Predicting every significant end-of-season 2021 NFL award winner before Week 1.
The 2021 NFL season is finally here and will kick off on Thursday, Sept. 9 when the defending NFL Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers host the Dallas Cowboys.
Each and every year, it feels as though the offseason lasts forever but once the season gets here, it seems to end in the blink of an eye.
While we clearly would never wish any football away, we take a quick glance ahead here and predict who will end up winning the biggest awards at the end of this 2021 campaign.
NFL Coach of the Year: Brandon Staley, Los Angeles Chargers
Could it be back-to-back seasons with rookie head coaches winning the coveted NFL Coach of the Year Award? After leading the Cleveland Browns to a record of 11-5, head coach Kevin Stefanski won the honor last year, and looking ahead to 2021, it wouldn’t be surprising to see another first-year coach win the award, especially if the Los Angeles Chargers make the leap some have been predicting.
Staley left one L.A. team for another after landing the job with the Chargers following just one season as the Rams defensive coordinator. Formerly an outside linebacker coach with the Chicago Bears (2017-2018) and Denver Broncos (2019), Staley is still very young at just 38-years of age.
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He’s also pretty inexperienced overall but his knowledge was on full display in 2020 when he turned the Rams defense around.
With the Chargers, he looks to do the same and if he and defensive coordinator Renaldo Hill can get them playing well, this could be a team to watch. L.A. finished 7-9 last season but they played well enough to win even more than that, especially on offense where Justin Herbert went off as a rookie.
Herbert now works under Joe Lombardi who did great work as an assistant with New Orleans. As long as he takes the next step as a quarterback and the defense improves, the Chargers could be a playoff team in 2021 and that might lead to Staley winning this coveted award.