The Chicago Bears hype train is real. At least the hype is real. We’ll find out if it was warranted when the NFL kicks off its new season in three months. Along with having quarterback Caleb Williams as the favorite to win Offensive Rookie of the Year, head coach Matt Eberflus is the favorite to win Coach of the Year.
Matt Eberflus – Chicago Bears (+900)
In two seasons as the head coach of the Bears, Eberflus has 10 wins. In January, there were calls to fire him and hire a new head coach with quarterback coaching experience to help the development of Williams. Eberflus has been a defensive coach his entire career.
Instead, the Bears stood pat, and now it is Eberflus who leads the way on the preseason odds board for NFL Coach of the Year, paying +900. It’s a lofty position for a coach of a fourth-place team in a division with the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions – both teams expected to again make the playoffs this coming season.
Jim Harbaugh – Los Angeles Chargers (+1000)
There was no coaching hire this off-season more talked about and analyzed than Jim Harbaugh’s return to the NFL. Fresh off his national championship at the University of Michigan, he takes over the perennially underachieving Los Angeles Chargers.
Harbaugh actually won this award in 2011 as a first-time head coach with the San Francisco 49ers. He took the 49ers from 6-10 the year before to 13-3 in 2011, and then all the way to the NFC Championship Game.
Last year’s Chargers were 5-12, and they are now without wide receivers Keenan Allen and Mike Williams. But we know Harbaugh can coach, he’s got a good quarterback in Justin Herbert, and based on expected wins in 2024, they have the second-easiest schedule in the league.
Raheem Morris – Atlanta Falcons (+1000)
In the 1980s, the Coach of the Year Award often went to the Super Bowl champion. Bill Walsh, Joe Gibbs, MIke Ditka, and Bill Parcells all won it after winning the Super Bowl. In recent years, it has often gone to the new head coach that had the biggest turnaround. Sean McVay, Matt Nagy, Kevin Stefanski, and Brian Daboll all won it as first-time head coaches.
Raheem Morris isn’t new to head coaching, but he feels new, having had to wait 13 years between head coaching jobs. The head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2009 to 2011 is the new boss with the Atlanta Falcons, and he is set up for success. The Falcons have a new quarterback in Kirk Cousins and great young playmakers in Drake London and Bijan Robinson. And playing inside the NFC South gives them the easiest projected schedule for any team in 2024.
DeMeco Ryans – Houston Texans (+1400)
Last year, DeMeco Ryans was the new head coach of the Houston Texans, and he put them in the playoffs after three years of terrible football. He would have been the Coach of the Year if not for the quarterback juggling act of Kevin Stefanski with the Cleveland Browns.
Ryans was second in the voting (losing by a tiebreaker), and you have to think that last year was his chance. Now he carries expectations with him. The Texans have gone from one of the worst teams in the NFL to one of the favorites. Houston is +105 to win the AFC South, they are +850 to win the AFC, and their +1600 odds to win the Super Bowl are shorter than the Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, and Miami Dolphins.
Ryans is an excellent coach, and with C.J. Stroud at quarterback and one of the best collections of wide receivers in the league, there will be no surprises in 2024.
Matt LaFleur – Green Bay Packers (+1400)
Another head coach that has become one of the hunted is Matt LaFleur of the Packers. After making the playoffs last year and winning in the Wild Card game at the Dallas Cowboys, the Packers showed that no Aaron Rodgers, no problem.
Jordan Love is the real deal at quarterback, and there will be a real dogfight in the NFC North for division supremacy. If it is Green Bay that comes out on top and knocks off the Lions and holds off the Bears, then LaFleur may be worthy of COY votes.
In 2019, in his first year as the head coach in Green Bay, LaFleur finished third in Coach of the Year voting. He was fifth in 2020, and second in 2021.
Shane Steichen – Indianapolis Colts (+1400)
Last season, the Indianapolis Colts head coach Shane Steichen was one of 12 head coaches that received votes for COY, and the only one of the 12 that didn’t make the playoffs. As a rookie head coach in 2023, he had to start his backup quarterback for 13 games, and completely changed the style of his offense for the different QBs.
He proved himself to be more than up for the task, nearly getting Indianapolis into the postseason, despite the injury to rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson. If Steichen and a healthy Richardson can push the Texans and Jags for an AFC South division title, the second-year head coach will deservedly get much of the credit.
With over 25 years of experience as a distinguished sports writer for renowned platforms such as Fox Sports and ESPN, Kyle Garlett is a sports betting specialist who has been at the forefront of documenting the global surge in sports betting and online gaming. Based in Denver, Colorado, Kyle hosts an NFL betting YouTube show and podcast. Kyle also has two sports books published by HarperCollins.
Kyle graduated the Azusa Pacific University in 1996 with a B.A. Degree in Communication and Journalism.
