Will Andy Reid make room for Matt Nagy with KC Chiefs this offseason?

Matt Nagy was the last one to leave the Kansas City Chiefs. It stands to reason he might be the next one back in the fold.

For a bit, it seemed as if serving as the Chiefs offensive coordinator was an interim role to be held for a year, maybe two, before being automatically springboarded onto the next level as head coach of a man’s very own NFL franchise. Doug Pedersen left in 2016 to become the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, where he won a Super Bowl the following year. Nagy was next man up and the Chicago Bears came calling.

Now his days are numbered unless a miracle happens. It’s possible the Bears find some magical win streak to close out the season. Maybe young players suddenly begin to develop, and maybe some weird chemistry is formed in the fire they’re currently in.

At present, however, here’s a good example of how things are going:

Yeah, when the fan base of a city’s other pro sports franchise is calling for your head at a game to entertain themselves, things aren’t going well.

With Matt Nagy on the obvious outs in the Windy City, it’s a natural question to ask if he’ll resurface with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Andy Reid‘s coaching tree speaks for itself, with the likes of John Harbaugh, Ron Rivera, Sean McDermott, and others serving as productive fruit that once hung from Reid’s branches. These days, it’s hard to say. Eric Bieniemy has been waiting for a few years now for his turn and, if we’re going with the fruit analogy, it almost feels overripe at this point. It’s uncanny (and honestly very sad) that EB is still waiting on his chance.

Let’s assume justice is done and Bieniemy is given a chance to lead his own team. Let’s also assume the safe bet comes through in Chicago and Nagy is fired. Are we going to see Nagy resurface with the Chiefs?

It makes sense when someone is fired for them to ask their friends for some help, some connections, some advice of where to go next. Working with the Chiefs again would be a great place to lick his wounds and compete for Super Bowls while doing so. Nagy was good enough to hold the post of offensive coordinator in the past and has certainly learned several tough lessons of his own in his years coaching the Bears—for better or for worse—and maybe that outside perspective could come in handy for the Chiefs.

But here’s the other thing: Nagy might just want to take a year away from the game. Reid himself didn’t model this behavior when he was pushed out of Philadelphia, and Kansas City is thankful he stayed in the game. However, Pederson was just ousted in Philly, too, and he took the last year to take a breather from the game. He said he still wants to be a head coach, but he’s also surveyed the land and gotten away from the daily pressure of it for the last calendar year.

Perhaps that’s the best move for Nagy, whose reputation, for now, will be that head coaching was too great a task for him to handle. If Nagy was overwhelmed by the role, or not suited for the task, then creating some distance between himself and the sidelines might be good for all parties involved.

It’s also important to note that the Chiefs have other coaches-in-waiting and some of them would likely be wondering if they’ve wasted time on Reid’s staff if a guy like Nagy is allowed to come back in and take over a role that one of them could have grown into. Greg Lewis is now coaching running backs in the hopes of broadening his knowledge base after years with receivers. Mike Kafka has already been mentioned as a potential head coaching candidate as the quarterbacks coach. And of course, Bieniemy has to go somewhere to even have a void to fill.

Even if the Chiefs wanted to create a special coaching slot for Nagy—some sort of senior advisor—let’s not forget that Dave Toub is already an assistant head coach as well as special teams coordinator. Given Steve Spagnuolo’s head coaching experience, you have to wonder how many cooks the Chiefs would really need in the kitchen.

Basically, it doesn’t make much sense for Nagy to rejoin the Chiefs even if he’s fired and interested in coaching again as soon as next season. The cupboards in K.C. are full of experienced leaders to go with promising up-and-comers. Maybe Reid would do a favor for an old friend, but a reunion should make more sense than that.