Chicago Bears: Matt Nagy hire raises hopes for team

The Chicago Bears coaching search ended with Matt Nagy. As expected, he is a young, offensive-minded coach, and the hire raises hope for the future.

The Chicago Bears ended their search for a new head coach in a week. They found former Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy to replace John Fox. He fulfilled the assumed requirement many thought general manager Ryan Pace wanted — a young, offensive-minded coach.

At 39, Nagy is now the third-youngest coach in the NFL today. Sean McVay is 41 and Adam Gase is 39 (but a month older than Nagy). I wonder how nervous the McCaskeys are with this.

This hire raises hope for the team. Many wanted the Bears offense to finally enter the 21st century and this hire just may do that. Former head coach John Fox preferred a strong running game and defense, but that didn’t work out. This season, the Bears ranked 29 in points scored, 30th in yards, and dead last in pass attempts. That resulted in a 5-11 record this season, 14-34 over three seasons. Because of that, the Bears showed Fox the door.

Nagy did a good job helping Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith. Smith had the best year of his career, completing 67.5 percent of his passes for 4,042 yards. He threw 26 touchdowns against just five interceptions. He had a 104.7 passer rating.

Nagy did not call the plays until late in the season. In Week 13 Chiefs head coach Andy Reid handed the play calling to Nagy after the offense failed to score at least 20 points in four straight games. Under Nagy’s play-calling, the Chiefs scored at least 26 points in the last five games and scored 21 in the first half of their Wild Card game.

Chicago hopes Nagy does the same for Mitch Trubisky and the Bears offense.

As I mentioned, Nagy brings with him hopes for the team. Having a young guy like him work with a young general manager in Pace signals a new, modern era in Chicago football. Of course, some may think it’s the kids running the school.

In addition to having a young, offensive-minded coach, Pace needed someone who could help develop Trubisky. Pace put all of his eggs in the Trubisky basket. He’ll work hard to put his young quarterback in a position to succeed. Look for him to fortify the offensive line and add quality receivers to help him. Picking the right head coach was the first piece.

Apparently, Nagy really liked Trubisky. Adam Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote about how the Chiefs would have chosen Trubisky if the Bears didn’t.

"The Chiefs and Nagy were said to be very high on Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky coming out of the draft last year. After the Bears drafted Trubisky, the Chiefs traded up and selected Patrick Mahomes with the 10th overall pick."

Next: Cuts Bears need to make to free up more salary cap space

As of now, I think this is a good pick. Nagy zoomed up in a decade and helped Reid when his atrocious play calling had the Chiefs in a mid-season slump. He’s an up-and-comer and a better option than any of the retreads that are out there. Let’s see if the results are different.