Chicago Bears: Is Matt Nagy the next Doug Pederson?

The Chicago Bears are hoping that new head coach Matt Nagy can become their version of Doug Pederson.

If Chicago Bears fans had their say, Matt Nagy would follow the path that Doug Pederson took during his first two seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. After going 7-9 in 2016, Pederson withstood countless injuries to key players and still found a way to win the Super Bowl this season. Simply put, Pederson was outstanding in the Super Bowl. He took risks and called gutsy plays, but everything went perfectly.

Pederson and Nagy both come from the Andy Reid coaching tree, one that also includes Ron Rivera, John Harbaugh and Sean McDermott, to name a few. While Nagy is 11 years younger than Pederson, his football knowledge and reputation around the league are very high. Like Pederson, Nagy will call his own plays during games and already promised to be aggressive.

Pederson was a coach of the year candidate, and rightfully so. Not many teams would have been able to win the Super Bowl despite losing their starting quarterback, left tackle, middle linebacker and countless others. Pederson’s belief in his players rubbed off, and his ability to get the most out of players is something that Nagy needs to do.

Perhaps the best coaching job Pederson did this season was making Nick Foles a Super Bowl MVP quarterback. Instead of forcing Foles to run the same plays Carson Wentz was, Pederson adjusted his offense on the fly and tailored it to fit Foles’ strengths. Foles wasn’t able to run the zone-read plays Wentz was doing earlier in the year, so Pederson installed run-pass-options that Foles was comfortable running.

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Good coaches are able to change their playbooks to fit the personnel on the roster, and that’s what Nagy is going to have to do with Mitchell Trubisky. Utilizing more spread formations and even some RPOs as well are all some things Nagy could deploy to fit Trubisky’s skill set. It also helps to have Mark Helfrich on the staff to possibly implement more college systems that Trubisky had success with at North Carolina.

No one exactly knows how Nagy will be as a head coach, but we can all hope that he follows a similar path to that of Pederson’s.