Matt Nagy was hired to make Mitch Trubisky a star. That was the entire basis for GM Ryan Pace making the move. However, a head coach is tasked with helping every player on a team, not just one. People have remained so focused on Trubisky that they haven’t stopped to ask the bigger question. Who else does Nagy stand to help take to that next level? One doesn’t have to look too far. It will be Jordan Howard.
Now this will come across as a surprise to some. Howard? The same guy who was connected to trade rumors a month ago and isn’t supposed to be a good fit for Nagy’s offense? The same. Truth be told the rumors were always a surprise. Generally, teams don’t trade Pro Bowl talents when they’re in their primes. Especially a team like the Bears.
At last Nagy himself put the idea to rest. During his first press conference in minicamps, he made it clear that Howard has a future on this team.
“Every running back has their own strengths and weaknesses,” Nagy explained Tuesday. “… Jordan has his own way of running. Anything he does that’s a weakness, we’re going to try to focus on that and try to get it better.
Just because he struggles in one area — in whatever that is that we all have — we’re going to get him better. To sit here and say he doesn’t fit this offense I don’t think is very fair.”
People can’t see how good Nagy can be for Jordan Howard
Nagy was terrific when he took over at offensive coordinator for the Chiefs in further developing Alex Smith. The veteran had the best two-year stretch of his career in 2016 and 2017 with back-to-back Pro Bowls and 41 touchdown passes. What’s so overlooked over that same period is how good the running backs performed.
Subscribe to the BFR podcast and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
In 2016, Nagy got 921 yards rushing from Spencer Ware in just 14 games. The previous year under Doug Pederson he had just 403. This past season Nagy did even better, getting 1,327 yards from rookie third round pick Kareem Hunt.
What Nagy showed both those years is he likes to have a feature back in the offense. Somebody he can feed the football consistently. He’s about balance in the offense but seems to use the passing more to open up running opportunities. That is a classic staple of the West Coast offense he learned from Andy Reid.
It’s worth noting that so far Nagy’s offense has never averaged less than 4.2 yards a carry for a season. It was 4.9 in 2017. Howard ran the ball 276 times in 2017 for 1,122 yards. If he’d gotten that pushed to a 4.9 average with Nagy’s help? It would’ve been 1,352 yards. The last thing defenses want to see this year is Howard with space.
Nagy knows that.
