The race to win the NFL Super Bowl in the 2020/21 season is going to be a close one, but while many sportsbettors are investing in their favourite teams to succeed, one of the best and less busy markets is the Coach of the Year.
Who’ll take the Super Bowl? You could be better off to think about who might be the best coach, as we’ve discovered in looking at the latest odds. Here are three bosses who are attracting some bettors and why they might – or might not – be good value.
Kevin Stefanski / Cleveland Browns – 25/1
On some sites, Stefanski has plummeted in the odds from 25/1 to around 16/1 (or from +2500 to +1600 if you prefer). What the reason for this is, we’re not quite sure. Stefanski is a bold new pick as head coach, but the Cleveland Brown were way back last season, finishing 3rd in the AFC North, and are 6/5 to repeat this, a much less expected 11/2 to win the division.
For that reason, any improvement Stefanski can provoke would therefore boost his chances, but while he’s still available with one or two sites at odds of 25/1, we just think it might be a year too early to get so excited about a team clearly on the rise. The 10th NFL Draft pick, Jedrick Wills is sure to improve the Browns’ chances, however and is one of the best offensive tacklers to join the NFL in years. We’d swerve Stefanski, and not just because the most recent Cleveland Browns head coach to win the NFL Coach of the Year award was Forrest Gregg in 1976.
VERDICT: AVOID
Frank Reich – Indianapolis Colts – 22/1
Frank Reich isn’t just a former player of the Indianapolis Colts who became their current head coach. He was also the offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles in their Super Bowl winning campaign of 2017. Can he step it up with the Colts and make you a profit at 22/1?
It’s hard to see it, to be honest. While we think Stefanksi is being tipped too early, he is at least on the rise and so is the team. The Colts had a record of 10 wins to 6 defeats in Reich’s first season as head coach back in 2018, but last year suffered a losing season, with just 7 wins and 9 defeats meaning they finished 3rd instead of 2nd in the AFC South and missed out on the postseason fun.
While the Colts have improved their roster well with additions of the quarterback Philip Rivers and DeForest Buckner in the defensive line, it doesn’t feel like a winning season for the Colts, or as a knock-on effect, Reich.
VERDICT: AVOID
Bruce Arians 20/1
Real quality in this market comes in the form of the 2012 (Indianapolis Colts) and 2014 (Arizona Cardinals) Coach of the Year, Bruce Arians. Arians has Tom Brady under his wing at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this season and if his previous record is anything to go by, taking Tampa to the postseason could be enough, a feat he managed with wildcard spots ticked for both his previous teams.
Arians would become the second coach in the history of the NFL to win Coach of the Year if he does so, joining Chuck Knox in the record books, who is currently the only coach to have won the award with three different teams. While Bill Belichick – the current favourite at 12/1 – could yet triumph as favourite in this field by grabbing the Super Bowl with the New England Patriots, if he fails, then sportsbettors might look no further than the man who holds the reins of Belichick’s most famously managed player.
VERDICT: INVEST
