In his first year with the Los Angeles Rams, Sean McVay took home Coach of the Year honors in 2017. Despite improving his team’s record from 11-5 to 13-3 last season, McVay did not win the award for the second straight year.
With another strong roster and Super Bowl aspirations yet again, McVay should be a contender for Coach of the Year in 2019. Younger coaches and those with less talented rosters typically garner most of the attention and votes, but the Rams don’t have that “super team” feel they had last year after acquiring Ndamukong Suh, Brandin Cooks, Aqib Talib and Marcus Peters.
In fact, they’re actually getting somewhat overlooked.
That bodes well for McVay’s chances of winning the award as he was given the third-best odds by Bovada.
Kyle Shanahan and Freddie Kitchens are both great picks to win Coach of the Year. They don’t have the experience that many of the other coaches do, yet their teams are budding with potential. If the Browns win 11 games and make the playoffs, or the 49ers bounce back to win the NFC West, they should absolutely be the front-runners.
As for Bill Belichick, who’s tied with Sean McVay at +1200, his Patriots don’t look like juggernauts despite winning the Super Bowl six months ago. Their receiving corps is depleted, they’re without Rob Gronkowski, and several starters departed in free agency.
Pete Carroll is +2200 to win Coach of the Year, while first-year Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury is +3300.
