A week after Eric Bieniemy‘s departure, the Chiefs will make their expected transition. They announced Friday they are promoting Matt Nagy to offensive coordinator.
This will be Nagy’s second time in this role. Although the former Bears head coach returned to Kansas City to be the team’s quarterbacks coach, he earned HC attention in the first place after a two-year stint in the Chiefs OC role from 2016-17. Now, the Chiefs will ensure continuity despite their five-year OC leaving.
Two Andy Reid OCs from his Chiefs tenure have become head coaches; Doug Pederson left for Philadelphia in 2016 and Nagy departed for Chicago in 2018. Bieniemy interviewed for more than 10 HC jobs from 2019-23 but did not follow his predecessors. The 10-year Reid assistant instead opted to join the Commanders as their play-calling OC. Bieniemy was no longer under contract with the Chiefs, but Reid provided endless endorsements. The Chiefs will now shift back to Nagy.
This will be Nagy’s first crack at running a Patrick Mahomes-directed offense. Nagy earned the Bears gig after coordinating two Alex Smith-run attacks, but Nagy has coached Mahomes for two years — in 2017, when he was Smith’s backup, and again in 2022. Moving from Bieniemy to Nagy as Reid’s right-hand man (and non-play-calling OC) should be a seamless transition for the Super Bowl champions. Reid had given Nagy play-calling responsibilities at points during his previous OC tenure, and it will be interesting to see if that happens again — especially since the lack of steady play-calling duties was a major factor in Bieniemy’s high hurdle to HC jobs.
The Titans wanted to interview Nagy for their OC role, requesting meetings with he and Bieniemy. Outside interest came, but NFL.com’s James Palmer notes (via Twitter) the two-time Chiefs assistant wanted to stay in Kansas City. Given Reid and Mahomes’ presences, that interest certainly makes sense. Nagy, 44, has been the expected Chiefs succession plan here for a bit now.
Although the Chiefs went 12-4 in 2016, when Nagy shared OC duties with Brad Childress, their offense ranked 20th. That prompted the 2017 trade-up for Mahomes, but Kansas City’s offense took a noticeable leap in Smith’s Missouri finale. Childress exited after the ’16 slate, leaving Nagy alone at the position; the Chiefs finished as the league’s fifth-ranked total offense and ranked fourth in offensive DVOA in 2017. Smith notched his first and only 4,000-yard passing season, throwing 26 touchdown passes and just five interceptions. That season featured Kareem Hunt winning the rushing title and Tyreek Hill morphing from part-time receiver to a starter and Pro Bowler. Travis Kelce began his tight end-record run of seven straight 1,000-yard receiving seasons under Nagy as well, starting that streak in 2016.
Nagy ended his Chicago stay as a punching bag, giving up play-calling duties at multiple points and being run out of town after a 6-11 2021 season. But he did earn Coach of the Year honors in 2018, guiding a Mitch Trubisky-quarterbacked team to a 12-4 record and the Bears’ only NFC North title over the past 12 years. Nagy’s largely Trubisky-restricted squads underwhelmed over the next two seasons, as his seat warmed, though the Bears only completed one sub-.500 season under Nagy.
The Chiefs have steadily lost coaching talent under Reid. This list now includes Bieniemy and Mike Kafka. But Nagy will enter his seventh season with the Chiefs in 2023. Provided the team uses its franchise tag on left tackle Orlando Brown Jr.., it should have its top four offensive linemen back. Kansas City has Kelce, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Kadarius Toney under contract, and JuJu Smith-Schuster has expressed interest in staying as well. Despite Bieniemy’s exit, the Chiefs should not exactly be at risk — barring a Kelce freefall at age 34 — of declining much on offense.
The media in Chicago must be happy on this. They claimed he was the worst football guy with the Bears. Curious to hear their reaction on this news item.
My reaction is LOL.
As long as he doesn’t get in Reid’s way, Just gets the title and doesn’t think like Bienemy didn’t think and takes a shower every day, I suppose he can be what Bienemy was. Good Luck wit dat.
What about Marc Trestman? He is possibly one of the worse coaches in history, let alone Chicago’s history.
he was the worst
For all of us old Bears fans I have to think that Abe Gibron is the worst Bears coach with Trestman and Nagy right near the top. I almost added John Fox but I think he was undermined quite a bit by Pace.
When you have Mahomes as QB, you’ll always be considered head coach material. Nagy should be thrilled to even hold a clip board for Reid.
Well, there go the Chiefs! This guy looked like a deer in the headlights when calling plays for the Bears.
I bet they never win a game without Tyreek and Tyreek will make the Dolphins Perennial SB Champs.
@georgefloyd But… didn’t they just win 14 games without Tyreek? And Hill hasn’t made the Dolphins perennial SB champs after 1 season, so… you would have lost that bet. Just sayin
Sarcasm is hard to catch…I get it lol
Going from the Bears to the Chiefs is like jumping off a tractor to drive a luxury vehicle. Nagy should find he can actually get out of first gear in KC.
It’s still Reid’s offense. There’s a reason Bienemy couldn’t get a HC job off of his work with the Chiefs and had to go elsewhere to try and prove himself first. It’s not like Nagy is going to overhaul the way they run the offense and do whatever he wants now.
Because the Bears were deer and not “football” players.
I hope he can find the why’s in this role when Andy Reid continues to call the plays.
If it’s not broke why fix it? With Reid calling plays they’ve gone too 3 SB’s last 5 years. It never hurt Pederson or Nagy being offered coaching jobs as the OC
Difference was, Pederson was ready for a head coaching job and Nagy wasn’t. It took years for Bienemy to finally get a HC job. Being an OC for Reid doesn’t answer any questions about whether or not an assistant is ready for the next step..
Not sure why Bieniemy left KC in the fist place. It’s not like Reid’s OC’s never got hired for head jobs
fisher40 How many since Mahomes has established himself as the best QB in the league? Hard to really evaluate a Chiefs OC right now when they have an elite QB and HC, and the offense isn’t even fully theirs to run. Best modern comparison is McDaniels with Brady and Belichick, and unlike Reid, Belichick is more of a defensive minded HC.
Maybe someone told him he has no chance to be Reid’s heir apparent.
OH NO! Who will be Pat Maholmes’ qb coach?
Old boys network, no past success needed.
I really thought Matt Patricia had a shot at the gig.
I guess after a while these perennially successful teams look for ways to challenge themselves. It’s the only explanation for guys like Nagy and Matt Patricia continuing to find work in the NFL. Like “ok guys, if we can win with this guy coaching, we are truly elite”. It has to be.
I think coaches like these keep getting hired because they will willingly fall on the sword and be a “fall guy” for a GM wanting to protect his own job security.
The Chiefs offense will suffer
Given their QB it will be hard to evaluate the success/failure of Nagy as the playcaller in KC, as Mahomes can make chicken salad out of chicken sh-t, while Trubiskey couldn’t.