Matt Nagy returning to Chiefs as quarterbacks coach

The former Chiefs coordinator is back in Kansas City following a four-year stint as head coach of the Chicago Bears.

On Friday afternoon, the Kansas City Chiefs announced the return of Matt Nagy to the coaching staff, bringing him back as both a senior offensive assistant and quarterbacks coach. The team made the announcement via its official Twitter account.

Nagy, 43, spent his college years as quarterback for the University of Delaware — where he played alongside future Chiefs general manager Brett Veach — but failed to earn an NFL contract. Following a seven-year career with multiple Arena Football League teams, he was hired as a coaching intern with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2008 — the same year Veach moved up from being an Eagles intern to a coaching assistant. In Philadelphia, he eventually became an offensive quality control assistant before head coach Andy Reid named him quarterbacks coach on his first-year staff with the Chiefs in 2013.

Nagy served in that position through 2015, moving up to offensive coordinator after Doug Pederson gave up the job to become the Eagles’ head coach. In 2016, Nagy shared the position with Brad Childress — but when Childress was promoted to become the assistant head coach in 2017, Nagy took sole possession of the job.

With five regular-season games remaining in that season, Reid publicly abdicated his play-calling responsibilities, giving Nagy full control of the offense. The Chiefs went 1-4 to close the season before the Tennessee Titans defeated them 22-21 in the Wild Card round. The Kansas City offense failed to score in the second half of that game — prompting speculation that Reid had taken over play-calling from his offensive coordinator — but Nagy later said he had called every second-half play, calling it “a failure in my book.”

Despite this, the Chicago Bears hired Nagy to become their head coach before the 2018 season. With Nagy’s departure, Eric Bieniemy became the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator — and on Thursday, news that the Chiefs were retaining Bieniemy for a fifth season as coordinator surfaced. After Mike Kafka went to the New York Giants to become their offensive coordinator, the Chiefs’ quarterbacks coach position was open; Nagy now fills it.

During his first year as Bears head coach, Nagy earned Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year honors, leading the Bears to a 12-4 record and their first playoff appearance since 2010. But since then, the Bears have never played above 0.500 — although they did make the Wild Card round of the 2020 postseason. On January 10 — following a 6-11 season — the Bears fired both Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace.

Nagy returns to Kansas City as the obvious frontrunner for promotion to offensive coordinator in 2023 — that is, if Bieniemy finally lands that elusive first crack at becoming an NFL head coach.