Matt Nagy on facing Bears: It's over a year later and a different team now
After four seasons as the Bears head coach, Matt Nagy rejoined the Chiefs' coaching staff last year as the team’s quarterbacks coach.
Now as Kansas City’s offensive coordinator, Nagy will face his old team on Sunday when the Chiefs host the Bears.
But Nagy doesn’t feel any type of way about going against Chicago.
“For me, it’s not about that — it really isn’t,” Nagy said in his Thursday press conference. “People say that, but this is a year and a half away from my time there. But being back home here with these guys and we know what we have ahead of us, [having] to prepare for any NFL game in particular.
“I know people in the building, I know players, a lot of support staff — and that’s what’s real. But at the same point in time, you really do try to get to a point where you want to make sure that it’s not about any of that — and I mean that. This is about our team versus them and me being a Kansas City Chief and going out and being better from last week. Regardless of who we’re playing, we’ve got to improve offensively, be better there. And that's really been the focus since that game ended last weekend.”
Nagy added that he values the relationships he built in the building from ownership on down, noting that playing the Bears in Chicago during the 2022 preseason helped him get the personal feelings out of the way.
“And now here we are a year and a half later and it’s a different team now. There are still some players that I know,” Nagy said. "But that’s in the past. So, right now I’m so excited to be in here with these guys and practicing every day and making what you just asked me simple, so that we can go and do everything we can to get a win — for real.”
Nagy compiled a 34-31 record as the Bears head coach from 2018-2021, winning AP coach of the year in 2018 when the team went 12-4 in his first season. Chicago then went 8-8 twice and finally 6-11 in 2021.
