Former Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy has landed on his feet in a big way, with reports surfacing that he’s about to be hired as offensive coordinator of the New York Giants and work under their new head coach, John Harbaugh. The hiring was in an ESPN story written by Jordan Raanan, based on a report from Adam Schefter.
The substance of Nagy’s role in this situation will be very different. With the Chiefs, he was responsible primarily for doing the game plans, but the final product was basically based on Andy Reid’s final changes and shifts in strategy. The hiring of Nagy was basically a placeholder job until Nagy could find his next head coaching gig, but Nagy came up short in the interview process this offseason with several teams, according to reports.
Now Nagy will jump feet first into the development of young quarterback Jaxson Dart, who led an offense build around players like receiver Malik Nabers and running back Cam Skattebo.
More importantly, Nagy will get to work under Harbaugh, whose reputation for building a program was basically impeccable until issues supposedly surfaced between Harbaugh and quarterback Lamar Jackson.
Nagy’s performance in Kansas City doesn’t exactly inspire optimism, even if it is tough to know how much of the Chiefs offense was based on his input, feedback and coaching. The Chiefs offense finished 9th, 16th and 20th in total yards over the last three years, respectively, according to Ranaan, and the offense wasn’t in the top ten in scoring in any of those seasons, either.
Kansas City increasingly relied on its tough defense and the ability of quarterback Patrick Mahomes pull off game-winning plays in close contests, a strategy that came up empty this year.
The closest Nagy came to getting hired again as a head coach was with the Tennessee Titans, who instead chose San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh for the job.
The Giants offense definitely has potential. New York finished 13th in the league in rushing this season, and Dart finished with a total of 24 touchdowns, nine on the ground, to go with seven interceptions.
But Dart’s self-destructive tendencies when he was running also became a double-edge sword. He often sought out contact, and Dart took some big hits that led to concussions. A big part of Nagy’s job will be teaching Dart when to bail on plays, execute throwaways and avoid contact by sliding, and based on what we saw this past season that won’t be easy at all.