LAS VEGAS — No matter how far removed Matt Nagy is from coaching the Bears and how much success he piles up with the Chiefs, he’ll always be tied to Justin Fields.
Nagy’s last season with the Bears was Fields’ first, and it was a disaster. But now, with Nagy back in the Super Bowl as the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator and Fields’ future in doubt as the Bears consider whether to draft his replacement with the No. 1 pick, he’s still betting on Fields.
“You have to learn and grow from those experiences, and I think he’s done that,” Nagy said at Super Bowl media day. “Some guys do it faster than others, but I know one thing’s for sure: He’s going the right way with his growth, and that’s important.
“You look at some of the adversity he’s been through — and it’s not easy in Chicago. It’s gonna make him tougher. Whether he stays there or goes somewhere else, I know he’s very resilient, and he’s a great kid.”
Nagy’s connection with Fields is complicated.
They’ve spoken highly of each other since parting, but the “adversity” Nagy referenced started with himself. He seemed ill-suited to work with Fields’ skills, and there were so many missteps that Bears general manager Ryan Poles acknowledged they clouded his assessment of Fields.
Fields has limitations, but there’s little disputing the Bears mishandled him, and that was one of the costliest errors made by Nagy and former general manager Ryan Pace.
It started with a bizarre plan to declare right away that Fields, despite being a decorated quarterback at Ohio State and going No. 11 overall, should essentially redshirt his rookie season while the Bears relied on Andy Dalton. That unnecessarily hindered him.
Then when Nagy came around on the idea of playing him, he did so in a gimmicky role that proved more disruptive than productive for the Bears’ offense.
The plan imploded, of course, when Dalton got hurt in the second game of the season and suddenly the Bears vaulted Fields into the starting job after designing their offense for Dalton and keeping Fields working with backups all offseason.
It bottomed out almost immediately in Fields’ starting debut in Week 3, and Nagy gave up play-calling days later.
That season hurt them both. The Bears spent the next season trying to retrain Fields, and it left Nagy with a situation that will be difficult to explain as he aims for another head-coaching job.
The entirety of his four-year run with the Bears, in which he went 34-31 before they fired him at the end of the 2021 season, raises questions that will need to be answered sufficiently if he’s in the mix for another job.
Nagy did not get an interview during the last two hiring cycles, but as long as he’s working with Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes, he’ll be on teams’ minds. If he stays in Kansas City long enough, he could replace Reid one day.
In the meantime, he has been asking, “Where did I go wrong?” That process has included asking former players in search of honest criticism.
“I’ve gotta use those [mistakes] to make me better,” Nagy said. “I’ve been able to do that — step back, be humbled and understand that I can grow in so many different areas. When and if the time comes where I get another opportunity, I’ll be better from it.
“I can use that to make me better at my next opportunity — wherever and whenever. . . . I’m hungry to get another opportunity, and if and when it happens, I’ll definitely be more prepared.”
Given his determination to make corrections and his experience working with the closest thing the NFL has to a dynasty now, the next team that gives Nagy a shot almost certainly will get a better coach than the Bears had when he was in charge.
