Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid stumped for his former offensive coordinator to get a head coaching job.
Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy’s contract expired at the end of this season. The Chiefs chose not to renew his contract and instead hired Chicago Bears running backs coach Eric Bieniemy, who previously served as OC from 2018 to 2022.
Reid praised both coaches, but said on Monday that letting Nagy go gives the two-time Super Bowl champion an opportunity to run his own offense, either as a head coach or a coordinator with a different team.
“So, he'll go out and be able to put his own mark on things ... I was hoping that it would be a head coaching position. It still might be. He deserves that, definitely, for sure. And if that doesn’t work, it gives him an opportunity to step in as a coordinator and run a show from there.”
Nagy has spent most of his career around Reid. He joined the Philadelphia Eagles as an intern, then as Reid’s assistant, and later as an offensive quality control coach.
When Reid was fired by the Eagles and hired by the Chiefs, Nagy was hired as quarterbacks coach. When then-OC Doug Pederson was hired as head coach of the Eagles, Nagy took his job as offensive coordinator.
In 2018, he was hired as the Bears’ head coach. He propelled Chicago to a 12–4 record and a playoff appearance, but lost to the Eagles in the Wild Card round on the infamous “double doink” missed field goal.
Despite the loss, Nagy won the NFL Coach of the Year award that year. The Bears went 8–8 in both 2019 and 2020, but made the Wild Card round again, only to lose to the New Orleans Saints. He went 6–11 in the 2021 season and was fired in 2022.
“Matt and I have a great relationship, and here he sits,” said Reid.
“Before the season even started here, I knew that he wanted an opportunity to have his own show. He’s been a head coach. He was coach of the year. I mean this guy, all the things I’ve said about him, I still feel about him. ... He deserves to have a head coaching job, and if not it gives him an opportunity to go out and do his thing.”
“I really feel good about where I’m at, and again here we are at the end of the season, so this is the time where this stuff comes up,” he said.
“I’ve prepared for several years since I went through it at the right time. Everything that I went through in Chicago, it all happened for a reason. And to be able to come back here in Kansas City and be here with Coach Reid and all these players is special. We just continue to work through all that and see whatever happens. But it’s fun, and it’s just that time of the year, so be ready for it.”
At one point, Nagy had the pick of the litter, with 10 head coaching vacancies after the regular season ended. But now just four of those jobs are open: the Arizona Cardinals, Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns, and Las Vegas Raiders. And since several of the new head coaches this cycle are defensively-minded, he will still have an opportunity to have full control of an offense.
But Reid did not want Nagy to have a consolation prize.
“Somebody’s missing a gem here. That’s how I feel. And I would love to see him get picked up and going,” he said.
