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Sorry, Nick Sirianni and Brian Daboll. Doug Pederson should be the NFL’s Coach of the Year.

The other candidates, including Kyle Shanahan, Andy Reid, and Sean McDermott, all coached well. Pederson performed a miracle.

Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson (left) and Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni (right) share a laugh before the Eagles play the Jacksonville Jaguars at Lincoln Financial Filed in Philadelphia, Pa. on Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022. The Eagles win 29-21.
Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson (left) and Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni (right) share a laugh before the Eagles play the Jacksonville Jaguars at Lincoln Financial Filed in Philadelphia, Pa. on Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022. The Eagles win 29-21.Read moreDavid Maialetti / Staff Photographer

When the top three NFL Coach of the Year candidates go to work Saturday, the voting will have been over for two days. Voters from the Pro Football Writers Association were supposed to consider only the coaches’ regular-season work, so the New York Giants’ win last weekend should not influence anyone who prefers Brian Daboll, whose team whupped Minnesota mirage Kevin O’Connell and the Vikings, but human nature is what it is.

The Eagles and Giants both burst out of the gate in big, East Coast markets, which made it a two-horse race in the first half of the season between Nick Sirianni and Daboll. Then the Eagles lost Jalen Hurts and both games with backup Gardner Minshew. Brock Purdy kept winning in San Francisco, the Jacksonville Jaguars somehow made the playoffs, and the Giants stagnated. Suddenly, it was a four-horse race.

» READ MORE: The Eagles-Giants and Cowboys-49ers games honor the NFC as it used to be

The Clydesdale wasn’t in it: Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid, whose team earned the AFC’s No. 1 seed, did what he was expected to do. So did Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott, whose team had been to the playoffs the past three seasons.

It was a crowded field this year, but there’s a clear winner.

4. Kyle Shanahan, 49ers

As brilliant as the 49ers’ finish was — 10 straight wins, the last six with rookie seventh-rounder Purdy — it’s difficult to give full credit to a coach who began the season 3-4 with Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo. The difference wasn’t Purdy, or Shanahan’s play-calling. The difference was Christian McCaffrey, who, when healthy, is the most dynamic player in the NFL. Shanahan has used him well, but general manager John Lynch traded for him.

» READ MORE: Bucks County’s Mike McGlinchey pushes 49ers to playoffs with his brother and family behind him: ‘They’re a blessing’

Further, as deftly as Shanahan has managed his offense, the 49ers are fearsome because of the defense DeMeco Ryans coordinates. It’s No. 1 in the NFL. To his credit, Shanahan hired the former Eagle as a quality control coach in 2017, promoted him to inside linebackers coach in 2018, made him the DC in 2021, and he has been the best coach on the staff since. That includes Shanahan.

3. Brian Daboll, Giants

Daboll might one day be considered one of the better coaching hires of the decade, but he wasn’t even the best hire of 2022. He’s had a fine rookie year. He won nine games, a five-game improvement over 2021, and locked up the NFC’s No. 6 seed with a week to spare. In the first half of the season, he beat Jacksonville, but the Jags stunk then, and he beat the Ravens, but they turned out to be pretty lousy. Still, he did it with a nondescript defense plagued by injury, an offensive line that remains unremarkable, and a wide receiver corps that recalls Donovan McNabb’s early days.

Daboll’s real genius lies in making do with what he had. Saquon Barkley, the team’s best player, returned to Pro Bowl form. Daboll was hired, in part, to save fourth-year quarterback Daniel Jones. As the offensive coordinator in Buffalo, Daboll had created Josh Allen; could he salvage Jones?

» READ MORE: Hurts' health a big reason to back the Giants to cover Saturday night in Philly

Yes. Daboll developed a scheme that featured Jones’ running ability, utilized play-action, and simplified Jones’ responsibilities. Jones finished with career-bests in completion percentage (67.2%), passer rating (92.5), rushing yards (708), and rushing touchdowns (seven) and, perhaps most importantly, he threw a career-low five interceptions.

Great work.

The Giants also went 2-5-1 in their last eight games.

Horrible work.

2. Nick Sirianni, Eagles

Nicky T-shirts built off the humility of 2021, when he ceded play-calling responsibilities to offensive coordinator Shane Steichen at midseason, a monumental gesture of leadership and accountability. He understood he wasn’t great at it, and he understood he wasn’t ready as a head coach to successfully multitask on game days (almost no one is). It is, to this day, Sirianni’s most significant act.

It allowed Steichen and quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson to devise a scheme that stressed the strengths of running quarterback Jalen Hurts and a spectacular offensive line. Hurts, a bottom-15 quarterback at the end of 2021, was the MVP favorite until his shoulder injury in Game 14. Hurts’ ascension was partly Sirianni’s doing, but it was mostly Hurts’ individual improvement.

» READ MORE: Jalen Hurts’ unrelenting work ethic: From SoCal to his locker stall, the Eagles — and Tony the janitor — tell stories

It also allowed Sirianni better oversight of timid defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, whose defense finished No. 2 in the NFL, largely because it broke the franchise’s sack record, with 70, tops in the league.

But, like Shanahan, Sirianni’s success arrived with an influx of new talent. Wide receiver A.J. Brown, edge rusher Haason Reddick, cornerback James Bradberry, safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, and run-stuffing rookie defensive tackle Jordan Davis all were moderate-risk bets that paid off handsomely for general manager Howie Roseman, who should be, hands-down, the NFL’s Executive of the Year.

» READ MORE: Howie Roseman, Exec of the Year? No-brainer, says Jeffrey Lurie.

Of course, justice would not be miscarried if Sirianni and Roseman both won.

1. Doug Pederson, Jaguars

Pederson did what Daboll did: He made Trevor Lawrence a competent NFL quarterback with an unlimited ceiling.

Pederson did what Sirianni did: He incorporated new talent — Evan Engram, Christian Kirk, and Zay Jones — who all had career years.

Pederson did what Shanahan did: He finished strong, winning six of his last seven games, including Game 17 against the Tennessee Titans to take the AFC South title.

» READ MORE: Before Eagles’ Boston Scott was a ‘Giant killer,’ he was a broke college kid clinging to a dream

But Pederson did it all for the NFL’s worst franchise. He inherited a culture rotted by the brief presence of Urban Meyer and the lingering stench of Doug Marrone.

Pederson won nine games with a team that was 4-29 the past two seasons and hadn’t sniffed the playoffs in four years. That got my vote.

The other coaches all coached well.

Doug Pederson performed a miracle.