NFL Coach of the Year Betting

In no other sport is coaching as important as it is in football. An NFL head coach has to juggle his focus between defence, offence, and special teams, while also trying to consider what the other team is going to do. What’s more, every coach only has seventeen games every season to try and take their team to the NFL playoffs and to the promised land of winning a Super Bowl.

Coach of the Year Betting Preview

For a sport where the players get all of the accolades, the guaranteed money, and the endorsements, the coaches do not get much praise for leading their teams to victory. Enter the NFL’s AP Coach of the Year Award. With the NFL season just weeks away, it’s a fun time to take a look at the NFL futures odds. This NFL Coach of the Year betting preview will cover what the award means, recent winners, and who has a good shot of taking it home at the end of the 2025 season.

What is the NFL AP Coach of the Year Award?

As the name suggests, the NFL’s AP Coach of the Year Award is awarded to the NFL head coach deemed to have had the best regular season. It is voted upon by a panel of sports writers and is announced at the NFL Honours night before the Super Bowl.

This award was first introduced in 1957, which means it predates other NFL awards like the AP NFL Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year. There does not seem to be a formula for who the writers like to pick as the NFL’s Coach of the Year. One pattern seems to be that new coaches are often favoured over experienced ones. Also, the team of the Coach of the Year winner does not necessarily need to have the league’s best record. But, if the team exceeded expectations, voters will look at that as being more valuable than the coach of a team of a Super Bowl favourite that had a similar record.

Recent NFL Coach of the Year Award Winners

From the list of recent NFL Coach of the Year Award winners, you’ll be able to see some definite trends and patterns. The first thing you might notice is that this award is rarely handed out to the same coach in back-to-back seasons. In fact, it’s only happened three times since 1957, and has not happened again since 1983.

Thirteen NFL head coaches have won the award multiple times. The late great Don Shula is the only coach to have won the award on four different occasions: in 1964, 1967, and 1968 with the Baltimore Colts, and then again in 1972 with the Miami Dolphins.

Two coaches have won the award three times: Bill Belichick and Chuck Knox. Belichick won all three of his awards (2003, 2007, 2010) with the New England Patriots. Knox is the only NFL coach in history to win the award with three different teams (Los Angeles Rams in 1973, Buffalo Bills in 1980, and the Seattle Seahawks in 1984).

Incredibly, only four times has the NFL Coach of the Year winner won the Super Bowl in the same season. Don Shula accomplished this feat twice in 1970 and 1972, while Dick Vermeil did with the Rams in 1999 and Bill Belichick with the Patriots in 2003.

Here is a list of recent winners of the NFL’s Coach of the Year Award:

Who Will Win the 2025 NFL Coach of the Year Award?

As we approach the start of the 2025 NFL season, it’s time to take a look at the NFL Coach of the Year odds board. These odds will fluctuate throughout the season, but placing your bets before the season begins is a great way to lock in the odds of a specific coach at your preferred Canadian sports betting sites. Here are the current odds for the top sixteen coaches according to BetVictor Canada: 

The first thing that stands out is that six of the top eight options for Coach of the Year are with new teams, or are head coaches for the first time. You might also notice that the top candidates are coaching teams that are considered weaker in the NFL.

Ben Johnson currently has the highest odds of winning the award. He is considered an offensive savant and inherits a fully loaded offensive unit in Chicago, led by last year’s first overall pick, quarterback Caleb Williams.

Mike Vrabel has the second-highest odds of winning and has won the award previously in 2021 with the Tennessee Titans. Jim Harbaugh stands out as the coach with the strongest team, along with Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions. Harbaugh led the Chargers to the AFC playoffs in his first year as coach last season and has also previously won the award in 2011 with the San Francisco 49ers.

One interesting candidate is Matt LaFleur of the Green Bay Packers at +2500. LaFleur has been considered a strong candidate the past few seasons, but has never won the award. The voters love awarding the NFL Coach of the Year Award to first-time winners, and the Packers have the potential to have one of the strongest teams in the NFC this year.

Mike McDonald enters his second season as the Seahawks’ head coach and is equipped with a new Quarterback in Sam Darnold. Seattle hired Klint Kubiak as the offensive coordinator and brought in Cooper Kupp to replace DK Metcalf. Are they significantly better? That remains to be seen, but McDonald brings with him a winning tradition from Baltimore, and if Darnold can continue his resurgence from last season, McDonald could see Coach of the Year consideration if Seattle can sneak into the playoffs.