The Way This Unusual Season Broke the Traditional Coach of the Year Mold.

Typically, the National Football League's Coach of the Year trophy adheres to a straightforward pattern. It often functions as a type of mea culpa. Sorry we got wrong your squad in our preseason forecasts.

In theory, it's a direct path: the coach who orchestrated the largest resurgence wins the award. In practice, it sparks an annual discussion about preseason outlooks and whether we're actually rewarding superior leadership or merely the biggest upset.

However the current race is fundamentally unique. The pool of contenders is unusually deep. It has been the campaign of comebacks. The league has been chaotic, with recent conference winners falling away and recent also-rans improving together. In an ordinary season, a coach leading the Denver Broncos to the top of the AFC would make him the clear favorite. But in this turbulent and entertaining year, he's competing with multiple other elite candidates.

This is how the hypothetical vote should shake out.

5) The Chicago Bears Coach, Chicago Bears, 11-5

Coach of the Year selectors adore QBs. They always have. Sean McVay in 2017. Another in 2020. A third in 2022. If you fix a franchise QB, you're halfway home.

The Bears' head coach didn't merely corrected his young quarterback; he's unleashed him. In the right system, the QB has been given the opportunity to display his rare talent. Since Week 9, the Chicago offense rank fourth in offensive EPA per play. This isn't a lucky run – it's sustained performance. Under Johnson, Williams has become more confident, far less careless, and has eagerly surrendered to the gameplan instead of freelancing. It is an offense constructed solely in the coach's image: a bully-ball run game, a steady helping of play-action and a innovative passing attack that creates wide-open targets all over the field. Williams has taken advantage. And when openings weren't there, he's been capable to spin big plays from nothing.

The coach came to the Bears with a specific offensive blueprint. Virtually each gamble – rebuilding the offensive line, featuring the pass-catchers, transforming Williams into a rhythm passer – has succeeded. That's rare for a first-year skipper. And it's rarer still for a coach who entered the building with the kind of pressure he did. For two straight cycles, he was the most sought-after candidate on the coaching carousel. But when it comes to hiring a leader, there are zero guarantees. Remarkably, he has lived up to expectations – and even exceeded them. He's proven not just to be a scheme dork but the type of culture builder that can breathe fresh energy into an organization.

During a normal season, he would be the runaway favorite. But the current is not a typical year!

The area where his case runs a bit into trouble is on defense. The Chicago defense presently sit in the bottom third in defensive efficiency. They are surviving on takeaways, and takeaways are notoriously fickle. Coaches can focus on creating turnovers, but nobody can guarantee it. He is on the list because the offense is legitimate. He's not higher because luck is doing an outsized share of the defense's work. With a couple bounces of the ball, the team would be several victories behind. It's been an exceptional transformation, and the core is established for long-term success. But he falls just short here.

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

The Jaguars' coach is in a comparable position to Johnson. He's a fellow first-time head coach who has engineered a dramatic resurgence. Over the stretch run of the season, he has his franchise quarterback playing the finest all-around ball of his career. And he's also overseen the overhaul of a defense that now ranks fifth in the league in EPA per play.

What's more notably, Coen has excelled at the intangibles aspects, which was not a certainty after his initial public introduction and some of his offseason decisions.

Coen walked into the Jaguars with an exceptionally raw coaching staff. Unlike Johnson, who packed their staff with the perfect coaching mix of youth and experience, he trusted newbies. From the head coach on down to assistants to position coaches, the Jaguars are filled with first-timers. That kind of setup is intriguing in theory, but often collapses in practice – with other teams are a warning – because everyone is learning a new job on the fly. Yet he has managed to bring the entire group and everything into sync.

After an early strong start, there was a risk that the campaign would go off the track. A mid-year setback caused the Jags wobbling once more. That's usually when coaches overcorrect. Coen did not. Rather, he simplified the approach. Jacksonville stopped chasing home-run answers and started seeking reliable ones. The coach refocused the attack around his playmakers and the running game, and asked his QB to use his legs more often.

The outcomes are evident. The Jags have won seven games in a row and will be the AFC's number three playoff seed. Coen gets the tiniest deduction in the standings because he took over a skilled team, but he has proven he can maximize that roster.

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

Each Strong of the Year case has a hinge decision. For Mike Macdonald, it was his quarterback move.

Moving on from a incumbent, bringing in a new signal-caller and partnering him with an innovative play-caller might have ended the campaign in October. Rather, it defined it. By the middle point of the season, the new QB was an MVP front-runner. He has cooled off after that time, dropping to 23rd in EPA per pass attempt over the latter part of the season, putting him just one place ahead of peers.

Still