Super Bowl 2023: Chiefs QB coach Matt Nagy took lessons from his Bears experience

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Matt Nagy, the NFL’s Coach of the Year just four years ago, was out in the cold at the Super Bowl this week. Literally.

Nagy, fired by the Chicago Bears after last season, is the quarterbacks coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. During a media availability this week the Chiefs assistants were outside of the hotel ballroom in a courtyard, sitting in surprising 40-degree weather for Arizona. Nagy was off to the side, sharing a small circular table with passing game analyst David Girardi while all the Chiefs players were inside. About 20 minutes earlier, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid had been inside — and warm — taking questions from a huge group of reporters about Super Bowl LVII.

Four years ago during Super Bowl week, Nagy was up on the stage at NFL Honors in a dark suit and an orange tie, accepting the award as the NFL’s top coach. Chicago loved him. The future seemed bright. Things can turn quickly in the NFL. A few years can seem like a lifetime.

"It’s a roller coaster,” said Nagy, wearing a red Chiefs hoodie like most of the other assistants outside. “In those moments you go from Coach of the Year to getting fired four years later, and it’s not easy. You need to be able to handle those situations and understand, OK, how did it get to this?"

Being an NFL head coach is a unique experience. There aren't many professions in which you can be recognized as the absolute best in your field, then over the next three years you get criticized endlessly by seemingly everyone and then fired. Nagy was knocked down a few rungs on the coaching ladder after he was fired, taking a position coach job. At age 44, he had to restart the process to become a head coach. The last time, he was an assistant for 10 years before he got a shot.

"I don’t think this profession is made for everybody," Nagy said.

Matt Nagy started fast in Chicago

In 2018, the Bears went 13-3 and won the NFC South in Nagy's first season. They lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in the playoffs on the infamous double-doink field-goal miss. Then it was 8-8, 8-8 and 6-11. Mitchell Trubisky never developed as a quarterback, the defense didn't stay at the 2018 level and Nagy took the heat and the fall.

That's how fast it can go sour.

"In the end, when it comes down to it, you have to win. You have to win," Nagy said. "If you don’t win in this business? Many coaches you see, not just me, if you’re not winning there’s an instant gratification in this league at a lot of different positions. That’s a part of this league. If you’re not competitive, it’s not for you."

Nagy had to make a decision on his immediate future. He has a wife and four sons. He could have sat out a year, like other coaches do after being fired. Vic Fangio, for one example, was out of football all of last season after being fired by the Denver Broncos. He was just hired as the defensive coordinator of the Miami Dolphins. Nagy said he is close to Doug Pederson and talked to him about it. Pederson sat out a year after being fired by the Philadelphia Eagles, then got another head coaching job with Jacksonville.

The opportunity to join the Chiefs was a good one. Nagy was on Reid's staff before he was hired by the Bears. He was comfortable with the franchise and his family knew the area, down to the school system for his kids. He consulted with his family and took the job. Staying connected to the league that moves on and forgets so fast was a factor too.

"Staying in, anybody will tell you, being able to stay in the game is so crucial," Nagy said.

It's not being on the stage as a head coach, but Nagy is in the Super Bowl and was the position coach for Mahomes, who will likely be named NFL MVP. Reid credited Nagy for helping Mahomes continue to build on his success.

“It’s tough when you’re a head coach and you get released,” Reid said. “He was coach of the year just a couple years ago and things didn’t work out and ends up being released. It’s good to knock some of that NFL scar tissue off you and get going again.

“I’m sure somewhere down the road he’s going to get another opportunity. He’s a fine football coach.”

Nagy is prepared for next chance

Many coaches don't get that second opportunity to be a head coach. Nagy will be ready if his comes.

He said he keeps a journal, in which he has noted all the good and bad things that he did as a head coach. He said he is proud of how he built a winning culture in Chicago right away, but admitted that his communication with players and staff could have been better. When you have a dream job and it slips away, you consider everything that went wrong.

"It could be something as simple as how you did a schedule for a few days, you know what I mean?" Nagy said. "Something minute that nobody would ever think of. How you ran a practice. How you traveled to a hotel on a Thursday instead of a Friday. Little things. Until you go through those situations, you don’t really know how it’ll work or if you’re going to like it."

Nagy doesn't come off as bitter or angry about how his time with the Bears went. He just wants to learn from it and be ready for another shot.

"If I can use those moments from those four years where I think I did things the right way and where I think I succeeded, and also where I think I could have been better for another opportunity down the road, I want to use that to make me better," Nagy said. "And I think I will."