The Kansas City Chiefs had a lot of bad luck and bad timing on the field last season, and they appear to be duplicating at least some of it as they reconfigure their coaching staff.
At first glance, the situation appeared simple. Chiefs coach Andy Reid hired former Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy as his offensive coordinator after Nagy got fired by the Bears three years ago.
The two coaches have a relationship, so it made sense to have Nagy come in and help Reid with Kansas City’s offensive game plan while Nagy recovered from being fired. It was basically a “buddy” hire that made sense, and this kind of thing happens all the time in the NFL.
So far, so good, but now things have taken an awkward turn. Reid rehired his old offensive coordinator, Eric Bieniemy, who’s struggled to find success after moving on from Kansas City as a hot prospective coaching candidate. It certainly looks like another buddy hire, and it makes Nagy look bad given that he hasn’t had any luck finding another job, either.
Enter Reid again, with a series of laudatory comments that appeared earlier this week in an ESPN story written by Nate Taylor.
"Matt and I have a great relationship," Reid said of Nagy. "Before the season even started here, I knew that he wanted an opportunity to have his own show.
“He was Coach of the Year in 2018 with [the Chicago Bears]. I mean, somebody is missing a gem here. I would love to see him get picked up and going. At the same time, we got back a gem [in Bieniemy]. It has a chance to be a win-win here when everything is said and done."
That win-win hasn’t happened so far for Nagy, who lost out on the Tennessee Titans job when the Titans hired San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes has jumped into the praise parade as well. He responded to the transient by posting on social media after the Chiefs also posted a thank-you statement to Nagy, and Mahomes’ statement was short and sweet.
"Thank you coach for everything!" Mahomes wrote. "Made me a better player and man!"
It’s starting to look like Nagy might be left without a job when the coaching carousel stops spinning, as there are only four head-coaching jobs left open. The teams with current openings are the Buffalo Bills, Arizona Cardinals, Cleveland Browns and Las Vegas Raiders, but Nagy isn’t considered a favorite for any of those jobs.
As for Reid, we don’t know if hiring Bieniemy will turn out to be a win-win until we see the product on the field next year. Bieniemy has a reputation as an outstanding motivational head coach, and the Chiefs offense could certainly use a jump start after a somewhat stagnant season that resulted in a poor record in one-score games that doomed Kansas City’s season.