Matt Nagy has a clear path back to running an NFL coaching staff, but he needs the dominoes to fall a certain way. The latest NFL rumors have made that much clear.
Nagy's contract as the Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator has come to an end after three seasons in the post. As a head coaching candidate, he's been linked to the Tennessee Titans since Brian Callahan was fired after Week 5, but both sides have offered up plenty of competition in the months since then.
Once the dust settled on the regular season, teams immediately went to work to bring Nagy in after firing their own head coaches. That led to the Las Vegas Raiders checking in after canning Pete Carroll, the Arizona Cardinals doing the same after firing Jonathan Gannon, and the Baltimore Ravens to consider Nagy after moving on from John Harbaugh.
Meanwhile, the Titans have reportedly narrowed their list of head coaching candidates down to three options: former Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, and Nagy.
As it stands, Nagy is likely going to need the Titans to pull through. Other teams are circling plenty of other candidates, and the game of musical chairs is going to come to a sudden end any day now. The New York Giants have already found their man with Harbaugh and are reportedly working on a deal. Other teams are going to want to give their new head coach enough time to build out his staff before entering the offseason.
Matt Nagy’s best path to a head-coaching job may depend on other teams filling their openings first.
Hafley is rumored to be the Miami Dolphins' favored candidate after firing Mike McDaniel. Meanwhile, Stefanski is a frontrunner for the Atlanta Falcons role after they decided to part ways with Raheem Morris. While nothing is official just yet, and both teams have plenty of other candidates, those franchises might help Nagy by clearing the board for Tennessee.
That said, Tennessee got a headstart on everyone else by firing their coach first, and no team wants to navigate the optics that they settled at head coach. It will be interesting to see if the Titans are the next team to announce because of this—to either claim a candidate before another team can woo him or to announce Nagy before it's clear he's the only one left standing.
As it stands, it seems like Tennessee is Nagy's best hope for a new home after Kansas City. If not, we might start to hear rumors of a lateral move as he hopes to bolster his resume for another run at a job next winter.