NFL betting: Bill Belichick takes over as coach of the year favorite over Kliff Kingsbury

Coach of the year is a strange award, through all sports. It's rarely given to the best coach.

Jason Garrett has won NFL coach of the year more recently than Bill Belichick. So has Matt Nagy. Belichick has been the best coach in the NFL for 20 years, he would be universally considered the greatest coach ever if so many people didn't dislike him, and he has won coach of the year three times. The last time was 2010.

This could be Belichick's year to tie Don Shula for the most coach of the year awards in NFL history. Belichick has taken over as the favorite to win in BetMGM's odds.

Bill Belichick is COY favorite

Belichick is +300 to win coach of the year and Kliff Kingsbury of the Arizona Cardinals is right behind at +400. Matt LaFleur of the Green Bay Packers is +600 and everyone else is at least 10-to-1 odds.

Kingsbury has a great case. His Cardinals have the best record in the NFL. They had injuries to Kyler Murray, DeAndre Hopkins, Chase Edmonds and J.J. Watt recently and kept winning. They posted a 2-1 record with Colt McCoy starting at quarterback. LaFleur has guided a very good Packers team through some key injuries as well.

However, it's clear why Belichick is the favorite. A defense that wasn't great at times early in the season has been on a tear and is arguably the best in the NFL. That defense has Belichick's fingerprints all over it. On offense, the Patriots have worked in rookie Mac Jones and that side of the ball is improving every week. The Patriots have won six in a row after starting 2-3. They look like a possible Super Bowl team.

If there was even a brief notion that Belichick was being propped up by Tom Brady, who won a Super Bowl in his first season without Belichick, that has been dispelled.

Kliff Kingsbury has a great case as well

The coach of the year award could come down to which teams get the No. 1 seeds.

Belichick, Kingsbury and LaFleur all have good cases. If the Buffalo Bills beat the Patriots on Monday night and go on to win the AFC East, it doesn't mean Belichick hasn't done a great job this season. But it would probably push voters toward Kingsbury or LaFleur, if one of their teams get the NFC's top seed.

It would be easy to see Kingsbury winning the award. It often goes to the coach of a team that blew away preseason expectations (which conveniently ignores that those predictions might just have been bad), and nobody expected the Cardinals to be that good. Winning some key games with McCoy will be a big plus for Kingsbury, and if the 9-2 Cardinals keep winning with Murray back and have the best record in the NFL at the end of the season, it'll be hard to deny him.

But maybe this is a year in which voters decide that the best coach deserves coach of the year. Kingsbury might go on to a great career, but nobody would say he's a better coach than Belichick. It has been 11 years since Belichick won coach of the year and he has been the best coach most of those seasons.

If Belichick gets the award again this season, it'll be well deserved.