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Kansas City Chiefs' Todd Haley Is An Early NFL Coach Of The Year Candidate

Chiefs head coach Todd Haley is doing a great job in Kansas City's turnaround and deserves a nod as a coach of the year candidate.

The obvious disclaimer lies with this one. We're not even a third of the way through the 2010 NFL season and a lot can happen between and Jan. 2, 2011, the final day of the regular season.

That said Kansas City Chiefs head coach Todd Haley has done a remarkable job turning around a team that was 4-12 last year, and 10-38 the previous three years. They're sitting at 3-2 and in command of the AFC West by more than a game.

Hey, if he can make a believer out of Jason Whitlock he can make a believer out of anyone.

Haley has matured and is doing a good job. Made some strategic errors against Colts but he's doing a nice job

There's a lot of reason to like what Haley has done so far. He said last year coming in that it would be difficult but ultimately the hard work would pay off. Through five weeks in 2010, they've nearly matched their wins in 2009. He said last year the Chiefs would be a running team. By the end of 2009 and so far in 2010 he's been right. He's said the defense would be tough and, despite bringing back largely the same unit as 2009, has helped turn them into one of the league's better defenses (by way of hiring the right man to coach the defense).

Last year he was perceived as a loud, abrasive coach that some players didn't like. This year, whether it's perception or reality, it seems that he's calmed down quite a bit and his players seem to react to him better.

There's a lot to like about what Haley has done. Don Banks of SI.com in his NFL Awards Watch this week tabbed Haley as the early leader for coach of the year.

The overmatched Chiefs won a combined 10 games in the past three seasons, but Haley has them a blown interference call away from being 4-1 and comfortably ahead in the AFC West. Kansas City, in reality, is 3-2, on a two-game losing streak and just 1½ games ahead of everyone in the division. But a 3-0 start has changed the entire landscape in Chiefs-dom, and Haley has a good, young team that has been 2010's top turnaround story thus far.
It's partly a testament to just how bad this franchise was but it's also a credit to Haley for the turnaround. If Haley can lead the Chiefs to the playoffs, I think he's got a real shot at proving he did the most with what he had.