Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury enters his fourth season leading the team and has seen the Cardinals improve each season. He took a three-win team in 2018 to five wins and a tie in his first season, went 8-8 in 2020 and then 11-6 in 2021, leading them to the playoffs for the first time since 2015.
Now looking ahead to 2022, while the Cardinals have postseason hopes and expectations, he is not given good odds of being named the NFL Coach of the Year.
According to Tipico Sportsbook, Kingsbury is a log shot to win it this coming season. He is given +3000 odds (bet $100 to win $3,000) to win the award. Only six head coaches have longer odds.
The favorites for the award are the Chargers’ Brandon Staley and the Giants’ Brian Daboll at +1300 (bet $100 to win $1,300), with five others listed at +1500.
These odds for Kingsbury make sense, not because the Cardinals are expected to be bad, but because last year was actually his best shot at winning the award.
This award usually goes to a head coach whose team achieved much higher than expected. The Cardinals were a surprise last season. If they win double-digit games, it will not be considered a surprise. It will have been meeting roughly the expectations that were in place, at least at a national perspective.
The only way we can expect Kingsbury to win the award is if they have an absolutely dominant year in the regular season and pull off the league’s best record. Outside of that, he won’t get many votes for simply taking the Cardinals back to the playoffs.
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