Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy used to be a quarterback. He understands the position better than many people. He understands how it functions, its level of importance and perhaps most importantly what it takes to learn an offense from its perspective. He’s about to face the biggest challenge of his coaching career.
To date, he’s never had to develop a young quarterback. His most notable work came in Kansas City where he helped Alex Smith reach four Pro Bowls. While that’s excellent, Smith was already a veteran by that point. Mitch Trubisky presents a major step up in terms of difficulty for Nagy. He doesn’t have years of experience to draw on. No understanding of how to properly absorb an offensive scheme and execute it.
So the first task was finding a way to help streamline that process for the 23-year old. Nagy didn’t take long in hatching an idea and it’s notable both for its brilliance and absurd simplicity.
Matt Nagy brings in two familiar faces to back up Trubisky
The past couple days the Bears have signed two new quarterbacks to the roster. The first was veteran Chase Daniel, a longtime backup who played under Nagy for three seasons in Kansas City. He’s widely known for his intelligence, preparation, and ability to get along with teammates. More recently they added Tyler Bray, another backup who worked with Nagy during his Chiefs run.
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It might not be a surprise Nagy sought out QBs he knows and trusts to fill the backup jobs on the Bears roster. However, what could be lost is a key reasoning behind it. Something that could be immensely helpful to Trubisky.
#Bears will have two QBs in the meeting room that have background in the offense with addition of Tyler Bray, who also comes from #Chiefs
— Brad Biggs (@BradBiggs) March 16, 2018
Here’s the thing. It’s hard to learn an NFL offense. Few things in professional sports are more detailed or complex. Jay Cutler once said it takes three years to properly learn one and execute it at a high level. He never got that opportunity in Chicago. Nagy understands he also may not have that kind of window with Trubisky, especially given what Daniel had to say about the nature of this new offense.
Chase Daniel was asked what a quarterback needs to operate Matt Nagy's offense:
"A brain. It is very quarterback-intensive."
— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) March 15, 2018
So how could Nagy somehow accelerate the process, helping Trubisky to absorb it faster? Simple. Put two veterans on the roster who by this point know it like the back of their hand. Trubisky now has Daniel and Brady in the QB room whom he can pepper with any questions he may have. This was a resource he never enjoyed last year. Both Mike Glennon and Mark Sanchez had zero knowledge of Dowell Loggains’ system when they arrived in 2017.
It’s little wonder Trubisky took some time to start showing signs of progress. It wouldn’t be a surprise if that was different this year.
