TEMPE, Ariz. -- If two-time NFL Coach of the Year Bruce Arians had a vote for this season’s award, he already knows who’d get it.
Arians said Monday he would vote for Panthers coach Ron Rivera, who won the award in 2013, in between Arians’ two Coach of the Year honors. Rivera led the Panthers to a 14-0 record before they lost Sunday for the first time, and they are the current top seed in the NFC.
Should Rivera win it, the past four awards will have gone to Arians in 2012, Rivera in 2013, Arians in 2014 and Rivera in 2015. Two coaches haven’t dominated a four-year stretch like that before. The closest thing was Chuck Knox and Joe Gibbs each winning two awards in a five-year span from 1980 to 1984.
Arians, who won the 2012 award while he was the interim coach of the Colts, said he’d also consider voting for Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who has led his team to a nine-game winning streak.
“Andy would be real close,” Arians said. “Being 1-5 and then doing what they’re doing, it’s amazing.”
But there was one person Arians wouldn’t vote for.
“I wouldn’t vote for myself,” he said.