NEWSLETTER
Recently at The Athletic, NFL insider Jay Glazer had an eyebrow-raising response to a question in his mailbag regarding Matt Nagy, Mitch Trubisky, and the Bears ability to finally take that big leap forward.
Glazer made reference to teams spending years trying to find “the next Sean McVay” and his belief that there was no “next Sean McVay” … until he met Matt Nagy: “I thought it would take another 10 years to find that next great young offensive coach. Damn was I wrong,'” Glazer wrote, recalling an anecdote he shared with Bears tight end Zach Miller. “Nagy is extremely impressive, and if he pans out, he and Trubisky could be married to each other for the next 13 years the way that Sean Payton and Drew Brees have been.”
Nagy as Payton? Trubisky as Brees? Thirteen years? Damn, indeed.
Payton and Brees have presided over a golden era of football in New Orleans. Brees has thrown for 58,097 yards and 408 touchdowns, led the team to six playoff appearances, and won a Super Bowl in 2009. Payton has won a franchise record 105 games leading the charge. If the Bears can replicate that with Nagy and Trubisky, swoon.
Even though we know how things have played out since it happened, it’s worth noting that the Saints took a considerable risk in tying their future to an inexperienced head coach and a quarterback with questions that needed to be answered. Boy, does that sound familiar or what?
But let’s keep that there for now, and instead dive into Glazer’s Payton-Brees comparison because it’s an interesting one, especially since we know that the current Bears GM, Ryan Pace, was along for that ride as a member of the Saints front office.
The Saints hired Payton to replace Jim Haslett, a defensive-leaning head coach whose final year with the team yielded a 3-13 record. In Payton, New Orleans was hiring a head coach who had an extensive background in quarterback development, experience as an offensive coordinator, and time served working under an all-time great in Bill Parcells. But the arrow wasn’t always pointing up for Payton. When Payton was serving as the New York Giants’ offensive coordinator in 2002, Head Coach Jim Fassel stripped him of his play-calling duties, a move that helped push the Giants on a win streak and into the playoffs. Chances are Payton would have been let go had Parcells and the Cowboys not hired him away.
As for Brees, he was a talented quarterback who had yet to reach his full potential while in San Diego. A shoulder injury complicated matters and limited Brees’ free agent options, but GM Mickey Loomis pushed his chips to the middle of the table with a six-year deal worth $60 million to secure the team’s franchise quarterback. And while the contracts for franchise quarterbacks now dwarf what Brees received in 2006, that was still a healthy chunk of change for a quarterback with some pretty notable health questions regarding his throwing shoulder. In the end, everything worked out and the rest is history.
Now, the big question being asked around Chicago is whether or not history can repeat itself while being led by an inexperienced coach, a quarterback with upside, and a general manager who has seen how good things can be when everything clicks.
