Patrick Mahomes’ offensive coordinator is coming to New York to coach Jaxson Dart.
John Harbaugh is hiring the Chiefs’ Matt Nagy to be the Giants’ new offensive coordinator.
Harbaugh is providing a soft landing for a fellow member of the Andy Reid coaching tree after Kansas City did not renew Nagy’s contract as a non-playcalling OC and brought back Eric Bieniemy.
Nagy, 47, is giving Harbaugh an experienced playcaller and former NFL head coach on the headsets whose familiar system could help Dart grow and flourish during his critical second pro season.
Harbaugh, a longtime head coach with a special teams background, kept an open mind during this OC search to younger candidates with less experience.
But his first choice, former Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken, and his eventual hiring, Nagy, both were veteran quarterback coaches and coordinators who could serve as the head coach of his offense, in a way.
Monken took the Cleveland Browns head coaching job instead of coming to the Big Apple. So Harbaugh opened a late search and landed on Nagy after interviews and/or conversations with the likes of Colts offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter and QB coach Alex Tanney, new Broncos OC Davis Webb, LSU OC Charlie Weis Jr., former Commanders OC Kliff Kingsbury and former Titans head coach Brian Callahan.
Several NFL sources with no ties to Nagy told the Daily News on Tuesday that they liked this hire for Dart.
Nagy and Mike Kafka both developed their offenses under Reid with the Philadelphia Eagles and/or Chiefs, so a lot of the concepts and verbiage will be similar for the young quarterback.
One source said Nagy’s ample experience running run-pass options (RPOs) and coaching mobile quarterbacks should be a huge advantage in Dart’s development.
And although Nagy likes to get his quarterback moving, the source said: “He won’t run the QB into the ground.”
Dart had pushed his strong connection with Weis, his college coordinator at Ole Miss, early in the process. But Nagy’s work coaching Mahomes — the gold standard of young quarterback development in the modern game — will immediately demand Dart’s respect and trust in this new process.
Nagy’s offensive rankings as a playcaller unfortunately have been spotty at best.
From 2018-21 as the Chicago Bears’ head coach, Nagy helped Mitch Trubisky’s offense take a big jump to ninth in scoring in the QB’s second season — up from 29th his rookie year.
But the Bears then spiraled to 29th, 22nd and 27th in scoring his final three seasons. And they never finished higher than 21st in the NFL in yards.
He won two Super Bowls with the Chiefs coaching Mahomes — in 2022 as quarterbacks coach and in 2023 as OC.
But K.C.’s offense took a nosedive to 21st in points and 20th in yards in his final season there this past fall.
The Giants also might have to play at least part of the season without top receiver Malik Nabers (torn ACL), and running back Cam Skattebo’s rehab status is not yet clear.
After hiring a younger and less experienced defensive coordinator in the Titans’ Dennard Wilson, however, Harbaugh might have achieved some balance by hiring the seasoned Nagy to run the offense.
This is a mess of a team, after all, that needs to be cleaned up before it is elevated.
And fixing it doesn’t just require fresh pairs of eyes. It also helps if those eyes have seen a thing or two before.
Monken was supposed to be that person for Harbaugh. Now Nagy’s job is to make Monken regret choosing the Browns — and further unlock the promising Dart.
