Success of Doug Pederson, Matt Nagy bodes well for Chiefs assistant coaches

The early success of Doug Pederson and Matt Nagy as head coaches bodes well for the next wave of Kansas City Chiefs coaches-in-waiting.

The acclaim and awards are coming for Matt Nagy.

Bill Barnwell wrote in a recent column at ESPN that Nagy is his choice for NFL’s Coach of the Year, above other deserving nods like Anthony Lynn or Sean Payton. He wrote, “It’s hard to overstate what Nagy has done in his first season at the helm with Mitchell Trubisky & Co. in Chicago.”

Nagy is a first-year head coach for the Chicago Bears who is turning heads left and right with the job he’s done in resurrecting one of the NFL’s most beloved franchises. With the league’s most feared defense, the Bears are relevant again—and that’s good for business in the National Football League.

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Nagy has yet to make his postseason mark, although those chances are coming soon. For now, however, it’s hard not to notice the sort of impact that Nagy and his former colleague Doug Pederson have made in their first head coaching stints. Last year, Pederson won the Super Bowl as a young head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Now Nagy hopes to do the same and bring the Windy City further football glory.

Both Pederson and Nagy were offensive assistants under Andy Reid in years past for the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. By now, given his tremendous coaching tenure, Reid’s coaching tree is as impressive in quantity and quality as anyone in NFL history. Given the Chiefs current run of success, it’s natural for teams to want to check in on the cupboards in K.C. to see who else is available. However more than Reid’s own success, it is the success of his former proteges when given their own chances to work that speak volumes.

Even if the aforementioned cupboards are rather bare for the Chiefs these days considering how many coaches have been lured away in recent years, teams might be reticent to pass up the next great coach just because he’s green. For example, Eric Bieniemy is the team’s offensive coordinator, a title he’s only held for a single season. That lack of coordinator experience would normally keep a man away from head coaching interviews—at least for the next year or two—until he can learn more from Reid on the job he currently has. However, if Nagy and Pederson have set expectations for what Reid’s immediate offensive disciples can bring to the table, why wouldn’t a team go ahead and claim the next option now?

This should reflect rather well on Dave Toub, a head coaching candidate who has been passed over despite multiple interviews over the years, even with the Los Angeles Chargers and Denver Broncos. Toub is a special teams coach and teams are hesitant to go with a non-coordinator, but Toub has also worked next to Reid for the last six seasons. If Reid’s students are capable of such immediate success, certainly Toub deserves that same opportunity.

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Both Bieniemy and Toub have been mentioned for head coaching gigs already this offseason, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see both at least get an interview. But judging by the on-field results of the two latest birds to fly from the Chiefs’ nest, Bieniemy and Toub should get more serious looks than they’d get otherwise. The track record is simply that good.

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