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Bruce Arians is already the Coach of the Year. (USATSI)

Go ahead and give Bruce Arians the trophy. Even with just under three weeks to play, no one else is worthy of Coach of the Year accolades in 2014.

There are good candidates out there, but anything short of a unanimous vote for Arians after guiding the Cards to an 11-win season would be criminal.

In so far as I can see, there are only four other candidates:

  • Bill O'Brien, who's taken the Texans from a two-win team and plopped them in the  middle of a competitive AFC wild-card race. The AFC South is on the table if they topple the Colts on Sunday.
  • Mike Pettine, another rookie head coach in the thick of things on the AFC side, has the Browns above .500 in December. Sound the Drudge Siren.
  • Jason Garrett has guaranteed the Cowboys a season above .500 for the first time since the Wade Phillips Era. Oh. Right. That's awkward.
  • Jim Caldwell and the Lions have nine wins and haven't looked like an unhinged rollercoaster thing this year. Yet.

It's hard to find anyone else off the list and Arians' resume smokes everyone out of the water.

It's easily the Cardinals' best season -- in terms of regular-season wins -- since coming to Arizona. One more win and Arians will be the first Cardinals coach with 12 wins. Ever.

And it's not like this team is some superpower shredding through the rest of the NFL. The Cardinals are a very well-constructed roster (GM Steve Keim probably deserves close to the same accolades here on Executive of the Year honors) but they've been completely ravished this season in terms of bad luck and injuries.

Darnell Dockett (injury) and Daryl Washington (suspension) were lost before the season. John Abraham (11.5 sacks in 2013) had a weird, scary situation and is on IR because of concussions. 

The last time Arizona played the Rams, they lost Carson Palmer for the season with an ACL injury. This time around? Drew Stanton left with a knee injury. No big deal, guys, because here comes Ryan Lindley.

You'll remember Lindley as part of a Grammy-winning barbershop quartet (along with Max Skelton, Kevin Kolb and Brian Hoyer!) who started for the Cards in 2012. Things should be falling apart at the seams for Arizona and they're somehow thriving, sitting on the edge of a playoff berth with the postseason all but secured at 11 wins.

Yes, somehow an 11-win team hasn't clinched a playoff spot as of Friday. If the Cardinals were to miss the postseason while a sub-.500 team from the NFC South got it? Get your popcorn ready for what Arians will say.

His potent quotables are an intangible for this award, by the way. After beating the Rams Thursday, Arians laced into critics who picked St. Louis to win easily.

"I love it when nobody says you have a chance to win," Arians said. "There is an 11-3 team and a team that is always 8-8. You figure it out."

That's a blowtorch quote, burning everyone in Arians' path and it's another reason why he's the best coach in the NFL. Not that he really cares about the award.

Or the accolades for that matter.  

"It's a short elevator ride back to the s--t house," Arians said in September. "All of a sudden I'm the greatest damn coach in the world. I've been a sorry sumbitch for 17, 18 years now.

"It ain't just changed because we won a couple of games."

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone picking the Cardinals to make it to the Super Bowl even if they clinch the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. Arians probably prefers it that way.