Matt Nagy broke out his dancing shoes this week, as he continues to do everything possible to step around questions about giving up play-calling for the Bears’ game against the Vikings on Monday Night Football.
And while Nagy hasn’t given a solid answer as to who’s calling plays this week, his non-answers have put me on alert:
Matt Nagy asked how far he’d be willing to go to get better including the idea of sharing play-calling: “everything is on the table, and when I say that, everything. We’ll talk about everything as a staff and see where that takes us. “. @WBBMNewsradio @JoshLissSports
— Mark Grote (@markgrotesports) November 9, 2020
Matt Nagy on potentially handing over play calling: "If anything was to happen, I'm not sure you guys would know." (as in he probably won't tell us)
— Mark Grote (@markgrotesports) November 9, 2020
So who is calling offensive plays on Monday night?
Matt Nagy just said that's something they will "keep internally with us and we're going through all that." #Bears
— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) November 12, 2020
Why would that put me on alert? Well, because after an early-season slump in 2019, Nagy was asked if he would give up play-calling duties while the offense was stuck in the mud. His answer was a lot more direct:
#Bears HC Matt Nagy says he plans to continue calling plays Sunday against Chargers.
— Larry Mayer (@LarryMayer) October 23, 2019
So, if Nagy was calling plays, he’d just come out and say it … right? I mean, that’s what history tells us.
Also, no one should be surprised that Nagy wouldn’t be willing to share this information publicly. Not only does that go against what every NFL coach would do, it goes against what Nagy himself has experienced previously.
Let’s take a moment to go back to December 3, 2017. It’s a game day Sunday, and after a 5-0 start, Kansas City was reeling and the offense was slumping. In an attempt to rattle some cages, Reid handed the play-calling duties to Matt Nagy, then the offensive coordinator. Here’s what we wrote at the time:
A couple of things to keep an eye on here. First, Offensive Coordinator Matt Nagy is a fringe head coaching candidate. His name was a little hotter when the Chiefs started 5-0, but is still someone to keep an eye on. Nagy has been with Andy Reid since 2009 when he was a coaching intern. He was an offensive quality control coach in 2011, moved on with Reid to Kansas City in 2013 where he served as quarterbacks coach before a promotion to offensive coordinator in 2016 to replace Doug Pederson.
And here’s how it was covered when the news broke shortly after 8 a.m. on game day:
Chiefs coach Andy Reid is benching….himself. He has has planned to hand over play calling to OC Matt Nagy for today's game vs. Jets although Reid will continue to have oversight, per team sources.
— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) December 3, 2017
Andy Reid giving up play-calling isn't a first. He's done it in the past on occasions with Brad Childress in Philadelphia and Doug Pederson in KC. As someone noted, the key is to see what happens after the first 15 scripted plays.
— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) December 3, 2017
There is a precedent in which Nagy has (1) witnessed what it’s like to give up play calling for a slumping offense and (2) how to go about it from a game-planning standpoint. Maybe there’s even some gamesmanship going on? If Nagy were to say he wasn’t calling plays, it wouldn’t take long for the Vikings to call up offenses run by Bill Lazor and John DeFilippo and note their tendencies. Perhaps it wouldn’t mean much in the long-run, but we’ve known coaches to try harder to hide less from opponents.