Harbaugh Favored For Coach Of The Year Prop, Shanahan Close Second

By BetOnline January 4, 2020

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The 2019 NFL season has finished its regular season and is now moving into the playoffs. That means that the final cases have been made for a number of the season-long, regular season awards. One of those is the Head Coach of the Year odds where Baltimore’s John Harbaugh has the inside track. Can anyone else pull this award away from him?

JOHN HARBAUGH
COACH OF THE YEAR ODDS: +100

The Baltimore Ravens were the best team in the NFL regular season, going 14-2. They also beat the San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. Through the course of the season, they were the best team in the NFL and Harbaugh certainly deserves a lot of credit for that Specifically with enabling Lamar Jackson to play so well, the coaching staff has done a great job with him over the last couple of years taking him from a raw rookie to an All-Pro. They did an outstanding job with the overall roster, sending 12 players to the Pro Bowl with four being named as first team All-Pros.

One thing that might detract is Jackson, will likely be the NFL MVP for 2019. Along with 12 players making the Pro Bowl, it showed how much talent the Ravens had. Harbaugh would be a good choice as coach of the year, but one can easily make the argument that other coaches on this list got more out of what they had. Harbaugh coached a ton of all-stars to a great record. Other coaches had fewer Pro Bowlers to work with. That has to be kept in mind.

KYLE SHANAHAN
COACH OF THE YEAR ODDS: +250

It always seemed logical that McDermott would have the inside track if Buffalo could beat New England once and the 49ers failed to get the top seed in the NFC, but neither of those things happened. Instead, Buffalo going 0-2 against the Patriots and the Niners winning the top seed in the NFC gives Kyle Shanahan a very compelling case.

Shanahan took the Niners from mediocrity straight to the top of the NFC in one season. There was no gradual build. All of this was new, given that Jimmy Garoppolo did not play a full season under Shanahan in 2018 after missing most of that season with an injury. Shanahan took a glamour franchise in the NFL and immediately made it relevant again. That will get a lot of support from voters who will find it impossible to treat the 49ers as an ordinary story.

The challenge is that the 49ers stumbled down the stretch. They started 8-0 but finished 5-3 with a number of those wins being quite tight. They could have easily finished 4-4 or 3-5. The Ravens ended the year on a 12-game winning streak and also beat the 49ers in their only meeting. Those things will work in Harbaugh’s favor.

SEAN MCDERMOTT
COACH OF THE YEAR ODDS: +350

Sean McDermott is in the running but his chances have taken a big hit. The Bills did win 10 games for the first time since 1999 and are in the playoffs for only the second time in that same span, but in terms of this prop, he needed to do more. The Bills are viewed as being a team that beat up on an easy schedule. They had a chance to change that at the end of the year but lost to the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots. With losses in three of their last four games, that will likely keep McDermott from the award.