The NFL hands out awards at the end of every regular season. I refuse to wait that long. Every year, I hand out awards at the quarter- and half-season marks. It's a fun way to look at the season through four games, but it's also a reminder later in the season of just how much can change. This time last year, while I was picking Tom Brady to win MVP, he was competing with Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers, the latter of whom would play only three more games over the rest of the season.

I've gone through each of the NFL's awards, followed the traditional rules for who seems to receive consideration, and then picked my top three candidates through Sunday's games. I've also thrown in a few of my own awards for good measure. In each case, these are my picks solely based on what has happened through four weeks as opposed to where I think the awards will land at the end of the season.

Jump to a major award:

COY | MIP | DROY | OROY | DPOY | OPOY | MVP

Coordinator of the Year

Let's start with an award that should be real, given how few coaches these days do the work of both coaching and coordinating on game days. In the cases in which a coach does handle both duties, such as Sean McVay with the Los Angeles Rams, we'll fold the credit for his success into the Coach of the Year balloting.

Third: Todd Monken, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The offensive coordinator set the league alight over the first two weeks of the season, as an offense with roots in the Air Raid managed to create easy completions while threatening to destroy teams vertically. Ryan Fitzpatrick even became the first quarterback in league history to top 400 passing yards in three straight games as he nearly led a comeback win over the Steelers in Week 3, although the FitzMagic came to an end when the Buccaneers benched Fitzpatrick for Jameis Winston at halftime of Sunday's 48-10 blowout loss to the Chicago Bears.

Winston might not be able to repeatedly hit 400 yards per game, but the Bucs have the scheme and playmakers to continually scare opposing defenses. Monken has managed to revitalize DeSean Jackson's career, and if the Bucs ever get their running game going, opposing defenses are going to be stuck between giving out steady yardage underneath or running the risk of giving up a big play on any down and distance.

Second: Bill Lazor, Cincinnati Bengals

Andy Dalton's athleticism and comfort with option concepts has been underestimated for the entirety of his NFL career, given that the TCU product was the first major college quarterback to run the inverted veer that Cam Newton would later ride to a national title at Auburn. Lazor incorporated some of these concepts into his offense with Miami, but when he was fired by '70s-era interim coach Dan Campbell in Miami, Lazor eventually made his way to Cincinnati, where he took over as offensive coordinator in September 2017.

Andy Dalton is off to a strong start, and the Bengals are 3-1. David Kohl/USA TODAY Sports

He continues to run a modern offense in Cincinnati, which has helped Dalton stay in manageable situations and the Bengals to overcome what is already a stream of injuries to their offensive contributors. Cincinnati has kept its offense up despite losing Joe Mixon, A.J. Green, Billy Price and, most recently, Tyler Eifert to injuries for stretches of time so far this season. Dalton's 93.5 passer rating since Lazor took over in 2017 is 11th among passers with at least 500 attempts, nestling him between Matt Ryan and Ben Roethlisberger. Dalton has plenty of weapons, but his most frequent targets after Green this season have been Giovani Bernard and Tyler Boyd, who were expected to be marginal backups. Lazor is creating opportunities for Dalton to succeed. Cincinnati is second in the league in Offensive Win Probability Added (WPA) through four weeks.

First: Vic Fangio, Chicago Bears

The 60-year-old Fangio was understandably upset to miss out on the Bears' head-coaching job to Matt Nagy, but one of Nagy's most successful moves of the offseason was to convince him to stay on as defensive coordinator. If Fangio thought he had missed out on his chance to become an NFL head coach, well, the Bears are playing well enough for the former 49ers coordinator to emerge as an early favorite for a top job somewhere in 2019.

The easy comparison might be to compare Fangio to Wade Phillips as the older consigliere to a young, offensive-minded head coach. It might be more accurate to compare Fangio's Bears to the Jaguars. Just as the Jaguars made a quiet leap to the middle of the pack in 2016 before adding star talent during the offseason and becoming the best defense in football last season, the Bears jumped from 23rd to 14th in defensive DVOA last season before adding Khalil Mack this offseason. The Bears rank second in the league in Defensive WPA through four weeks and lead the league with an 11.4 percent sack rate. And while Mack and Akiem Hicks are the defense's two best players, seven of Chicago's 11 starters on defense are homegrown players.

Coach of the Year

This award tends to reward coaches who drag mediocre teams into the postseason, which is why Bill Belichick has managed to win Coach of the Year only three times during his reign in New England. Andy Reid narrowly misses out in the top three here for that reason, although he's doing as good of a job as anybody in the league.

Third: Sean McVay, Los Angeles Rams

Plenty of offensive geniuses have struggled through a sophomore slump. McVay is only getting better. The Rams have rarely needed to hit top gear so far, although we saw just how dominant they can be during a ferocious shootout with the Vikings on Thursday night. They lead the league in Offensive WPA despite running only 254 offensive snaps, which is 10th-most.

What's particularly remarkable about the Rams is that McVay is basically doing this with the same players on the field every single snap. Los Angeles' 11 offensive starters -- the five linemen, Todd Gurley, Brandin Cooks, Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods, Tyler Higbee and Jared Goff -- have each played 205 or more of Los Angeles' 252 snaps. Backup tight end Gerald Everett has played 53 snaps and reserve back Malcolm Brown took most of his 40 snaps when Gurley went out with cramps in Week 3, but otherwise, nobody has played more than 10 snaps. Some teams want to substitute in specialists to create mismatches. McVay uses scheme to execute the same thing.

Second: Matt Nagy, Chicago Bears

The Bears are one crazy Aaron Rodgers drive from starting the season 4-0, and while Nagy deserves some of the blame for mismanaging the clock on Chicago's final drive with the lead in Week 1, the Bears have continually impressed ever since. Nagy has schemed around an inexperienced, limited quarterback in Mitchell Trubisky, and we saw signs of a breakthrough this week, when Trubisky was throwing receivers open in a six-touchdown performance during a rout of the Bucs. In a suddenly wide-open NFC North, the Bears deserve to be in first place

Mitchell Trubisky had a breakout game in Week 4's blowout win over the Bucs, totalling six touchdowns. Tannen Maury/EPA

First: Mike Vrabel, Tennessee Titans

The Titans have every excuse to be 0-4. Their Week 1 game against the Dolphins was interrupted twice by lightning storms. They lost Marcus Mariota and both of their starting tackles for Week 2 and then had to bring Mariota back even though he couldn't grip the ball effectively after Blaine Gabbert was concussed in Week 3. This week, they hosted the Super Bowl champion Eagles and let a possible game-winning touchdown slip through their hands in overtime when Darius Jennings dropped a perfectly thrown Mariota bomb.

Instead, the Titans keep answering the bell and manufacturing ways to win. After losing the opener, they parlayed a fake punt touchdown, a Wildcat drive with Derrick Henry at quarterback, and a tough defensive stop into a win over the Texans. They shut down Blake Bortles after a career day against the Patriots in Week 3 to win with a limited Mariota. On Sunday, they converted a fourth-and-15 and a fourth-and-2 in overtime, with Vrabel correctly passing up a 50-yard field goal to push for a victory. It might be tough to keep pulling out games this way, but Vrabel has his team fighting adversity and beating some tough football teams right now. The rookie coach deserves a ton of credit.

Most Disappointing Player of the Year

This is based on expectations heading into the 2018 season, with some allowance for context. Tom Brady has been disappointing, but the offense around him hasn't been very good, either. (He also looked just fine on Sunday.)

One of the four best cornerbacks in the NFL as a rookie, Lattimore was torched repeatedly by Mike Evans in the Week 1 loss against the Buccaneers and hasn't been able to keep the Saints' secondary afloat. The good news is that Lattimore had his best game of the season against the Giants in Week 4, as the former first-round pick forced a red zone fumble and helped limit Odell Beckham Jr. to seven catches for 60 yards, most of which came in the fourth quarter with the Saints in a prevent defense.

Lattimore can't do everything; he was effective against Julio Jones in Week 3 but saw the Falcons torch P.J. Williams with throws to Calvin Ridley, and then saw the ball head to Jones after Lattimore switched to the rookie sensation. Last year, though, Lattimore was so good that the Saints were able to help Ken Crawley in coverage and had enough time in the back end for their pass rush to get home. If Lattimore is back to his old self, the Saints should be the favorites to repeat in the NFC South.

Taylor was supposed to be a stable set of hands who could keep things steady until No. 1 pick Baker Mayfield was ready to take over, but the Taylor who was efficient-if-unspectacular in Buffalo wasn't the same in Cleveland. While he came up with big plays late in Weeks 1 and 2, Taylor threw two interceptions, fumbled three times and completed just 48.8 percent of his passes. His confidence disappeared, and he went 4-of-14 for just 19 yards in the first half of Week 3 before getting hurt and being benched for the rookie. The Virginia Tech product is likely looking at backup duty in 2019, with Baltimore looming as a possible landing spot if Joe Flacco leaves.

Tyrod Taylor was injured and benched in Week 3, and he looks unlikely to get the starting job back from Baker Mayfield. AP Photo/Ron Schwane

Chris Conte might have been the victim of the most embarrassing play of the 2018 season when he was stiff-armed onto injured reserve by Vance McDonald in Week 3, but nobody has been on the receiving end of as many notable big plays as Barr over the first month of the campaign. Some aren't necessarily his fault; while he was the closest defender in coverage on three different touchdowns against the Rams, Barr can't reasonably be expected to carry Cooper Kupp up the sideline on a "leak concept." No linebacker in the league is going to cover Robert Woods up the seam, let alone Barr.

During Week 3, though, Barr was made to look foolish more than once by Bills quarterback Josh Allen in the latter's first NFL start. Barr was the defender Allen hurdled on the most spectacular run from that game, which will earn Barr poster status in Western New York for the foreseeable future. The former first-round pick is in a contract year and wasn't locked up to an extension over the offseason. Based on his early-season form, the Vikings won't be able to justify bringing Barr back on an eight-figure annual salary again in 2019.

Most Improved Player of the Year

And likewise, this award is for the players who have improved the most in 2018. I'm not looking for players who are playing great because they moved to a better team, but more realistically players who have broken out in an expanded role and/or carved out more playing time on their current team.

While Hunt was already the second-best Estonian in NFL history after former Titans tackle Michael Roos, it was a list that went only two deep. The former Bengals second-round pick was an overage draftee at 26 and never got regular playing time behind Carlos Dunlap & Co. in Cincinnati, so when the Colts signed Hunt to a two-year, $4.1 million deal before the 2017 season, they were mostly just expecting a reserve end with some raw athleticism.

Instead, Hunt has turned into a monster after the Colts moved back to a 4-3 base this offseason. The SMU product already has four sacks and nine tackles for loss through four games, which are more than Hunt racked up during his four seasons in Cincinnati combined. The Colts have been competitive in each of their games, and the duo of Hunt and another player we'll get to later have been the driving forces in Matt Eberflus' defense.

Boyd was a healthy scratch at times last season and appeared to be buried on the depth chart behind the likes of Brandon LaFell and John Ross. LaFell was cut during camp to help free up snaps for Boyd, who has emerged as Andy Dalton's security blanket. The former second-round pick has 26 catches for 349 yards and 18 first downs through four games, including back-to-back 100-yard games over the past two weeks. If he keeps this up, Boyd might be one of the top No. 2 wideouts in the league.

The Cowboys secondary is improved in 2018, and it starts with the play of converted cornerback Byron Jones. Matthew Emmons/USA TODAY Sports

After being moved from cornerback to safety and failing to develop, the Cowboys at times last season took Jones out of the lineup for sixth-round pick Kavon Frazier. Dallas picked up its former first-round pick's fifth-year option for 2019 and decided to move him back to cornerback, where the UConn product has been a revelation. Opposing No. 1 wideouts are averaging four catches for 61 yards this season against the Cowboys, and the only big play they've hit was a 52-yard touchdown in Week 3, when Tyler Lockett torched Cover-2 away from Jones' side of the field. He's this season's DeMarcus Lawrence for the Dallas defense.

Defensive Rookie of the Year

This award (as well as Defensive Player of the Year) normally goes to a pass-rusher because sacks are easier to accrue and notice than tight coverage and interceptions, but no rookie edge rusher has more than two sacks through four weeks. There is no shortage of impressive rookie defensive backs, though, which is why it's tough to leave out Donte Jackson and Minkah Fitzpatrick, among others.

Few defensive backs in the league are doing more than James, who has been an immediate contributor on a Chargers defense struggling without Joey Bosa. James leads the Chargers in pass knockdowns (six), which isn't all that crazy for a safety, but he also tops Los Angeles with three sacks, which is significantly weirder. No defensive back has ever hit 10 sacks in a season, and the last player to hit eight sacks in a campaign was Adrian Wilson in 2005. James is on pace for 12, and while he probably won't get there, his impact is clear.

Ward's two-interception debut launched him into an early lead for this award, and while those weren't really a great measure of his play in the opener, he has quickly turned into a building block for Cleveland's defense. The problem, to be honest, is that he's already so much better than Cleveland's other cornerbacks that teams are looking away from him and toward the lesser lights of the secondary. Opposite corner Terrance Mitchell fractured his forearm against Oakland and could be out for the rest of the season, which could only further serve to isolate Ward away from the football as the season goes along.

Second-round pick Darius Leonard leads the league in tackles (53) and already has four sacks. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

One of Indy's three second-round selections, Leonard has been an instant playmaker after entering the starting lineup. He leads the league in tackles with 54 through four weeks, and while tackles aren't a great measure of quality, Leonard also can throw in a team-high four sacks, a forced fumble, two pass breakups and seven tackles for loss, including five against the Eagles in Week 3. The only concern is that the Indy weakside linebacker was spotted in a walking boot after the Texans game, which could cost him some time. When he comes back, Indy can hope that they continue to get Lavonte David-esque performance from its new star linebacker.

Offensive Rookie of the Year

One of the league's five first-round quarterbacks should eventually emerge as a top candidate for this award, but to this point, none has been able to string together two consecutive quality starts. None makes it onto our shortlist here.

Johnson might sneak onto this list for breaking that infamous Lions streak of games without a 100-yard rusher alone, but after running the ball all over the Patriots, he started anew on Sunday with a 32-yard run against the Cowboys. He is still a boom-or-bust runner -- his six subsequent carries against Dallas cost the Lions expected points before Johnson ran in a touchdown from eight yards out -- but the booms have been present frequently enough through four weeks. He's averaging nearly six yards per carry, which should encourage the Lions to play him ahead of LeGarrette Blount, who is failing to even hit three yards per rush so far.

Barkley has nearly 160 more yards from scrimmage than any other rookie in the league, so while the early returns for the Penn State star have been inconsistent, he's assuming a massive amount of volume for a pro offense. Just 21 of his 83 touches have resulted in a first down, though, and 133 of his yards from scrimmage have come with the Giants trailing by 10 or more points in the fourth quarter, which is the most in the league by nearly 50 yards.