SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Matt Nagy is a glass-half-full guy by nature. But even he can’t totally whitewash the four years in the tempest he spent as Chicago Bears coach. Nagy is back in the national spotlight this week as Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ position coach, reaching Super Bowl 57 and experiencing the type of team success that eluded him in the Windy City.
That means he spent much of the week re-litigating his better-than-remembered time in Chicago. Nagy was a punching bag, but it’s important to remember he went 34-31 during the regular season and twice made the playoffs on the strength of a phenomenal defense that was held back by terrible offenses.
Nagy, during a media session attended by Pro Football Network this week, explained what he learned during those four seasons, why he returned to Kansas City, and why he thinks he deserves a second shot as an NFL head coach.
Super Bowl 57: Q&A with Matt Nagy
This is a partial transcript of Nagy’s Wednesday media availability ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Q: When you came back here, was it a natural fit for you because of Brett Veach and Andy Reid?
Nagy: “Yeah, it was natural. Coach Reid, Brett Veach, you know, Patrick, being a part of that process when he got drafted. So all of us just kind of being together, it felt like home, and they welcomed me back with open arms, and it’s just been almost storybook.”
Q: What have you seen in Patrick’s development during your time gone?
Nagy: “It’s been amazing. I mean, he’s grown so much from his rookie year, obviously learning how the game goes. And so seeing that to where he’s at now. Me coming into this after he had four great years of success prior, now, you know, it’s me understanding just like, ‘What’s his routine Monday to Saturday?’
“You know, fitting into that, but then also helping him in certain ways when I can and just helping each other out. It’s been, I mean, how lucky am I to be able to coach Patrick? You know, it’s pretty cool.”
Q: You and Andy Reid are back together again. Is that what drew you back here, the fact that he was here?
Nagy: “No doubt. I mean, Coach Reid is without a doubt, my greatest mentor. He’s taught me so much, not about just football, but the game of life. I mean, he’s as good as they come. He wins more games different ways, and just doing it the right way. And so, you know, I left to go to Chicago, was there for years, had a great experience, learned a lot. But now the opportunity to come back with Coach Reid, with Brett Veach, you know, with Eric Bieniemy, and with Patrick, it was just too good to pass up.
“You know, I could have easily sat out a year and just got away from everything, but they make it feel like home. And I wouldn’t change that decision I made for anything. And Coach Reid is just, he’s No. 1 in my book. And, you know, every single day, I’m learning something new from him. And I really mean that when I say it.”
Q: Do you see yourself as a head coach again in this league?
Nagy: “I do. I do. But when the time is right, and also, I think for me, you know, I’m not going to chase that by any means. What I want to do is I want to use my experience with Chicago, and really turn it into a positive. I learned so much. I built many great relationships. You know, I talked about the other day, and you go through some experiences that you wish you may have done a little bit different.
“But at the same point in time, I’m really, really proud of some of the things we’ve done. You know, making the playoffs two out of four years, having a winning record, you know, 2018, winning the division right away.
“We built a culture. We built a winning culture in Chicago, and we weren’t able to finish it. But that’s a part of this game. The NFL is tough. And you know, I just had too much inner drive and competitiveness in me to not use that as a positive. And that’s what I plan on doing.”
Q: You were with Patrick as a rookie. Now you’re back with him as an established star. Can you just talk about his development? And are you amazed he’s come so far, so fast?
Nagy: “I am, and I think back to when his rookie year, when he was just learning how to be a pro, and Alex Smith did one heck of a job teaching him, and in that room, you know, we grew in that room all year to the point where Alex wasn’t asking for Pat’s opinion early on. By the time we got to the end of the year, Alex was asking for Pat’s opinion. And I think that’s, over time, he built trust with him.
“And so when Patrick started learning the game, from behind the scenes, I leave, I go to Chicago, Pat obviously starts his progression as a quarterback. Throws 50-plus touchdowns, wins Super Bowl, you know, Super Bowl MVP, MVP of the league, has all these accolades. And now I come back, and I get to see him now four or five years later. And it’s just amazing.
“It’s a credit to the coaches that he had. And it’s a credit to him, because he’s the biggest competitor I’ve ever been around. The intangibles he has are second to none. And now I get to be a part of that. So what I wanted to do was insert myself this year, and jump into his routine of how he does things day to day, but also be able to help him from my end too, and he can help me be a better coach, which all my quarterbacks have done in my time.
“So I take all that, we put it together, and some of the greatest moments for me throughout the season are when we’re on that bench in between series. And we’re able to talk through a game, the ebb and flows of the highs and lows, that to me, that’s fun. It’s about keeping his composure. It’s about having that excitement.
“And now we look forward to Super Bowl Sunday, going out there at the biggest stage, me being able to just keep them, you know, calm, but yet also after good things happened, let him have fun and be excited, but do it together as a team. And I think that’s the greatest part of our staff and our players. We all do it together.”
Q: You mentioned learning a lot in Chicago. What specifically do you think made you a better coach from that experience?
Nagy: “Well, I’ll say this, No. 1, when you go into a situation, really any coach when you’re a head coach, you’ve got to create a culture. You got to learn how to build relationships and earn the trust of the players. So I was really proud of the way that we were able to quickly build relationships to where guys believed in winning. And you had to win to have more belief, and we did that.
“And I think I look into going into the 2019 season, we had such a great 2018 season that in ’19 I think the expectations were really high. I mean, people were talking about possibly the Bears being in the Super Bowl in ’19. And I feel like, I look back at that situation and say, you know, ‘How could we have handled that better?’ And not having expectations, but more so creating standards of how we’re going to do things, and we ended up 8-8 that year, we didn’t make the playoffs.
“And then the next year, we ended up making the playoffs, but just being able to kind of work together to fight through. For instance, we had a couple of losing streaks in ’18, ’19, and ’20 that strung out. And instead of like a win-loss, win-loss, win-loss for five losses, we had five losses in a row, and that’s tough.
“So being able to ‘OK, stop the losing streak, get back to winning terms.’ But then also there’s a lot of other stuff with how you communicate with players, with being able to understand where guys are at and how they think what they want to do. But there’s so much, it’s hard to explain here in just a few minutes. But I will use all of that to make it better.”
