By Andrew Kruszka
How does a guy with 13 wins, two playoff wins, a 6-0 division record and first place in his division for the first time since 1995 not win coach of the year? Yes, that is correct because the guy who had 11 wins, zero playoff wins, a 3-3 division record and placing third seems more worthy. If you did not understand my hint of sarcasm in the motivator, then you should probably stop reading at this point.
Sean McDermott had a career-defining season in his fourth season at the helm of the Buffalo Bills. When he got hired four years ago, he took a team that had problems performing better than .500, to the AFC Championship game this season.
The team had two most valuable player candidates in Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs at wide receiver. They tied their best record in franchise history at 13-3. They were the second seed in the AFC behind the team that made it to the Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs.
McDermott was deserving of the Coach of the Year award, but why would they give it to someone else? Other candidates might have been worthy.
Ron Rivera took a team that was supposed to be in last place and won his division with a record of 7-9 and a third-string quarterback who won Comeback Player of the Year, Alex Smith.
Brian Flores started with a record of 1-3 and was expected to have another miserable year. However, the team went 10-6 and just slipped out of the playoffs in week 17 with a loss to the Buffalo Bills.
Other than these guys, other contenders were Andy Reid from Kansas City and Matt LaFleur from Green Bay. They could have each won it, and I would not have had a problem with it.
The issue I have is who they chose. This is two years in a row where the NFL has botched the Coach of the Year award.
If we all remember last season, Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, was given the award going 14-2 on the season. After going 5-11 his first season and 4-12 his second, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shannahan put together a 13-3 season and went to the Superbowl to lose to the Kansas City Chiefs.
This year, the NFL awarded Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, with the prize. I would be wrong to sit here and type that this man was not worthy of the award. Let’s go to head coaches that came before Stefanski. From 2016-2018, Hue Jackson went 3-36-1. After that Greg Williams finished off that 2018 season 5-3. Following that, Freddie Kitchens was hired for the 2019 season and then fired after going 6-10. In one year, Stefanski got 12 wins including playoffs. This almost exceeds the number of wins head coaches have gotten for the Browns in the previous four seasons. Therefore, to say Stefanski is not worthy of the award would be silly, but that is my opinion.
We fail to mention though that the Browns had losses against the Baltimore Ravens 38-6 and the Pittsburgh Steelers 38-7 as well as giving the New York Jets one of their two wins this season.
That being said, a coach that goes 13-3, wins 6-0 in his division, gets second in the AFC and only loses to two playoff teams and a hail mary is much more worthy. I applaud the NFL for trying to give the Browns organization credit, but the Buffalo Bills deserved it more in 2020.
