Bill Belichick becomes the favorite to win coach of the year

New England Patriots v Buffalo Bills
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It would be fitting that in their second season apart, Tom Brady would win the ultimate prize for a player and Bill Belichick would win the ultimate prize for a coach.

But here we are. Brady remains the favorite to win the MVP award at +175, and Belichick has become the favorite to win coach of the year at +125.

Via PointsBet, Belichick has the top spot after guiding his team to seven straight wins and the top seed in the AFC. Next on the list is coach Kliff Kingsbury, whose Cardinals have the best record in the NFL at 10-2. He’s at +350.

Packers coach Matt LaFleur lands at +750; he’s continuously underappreciated for what he’s done in three years on the job. Titans coach Mike Vrabel comes in next at +1000, followed by Bengals coach Zac Taylor at +1200.

I personally like Washington coach Ron Rivera at +4000. He’s a two-time winner of the award, and he has positioned a team that started 2-6 for a second straight playoff berth. Ditto for Ravens coach John Harbaugh, also at +4000. If Baltimore can land the division title and perhaps the top seed in the AFC after so many injuries and so much adversity, Harbaugh’s efforts can’t be ignored.

49 responses to “Bill Belichick becomes the favorite to win coach of the year

  1. Many worthy candidates to this point. Let’s see if anyone can separate themselves from the pack.

  2. Kingsbury should be the winner by a distance. The Cardinals where the worse team in the league 2 and a half years back. He’s constantly improved whilst be ridiculed by the talking heads and apparent experts, most hoping he would fail. The Cards are now one of, if not the best team in the NFL, and certainly the most fun to watch.

  3. Belichick has won COTY 3 times. I started to type ‘only won’ before I realized how ridiculous it sounds to say ‘only’ when he’s one of only 3 coaches to have won it more than twice, the other two were hypocritical cheat Dirty Don Shula and highly respected Chuck Knox. Still it seems like he sure should have won it more over the course of the past 20 years. That said, no one could reasonably complain if Kingsbury got the nod this year.

    What is astounding is BB has NEVER won Executive of The Year. That’s a ridiculous oversight and should absolutely be addressed this year. Love him or hate him, the rebuild/retool of the Pats roster is nothing short of outstanding GM work and he did it without Caserio or Ernie Adams there. Bill Belichick is easily EOTY, nad it isn’t even close.

  4. Bill Belichick is a guru of defensive schemes. It’s not an arguable point. He’s the master.

  5. But is his success legit this year? Probably, but you can’t help but wonder just a little.

  6. New England has been lucky to play in the NFL’s worst division!
    —————————————————————————-———————
    But they had virtually the same winning percentage outside their division!!!

  7. Guys a mastermind. Knew his rookie QB was too much of an amateur to throw in the cold last night and wasn’t afraid to embarrass him by not letting him throw.

  8. Considering he is the greatest coach of all time he should probably be one of the favorites just about every year. Tough to get that kind of attention when you’re winning 12-14 games every year though.

  9. footballismybusiness says:
    December 7, 2021 at 8:04 pm
    Guys a mastermind. Knew his rookie QB was too much of an amateur to throw in the cold last night and wasn’t afraid to embarrass him by not letting him throw.

    7 9 Rate This

    ————————-

    Yet, Mac Jones will probably throw 40 times @ INdy in 2 weeks and drop 40 on another paper tiger.

    Enjoy!

  10. Belichick could win it almost every year but the expectations of what he can do because he always does it is ridiculous.

  11. Should be Kliff’s and it ain’t even close. Inherited a horrible team in 19, and with better players signed by Keim yes, has turned it around 10 fold and that offense is killing it.

  12. Pretty funny how salty other fans are about the greatest coach in modern history. You would say the same thing if the Hoodie was your coach!

  13. Hey Cardinals fans. We know you are new at this “contender” thing. But it’s “Coach of the Year”. Not “Coach of the Last 3 Years”. No one gives a rip that he took over a bad team in 2019 and made them better each year. It’s about this year and this year only. And Belichick should win both awards (Coach of the Year and Executive of the Year)

  14. well without any objective dispute, belichick is clearly the greatest coach (and GM) of all time and brady is the the greatest player of all time . it’s always been a joke that they don’t win the annual award more often simply because they are expected to be great every year whereas others have a big year or two and are awarded the beauty contest.

  15. We are lucky to be around to watch a truly great, unique executive/coach. Love him or hate him, count your blessings football fans you will never see another Bill Belichick.

  16. Matt LaFleur – lost a total of 9 regular season games in career.

    Was touted as only being a guy that once stood next to McVay (appears that may be backwards).

    Has 2/3’s of his seasons overcast by Rodger’s shenanigans.

    He’s COTY 3 years in a row if the NFL is honest.

    (It isn’t)

  17. I can’t believe Lafleur hasn’t been discussed at all. Dude has been without all 5 all-pro players at some point, as well as every single pro bowl player on the team as well. Has been playing his teams with practice squad lineman across the board and have started practice squad players at almost every position, most notably pass rusher after 7 of their first 8 options were suddenly unavailable. Yet, they are winning games left and right. Imagine when the team finally gets healthy.

  18. Thom Allison says:
    December 7, 2021 at 7:24 pm
    Kingsbury should be the winner by a distance. The Cardinals where the worse team in the league 2 and a half years back. He’s constantly improved whilst be ridiculed by the talking heads and apparent experts, most hoping he would fail. The Cards are now one of, if not the best team in the NFL, and certainly the most fun to watch.
    —————————————

    Two and a half years is a nice cushy bunch of time. The Patriots were horrible just this LAST year. This is in fact a historic turnaround. I even forgive the haters still trying to deny and diminish it because I struggle to believe it myself.

  19. After all the years he should have won but didn’t, I hope if he wins it he tells them to stuff it!

  20. It should’ve been LaFleur in 2019 and 2020. I guess it just isn’t as lucky as others.

  21. As a Bills fan, we offer respect to BB and staff, and can only wonder what he could do with our roster and incredible QB/receivers.

  22. Thom Allison says:
    December 7, 2021 at 7:24 pm
    Kingsbury should be the winner by a distance. The Cardinals where the worse team in the league 2 and a half years back. He’s constantly improved whilst be ridiculed by the talking heads and apparent experts, most hoping he would fail. The Cards are now one of, if not the best team in the NFL, and certainly the most fun to watch.

    ——
    The Patriots were bad only one year ago. Belichick now has team in the conversation for the top seed in the conference with a rookie QB.

    There’s also only one coach out there would actually beat another team in the modern NFL by throwing 3 passes. A coaching masterpiece.

    I do agree about Kingsbury in contention for this award too. Should be interesting.

  23. So weird. I was told over and over again Belichick was a below average head coach in this league without Brady. Rex Ryan at best. 😂

    Rough times for the Tampa Bay Tommy lovers… 🙂

  24. Brady: only a 71 passer rating against Belichick’s team in the game this year. Huh.

  25. Brady: only a 71 passer rating against Belichick’s team in the game this year. Huh.
    Who won the game or does that not matter?

  26. Belichick doesn’t care about Coach of the Year. It’s equivalent to second prize in Glengarry Glenross, “steak knives”.

    Actually, he probably likes the disrespect of not winning because it is motivation for the team.

    Look at the lack of Patriots in the HOF that spent all or most of their career with the Patriots. Part of that is due to guys putting team first.

  27. It’s nice to see the bitter guys who trashed Bill (Brady’s dad, Amendola, Asante Samuel) go as quiet as church mice. That’s reward enough.

  28. One coaching move of Belichick’s from Monday night hasn’t gotten any mention.

    Yes, it was a mistake to put Harry out on the punt return team behind Olszewski. But Bill didn’t bench the kid because he was doing a great job blocking in the run game. And, if the lost, he wouldn’t have called him out like McDermott did to his guys. It would have been the generic “we have to coach better and play better”.

  29. There have been many people, including Patriots fans, throwing BB under the bus ever since Brady chose to leave. They were saying he drove Brady away and that he’s nothing special without Brady. Interestingly….they’re not so talkative anymore.

  30. didnthearwhat says:
    December 8, 2021 at 10:09 am
    Brady: only a 71 passer rating against Belichick’s team in the game this year. Huh.
    Who won the game or does that not matter?

    —-
    The Bucs won that game, despite their QB being terrible. It happens.

    Brady has a career 0 TD passes against one team. I wonder which team. 🤔

  31. This discussion is demonstrative of the overt bigotry and prejudice our East Coast NFL friends embody… Sad. Yes, BB is a given HOF, but the objective criteria for this season is overwhelmingly trending towards Kingsbury. Period. If this type of political influence affects the COY honors, then we can simply consider the source and the recognition will be diminished and disrespected now and into the future. New England is having a wonderful year! Maybe the folks out there will one day appreciate what this small AZ market has accomplished as well.

  32. I live in Cleveland and I am the only person who thinks that Bill Belichick has always been the best coach in the NFL. Year after year he wins his way. He takes away the other teams best weapons time and time again. Of course he should be coach of the year especially since he has a rookie quarterback and a largely no name defense. One doesn’t have to like the man to recognize what an outstanding coach he is.

  33. If the Colts beat NE 43-3, BB isn’t winning COTY. So maybe we wait until the end of the season?

  34. If the Colts beat NE 43-3, BB isn’t winning COTY. So maybe we wait until the end of the season?
    ———————————————————————————————-
    Let’s see, the score seems about right, but you seem a tad confused on who’s team will have 43 & who’s team gets 3…..

  35. Ok… forget the Cardinals had the worst roster in the NFL 2 years ago and talk about only THIS Year…

    The Arizona Cardinals have the best record in the NFL..

    The Arizona Cardinals have had the second most injuries in the entire league…

    And not just to “Roll players”

    Kyler Murray -Multiple games
    Deandre Hopkins – Multipe games
    Chandler Jones – Multiple games
    J.J. Watt -Multiple games
    Chase Edmonds – Multiple games
    Maxx Williams – Multiple games
    Rodney Hudson – Multiple games..

    If you ranked “most important Cardinals” virtually all of them have missed Multiple games….

    And they still have the best record in the NFL…

  36. Yes, BB is a given HOF, but the objective criteria for this season is overwhelmingly trending towards Kingsbury. Period.
    ==========

    It would be amusing to see an NFL COTY bolt for a college job.

  37. cakesw says:
    December 9, 2021 at 10:00 am
    Ok… forget the Cardinals had the worst roster in the NFL 2 years ago and talk about only THIS Year…

    The Arizona Cardinals have the best record in the NFL..

    The Arizona Cardinals have had the second most injuries in the entire league…

    And not just to “Roll players”

    Kyler Murray -Multiple games
    Deandre Hopkins – Multipe games
    Chandler Jones – Multiple games
    J.J. Watt -Multiple games
    Chase Edmonds – Multiple games
    Maxx Williams – Multiple games
    Rodney Hudson – Multiple games..

    If you ranked “most important Cardinals” virtually all of them have missed Multiple games….

    And they still have the best record in the NFL
    —————

    It must be so hard for Kliff to handle adversity with all the first round picks and overall #1 draft picks on his roster 😳

    How do you think BB feels when his whole team is built with ‘roll players’ as you call them? Imagine how hard it is to coach when your ‘roll players’ get hurt and Undrafted players are on the field.

    All kidding aside, Kliff is and should be in the conversation as they’ve got the overall best record to date but his cupboard was fuller than most to begin with no?

  38. I hate the Ravens. But if they can be a top seed after all those injuries, Harbaugh probably deserves it.

  39. Most people don’t follow the Cardinals… so when they make a comment like

    “It must be so hard for Kliff to handle adversity with all the first round picks and overall #1 draft picks on his roster 😳”

    It’s pretty evident…

    The Cardinals HAVENT drafted well… the one #1 overall picks the Cardinala have had… was Kyler Murray…

    As far as ALL of those #1 picks…

    You mean…

    D.J. Humphries, Murray, Zaven Collins and Isiah Simmons ???

    Those are the only #1 picks on the Cardinals they have made since 2010…

    Not exactly a boatload.

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