Barnwell’s picks for every major NFL award: Top three choices for MVP, best rookies, top coaches

Bill Barnwell is a staff writer for ESPN.com.

With the 2022 NFL regular season officially complete, let’s use Monday to look back at the season we just watched. I’m going to make my picks for who should win the league’s most prominent awards, following up on my evaluations of candidates at the first quarter and first half of the season

I’ll make an important distinction: These aren’t my picks for who I think will win the awards when the votes are announced at the league’s award ceremony in February. These are my selections for who should take home the hardware. I tend to rely on data and reward efficiency over sheer volume, but this is just the opinion of one man who watches too much football. You can also check out my All-Pro team selections.

In addition to the awards we’ve been hitting throughout the season, I’ll pick a few winners for awards which should exist. Before that, though, I’ll start with the guys who did the best job of setting their teams up for victory:

Coach of the Year

3. Doug Pederson, Jaguars

Is there anybody better at turning around NFL organizations than Pederson? He took over an Eagles team in 2016 that had been mismanaged by Chip Kelly and led them to a Super Bowl victory with Nick Foles in two years. Now, after taking over a Jaguars team dragged through the mud by their year-long dalliance with Urban Meyer, he has turned the Jags into AFC South champs.

Of course, it takes two to tango, and the once-2-6 Jaguars would have been stuck in the wild-card discussion if it weren’t for the simultaneous collapse of the Titans via injuries. Remember, though, the Jaguars were actually playing well in the first half of the season, only to have their efforts spoiled by bad luck and subpar timing. They likely will finish in the top 10 in offensive DVOA, with Pederson’s attack and quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s arm generating career seasons for pass-catchers Evan Engram and Zay Jones.

For an organization that was reportedly about to give a second interview to Nathaniel Hackett before he accepted an offer from the Broncos, hiring Pederson is one of the best decisions Jacksonville has made over the last decade.

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