Matt Nagy was hired for a variety of reasons. He’s intelligent, creative and aggressive as an offensive play caller. He brings experience on how to play and coach quarterbacks. His leadership qualities and ability to motivate stand out right away. One of the biggest benefits though, at least from the standpoint of his QB Mitch Trubisky, is he’s young.
Nagy arrived in Chicago at the age of 39-years old. That makes him the youngest head coach the Bears have hired since Jim Dooley (38) back in 1968. He was promoted to replace the legendary George Halas himself. Fans can only hope Nagy’s tenure goes better. Dooley lasted just four years and went 20-36 during that stretch.
Nagy seems to have a plan on how he wants to go about this. It starts with his first training camp as head coach. The past two coaches in John Fox and Marc Trestman have run things in vastly different ways. Trestman stressed practicing at an up-tempo pace. Fox preferred a hands-off approach to give the players room to breathe.
It seems Nagy has a certain method in mind, and it may surprise some people.
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Matt Nagy wants to toughen his players up through physical practices
The NFL made a somewhat controversial change to the practice designs during the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement. It limited the number of practices a team could hold, particularly in pads. Several coaches complained this was a mistake. Football is a violent game and the body can’t be expected to withstand it without being toughened up to its elements.
Since that rule change went into effect, the number of injuries across the league have spiked significantly. Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio admitted the rule is a problem and is hoping for a solution. Nagy has at least one idea in mind: more physical practices.
“The biggest thing going into this is just keeping a pulse of the players with regards to their health, their legs, their bodies,” Nagy said. “We’re going to have a physical camp. There’s going to be some live action that goes on. The guys know that. We told them that going into the offseason and going into the summertime that it’s going to be physical. We need to callous our team a little bit.”
Considering Nagy’s youth, it’s surprising to see he carries this sort of old school mentality. Then again he was groomed by guys like Andy Reid and Doug Plank during his long climb to the top. Those guys understand how taxing the game can be on the body. Plank was a hard-hitting safety for the Bears. Reid was an offensive line guy. The body will break down quickly unless it’s allowed to grow accustomed to the physicality.
“I want fast execution in all three phases,” What Nagy is looking for as the Bears go full pads this weekend. “I want speed and physicality.”
— Robert Żeglinski (@RobertZeglinski) July 20, 2018
That’s what the hard practices are meant to accomplish.
In a strange way, the NFL did more harm than good with the rule change. While they limited the physicality in practices to help curb injuries, they didn’t do the same in games. Thus the injuries spiked. It was a gross oversight that needs to be addressed in the next CBA.Until then Nagy plans to prepare his players for it as best he can’t, all the while weeding out those who just aren’t built for what it will take to win.
