Former Bears coach Matt Nagy lands with surprise AFC team

Matt Nagy is heading back to the sidelines. And he’s returning to familiar territory.

Nagy is heading back to the Kansas City Chiefs as a senior assistant and quarterbacks coach, the Chiefs announced Friday. He spent 10 years alongside Andy Reid in Philadelphia and Kansas City before becoming the Chicago Bears’ head coach.

Nagy spent four years in Chicago, amassing a 34-31 record in that time and coaching in two playoff games. The Bears fired him after a 6-11 season and the offense struggled.

Nagy got his coaching start with the Eagles in 2008 as a coaching intern and moved up to quality control coach in 2014. Reid brought him to Kansas City as quarterbacks coach from 2013-15 before promoting him to offensive coordinator in 2016. Nagy spent two years in the role before heading to Chicago to replace John Fox.

The news comes the same week Eric Bieniemy decided to return as offensive coordinator after his contract reportedly retired. Ironically, he replaced Nagy in the role. Now, Nagy is going to work for him as his quarterbacks coach and continue Patrick Mahomes’ development. He’ll replace Mike Kafka, who recently became the New York Giants’ offensive coordinator.

The Chiefs are coming off a 12-5 season and an appearance in the AFC Championship. They lost to the Cincinnati Bengals, who eventually lost to the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl.

Eric Bieniemy makes decision on future with Kansas City Chiefs

Eric Bieniemy is returning to Kansas City of at least one more season, according to a report from NFL Network’s Jeffri Chadiha.

After getting passed over for head coaching opportunities for yet another season, Bieniemy had the choice of either returning to Kansas City for another season, or to become a hot free-agent offensive coordinator target elsewhere. His dreams of becoming a head coach in the NFL are off the table in 2022.

Coming off a 2021 campaign where he led the Kansas City Chiefs to finish with the No. 2 ranked offense in the NFL, Bieniemy’s name still had not emerged as multiple teams went through the process to fill their head coaching vacancies.

Sam McDowell of The Kansas City Star tweeted that Bieniemy signed a single-season deal after last year’s Super Bowl to keep him with the Chiefs for at least the 2021 season. A little over two weeks ago, Field Yates tweeted shortly after that Bieniemy “will now officially return to the Chiefs for his fifth season as their offensive coordinator.”

Despite this report, there were some conflicting reports as well that kept the public uncertain of Bieniemy’s status with the team moving forward.