Super Bowl LVII Now Features a Matt Nagy-Vic Fangio Matchup

February 12, 2023, by Luis Medina Chicago Bears

Nearly five years after we found ourselves debating which Bears coach was more important to the team’s resurgent 12-win season in 2018, we might be getting a clear winner tonight.

That’s because Super Bowl LVII will feature Matt Nagy and Vic Fangio butting heads once again.

NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport has details of Fangio’s two-week stint with helping the Philadelphia Eagles defense prepare for the Kansas City Chiefs offense:

The #Eagles have gotten help from an unexpected place — Vic Fangio signed a 2-week contract with Philly to help its offense prepare for KC's defense. Tomorrow, he'll join Miami as the #Dolphins DC.

My story: https://t.co/NVw6qQGnFi
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 12, 2023

Ahhh! It’s Fangio vs. Nagy for old-time’s sake. How can you not love it when there is an ex-Bears factor that is this much fun.

Fangio is taking over as the Dolphins’ defensive coordinator tomorrow. But first, he’ll try and help former Bears pass-rusher Robert Quinn and the rest of his teammate win a Super Bowl. And if they can do so, they’ll do it while defeating a former Bears head coach in the process. It’s almost as if there is always a Bears-centric tie-in if you’re willing to look for it.

Fangio was the defensive mastermind of an all-time great Bears defense back in 2018. A popular assistant who parlayed that unit’s excellence into a head-coaching gig in Denver, Fangio’s defenses know a thing or two about slowing down some of the league’s most prolific offensive units. On the other side of the ball is Nagy, the NFL Coach of the Year award winner for his efforts in leading the Bears to a 12-win season. Nagy now coaches K.C.’s quarterbacks. So, in a way, the Super Bowl kinda boils down to Nagy vs. Fangio. That’s fun (at least, it is from our perspective).

But will it be fun for the Chiefs? Because even though Fangio is a defensive wizard, he didn’t have too much success against Kansas City. At least, not when he was Denver’s head coach. The Broncos were 0-6 against the Chiefs in the three years in which he was Denver’s head coach. But, hey, there was that 2021 Week 13 matchup at Arrowhead. In that game, Mahomes was held to this less-than-Mahomesian line: 15/29, 184 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT, 57.3 passer rating. Perhaps Fangio can dig into that bag of tricks to help the Eagles pull out one more such performance. It can’t hurt, and it could help.

Filed to: Chicago Bears