When the Chicago Bears open the preseason against the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday, they’ll welcome a familiar face in former Bears head coach — and current Chiefs quarterbacks coach — Matt Nagy.
Nagy was fired by the Bears organization, along with former general manager Ryan Pace, back in January after a disappointing 6-11 season. But, most notably, for his handling of rookie quarterback Justin Fields.
Now, Nagy will face off against his former team with what’s sure to be a vocal Soldier Field crowd, who made their feelings about Nagy perfectly clear last season.
When asked about his return to Chicago, Nagy seemed to downplay the situation, not making it about him. After all, there’s football to be played.
“It’s my professional job to make sure I step back and make sure it’s about we and not me,” he told reporters Tuesday. “I mean that when I say that, but that’s hard sometimes. And so, when you get there, I’m so used to being on the home side, right, on the home sideline, in the home locker room coming out, that’s different. I don’t know how I’ll feel when I get out there, but I’m here for this team and these guys and I built great relationships with everyone there. But it’s the preseason, too, so we’re going to go out there and have some fun.”
Following an impressive 12-4 season in 2018, things gradually got worse for Nagy’s Bears in the three years that followed. That included leading one of the NFL’s worst offenses, where Mitch Trubisky, Nick Foles, Andy Dalton nor Justin Fields couldn’t find success. Still, Nagy said he doesn’t regret his four years with the Bears.
“I wouldn’t change anything of those four years experiences,” Nagy said. “I’d change a lot of what happened of wishing we won more and could’ve done more but I learned a lot and that part I wouldn’t change. I think I got to be able to self-reflect on where I went wrong and how I could’ve been better. But I built a ton of great relationships with a lot of great people, starting with Mrs. (Virginia Halas) McCaskey, George McCaskey, Ted Phillips, Ryan Pace, and so many great players and coaches. Those will last forever; those aren’t going to leave.
“Four years is gone but it didn’t end how we wanted it to and there was disappointment, there was discouragement but in all that said, I know I’m not defeated. I know those other players, coaches, and people aren’t defeated, and we just got to be better from it.”
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