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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Sport
Oliver Connolly

How this strange NFL season broke the Coach of the Year mold

Seattle’s Mike Macdonald and San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan are two NFL Coach of the Year frontrunners.
Seattle’s Mike Macdonald and San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan are two NFL Coach of the Year frontrunners. Photograph: Robin Alam/ISI Photos/Getty Images

The NFL’s Coach of the Year award is simple. It typically serves as a mea culpa. We’re sorry our preseason predictions about your team were wrong.

In theory, it’s a straight line: the coach who oversaw the biggest turnaround is handed the award. In practice, it’s a yearly argument about expectations and whether we’re rewarding actual coaching or just the greatest surprise.

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