Via Rob at the Associated Press:

If you saw an NFL graphic going around that listed Nick Sirianni as a finalist, that was apparently published in error.

Right, so the finalists are Doug, Daboll, and Shanahan. I honestly have zero problem with this, because you could give the award to at least five different guys this year and it would be justified.

Consider that:

  • Daboll took a shitty Giants team to the playoffs in year one
  • Doug, also in year one, won the AFC South with the rebuilding Jags
  • Shanahan went 13-4 despite losing Jimmy G AND Trey Lance

(note that the voting takes place before the playoffs, so it doesn’t matter what happened over the last few weeks)

Sirianni has a claim, too. The Eagles went 14-3 in his second season and claimed the #1 seed in the NFC. The work he did this year was fantastic, but it’s just one of those things where they only list three finalists, not four, not five, not six, etc, so someone has to be left out. If they changed the rules and extended the number of finalists, then this would be much more palatable in the optics department.

Even then, Andy Reid deserves a shout too. 14-3 and yet another run for Kansas City. Shit, throw Dan Campbell into the mix. Mike McDaniels was top-5 for most of the season and so was Sean McDermott. There were a lot of solid coaching jobs in the NFL this year.

Regardless, this can be turned into bulletin board material if the Eagles want. The real snub is this one:

Where’s Brandon Graham? A career-high in sacks at age 34 coming off the season-ending injury. I love Geno Smith as a WVU guy, but he shouldn’t be on this list. What did he “come back” from? Being shitty?

B.G. drives Brock Purdy into the dirt on Sunday evening. Guaranteed.

EDIT – here’s a shout for Sirianni: