The field of candidates for this season’s Coach of the Year Award is crowded, but the Denver Broncos can make a strong case for Sean Payton. He’s basically resurrected the franchise in the last couple of years, and frontthis year he’s got the Broncos making that big jump from middle-of-the-pack playoff team to AFC front-runner.
His achievements are fairly well known at this point. The Broncos are currently riding a 10-game win streak going into Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers, and six of the Broncos’ wins have come on game-winning drives.
Payton continues to develop second-year quarterback Bo Nix at an impressive pace, and the offense has improved from 16th in total EPA to 11th going into this week, according to Mike Jones of The Athletic.
The defense is leading the NFL with 55 sacks as they chase the Chicago Bears’ all-time record in that department, and Denver has held opponents to jus 18.1 points per game, which is the fourth fewest in the league.
Even with all that, though, Payton probably won’t get the award. CoY usually goes to bright, shiny new coaches who have done turnarounds, and Mike Vrabel of the New England Patriots and Ben Johnson of the Chicago Bears lead the field in that department.
Vrabel has the Patriots battling the Broncos for the top seed in the AFC, and New England could reclaim the AFC East title this weekend with a win over the Buffalo Bills. Johnson has turned around a moribund Bears team that featured top quarterback Caleb Williams, but Chicago was an inconsistent disaster until Williams took control as coach.
There are plenty of other candidates, too. Liam Coen has the Jacksonville Jaguars back on track after the disastrous Urban Meyer/Doug Peterson years, and Mike McDonald has the Seattle Seahawks on a path that mirrors that of Payton and the Broncos, i.e., a 10-7 record and a playoff berth last year, and a position of dominance this year going into the final four games.
Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams and Kyle Shanahan of the San Francisco 49ers are old hands when it comes to their respective teams at the top of the standings, too, but there are still a lot of games left to play. Payton may not be as shiny and new as Vrabel and Johnson, but if the Broncos can run the table, he’ll be a lot more than just in the conversation.