He is on the list because the offensive production is sustainable. He's not higher because variance is doing an outsized share of the defensive heavy lifting. With a few breaks of the ball, the team would be several wins worse off. It's been an exceptional transformation, and the foundation is in place for long-term winning. However he falls just short in this ranking.

4) Liam Coen, Jacksonville Jaguars, Their Record

The Jaguars' coach is in a similar position to his counterpart. He's another rookie head coach who has engineered a swift resurgence. Over the stretch run of the season, he has his franchise quarterback playing the best overall ball of his professional life. And he's also spearheaded the overhaul of a defensive unit that now sits at number five in the league in Expected Points Added per play.

Even more impressively, he has mastered the off-field stuff, which wasn't a given following his early press conference appearances and some of his offseason moves.

Coen took over Jacksonville with an exceptionally raw staff. Unlike other coaches, who packed their staff with the ideal staff blend of youth and veteran savvy, he hired newbies. Starting with the leader himself to coordinators to assistant coaches, the Jaguars are stocked with first-timers. That type of setup is intriguing in theory, but frequently fails in reality – as past failures are a warning – because everyone is learning a their job on the fly. Yet Coen has managed to bring everyone and all elements into sync.

Following an initial strong beginning, there was a risk that the campaign would go off the track. A midseason setback caused the team wobbling again. That's usually when leaders overcorrect. He did not. Instead, he simplified things. Jacksonville stopped chasing home-run answers and started seeking sustainable ones. The coach recentered the offense around key players and the running game, and encouraged Lawrence to use his mobility more often.

The outcomes are clear. The Jaguars have won multiple games consecutively and will be the AFC's No 3 seed. Coen gets the tiniest knock in the standings because he took over a skilled roster, but he has demonstrated he can get the most out of that talent.

3) Mike Macdonald, Seattle Seahawks, 13-3

Each Strong of the Year argument has a pivotal moment. For Mike Macdonald, it was his quarterback move.

Parting ways from a veteran, signing a different signal-caller and partnering him with an innovative play-caller could have ended the campaign in the early weeks. Instead, it defined it. Through the middle point of the season, the acquisition was an MVP front-runner. He has fallen away since that time, slipping to a lower rank in EPA per pass attempt over the latter part of the schedule, putting him only one place ahead of other QBs.

Still