It almost seems like fate that Matt Nagy would become head coach of the Chicago Bears. They happened to draft a quarterback in Mitch Trubisky he connected with. Their job became available right when his star was on the rise as a coordinator. Most interestingly, he was coached at one point by former Bears folk hero Doug Plank in the Arena Football League. There were always interesting connections and parallels between the two.
Another interesting one that people may not have realized? It’s a connection to former Bears quarterback Jim McMahon. Now, this is less a direct link and more a meeting of two similar mindsets. One of the things that stuck out about McMahon during his career in Chicago was his ability to elevate the passing game to respectable levels.
This despite playing in a system that was as smashmouth and old school as it could get. Head coach Mike Ditka, for all the good things he did during that time, wasn’t the most innovative offensive strategist. This forced McMahon to stage his own sort of rebellion, often changing play calls that came in.
Ditka hated it. That was a big reason he tightened his grip on quarterbacks that followed McMahon. Yet the results were pretty conclusive. Almost every change the QB made was the right one. It’s interesting what might’ve happened had McMahon ever gone into coaching himself. Perhaps he would’ve been exactly what Nagy has become.
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Matt Nagy had the exact same mindset as McMahon
Adam Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times spoke with former Nagy teammate Brian Ginn about the origins of the Bears head coach. When talking about his time at Delaware as a quarterback, Ginn revealed that Nagy had a bit of McMahon in his blood.
“Four or five times a game, the play that was run was not the play that the head coach or the offensive coordinator had called,” Ginn said during an interview during the offseason program. “Matt would claim that I messed the signal up. I would claim that he was changing the plays.”
Jokes aside, Ginn realized halfway through that season that Nagy was right in making the changes. It’s partly why Nagy left Delaware with more than 20 passing records.
“All the plays that he was changing were working, so I just started taking credit for changing the signals, even though I know it was him,” Ginn said, laughing. “It was just like that.”
It takes courage to do something like that. Having that willingness to defy the game plan in order to make a play work. By showing he could do that in college, Nagy had basically planted the seeds of his future as an offensive play caller. One of the hardest things to do in football is seeing the way a defense is playing and adjusting to the right offensive plays best suited to attack it.
That is what good offensive coaches are required to do. Learning this bit of history, it’s even less of a surprise that Nagy became such a successful offensive coordinator during his time in Kansas City. It’s clear he understands how to evaluate a defense and more importantly an ability to change what he’s doing in order to beat it.
This is something the Bears haven’t had in a long time. It’s little wonder they’re so excited about what’s to come.
