Matt Nagy isn’t dumb. He knows every word he says to the media has a chance of getting back to his players. While he’s not afraid to be blunt, anybody who watches him will know he chooses his words carefully. He’s never been caught disparaging a player. If anything he almost likes to use the media to his advantage, finding ways to send cryptic messages to his players from day to day or week to week about what his thoughts are.
This isn’t a new tactic. Several great coaches have done the same thing over the years. Jimmy Johnson in Dallas. Bill Parcells in New York. Rather than fight the media, a battle almost no coach will win, they instead turn it to their advantage. Nagy is the same way. He showcased a perfect example after Monday’s practice when he spoke to Albert Breer of the MMQB.
The veteran reporter has never seen a kicker competition like the one the Bears have going between Elliott Fry and Eddy Pineiro. Nagy talked to him about it and in the midst of a long quote snuck in a subtle reminder to both of them that he’s always watching.
“The way I look at it, for us, we’ve worked our tail off to get to this point, we’ve worked hard, we’ve done a lot of different things to figure out this kicker position. It’s come down to these two guys. But we also know, if they don’t produce, if they don’t show us what they can do, we’re going to find somebody else. That’s what’s real. It’s about the production. And so far in training camp, they’ve done well. Now, we’ll never know with whoever it is until we get into it.”
Matt Nagy pressure has gotten good results thus far
It’s hard to argue with his tactics to this point. Nagy showed no mercy to the kickers from the moment practices began back in May. He threw everything at them including narrow goalposts to golf-level silences and head-to-head battles where other players were punished for their mistakes. Fry was the only one to survive the first leg while Pineiro arrived via trade from Oakland. The two head into training camp dead even.
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
It has since remained that way through the first three days. Fry went 9-of-10 in his first try. Pineiro responded by going 7-of-8 the next day and then Fry went 8-of-10 on a rainy Monday morning. Pineiro will have his chance to fire back. Both have hit from short and both have hit from really long including a pair of bombs from 60 and 63 yards. It’s becoming a matter of who blinks first.
Nagy is loving what they’ve done so far. He recognizes the hard work they’ve put in. However, he won’t give anything to them. They have to earn it and won’t take his foot off the gas until they provide an answer.
