Matt Nagy came into the 2020 offseason with an objective. Do anything in his power to get more out of the Chicago Bears quarterback position. That meant anything. Not just the possibility of replacing Mitch Trubisky as the starter. Something that was teased with the trade for Nick Foles. He also completely overhauled the coaching staff. Bill Lazor replaced Mark Helfrich as offensive coordinator and John DeFilippo took over as quarterbacks coach.
Surprisingly it was DeFilippo who got the most attention among the acquisitions. Why? A big part of it is his prior history coaching quarterbacks. Over the past several years the man developed a reputation for elevating quarterbacks to some of their career-best work. Carson Wentz was an MVP contender in 2017, finishing with 33 TD passes in just 13 games. Still a high in his career. Then after he was injured, Nick Foles led the Philadelphia Eagles to a championship, winning Super Bowl MVP.
In 2018 as offensive coordinator for Minnesota, Kirk Cousins threw the most TD passes of his career with 30. Last season in that same position with Jacksonville, 6th round rookie Gardner Minshew finished with a 91.2 passer rating in 12 starts.
So it’s easy to see why he’s garnered some respect.
A lot of former players liked what he brought to the table. Several prominent names spoke about what it is that has made his coaching style such sustained success.
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Eagles OT Lane Johnson: “I saw a guy that was just on top of his stuff so much, really detailed as far as being the quarterbacks coach.”
Vikings WR Adam Thielen: “He’s going to give everything he has, staying late and doing extra work to make sure your team is in the right position to win.”
Eagles QB Carson Wentz: “He’s just really detailed. He’s systematic with his thought process for some of the things that we put in and install. We kind of dot every ‘i,’ cross every ‘t’ together.”
Mitch Trubisky seems to have benefited already
In the latest episode of “1920 Football Drive,” the Bears gave an up-close view of how DeFilippo is handling his quarterbacks. He comes across as a guy with lots of energy and is constantly talking. What really stands out though are the things he keeps mentioning. Listen closely and words like “timing,” “progression,” and “feet.”
He even went so far as to indicate exactly where he wanted a ball placed on a given pass play. Right down to which yard line he expected it to hit on the play. That is a level of detail that might be hard for a lot of people to comprehend. However, it shouldn’t be. Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh was notorious for similar demands in his time with the 49ers. He even called out the number of inches he expected a throw to be in front of a receiver.
The other part? Footwork.
Walsh was relentless about footwork. By the sound of things, so is DeFilippo. Trubisky admitted in a recent press conference that his feet have remained a constant talking point since the year began and hasn’t stopped.
“I spent a lot of time this offseason doing footwork. Lot of drills in the pocket, moving around defenders. Keeping my feet set. Then just finishing with balance.”
One could argue Trubisky’s feet were his worst enemy when it came to throwing the ball in 2019. So many times his feet would look off-kilter or float too far outside. This is a likely reason why so many of his passes sailed on him. If he can get that under control, then maybe he does have a chance to rebound.
