The Kansas City Chiefs are preparing for their first preseason game this Saturday against the Chicago Bears. The game marks the first dress rehearsal for rookies and veteran players trying to make the team.
Saturday’s game will also be a return for Matt Nagy, who spent the last four seasons as the head coach of the Bears. Nagy coached Patrick Mahomes during his rookie season while he was backing up Alex Smith and learning the pro game. In the four years that Nagy was away in Chicago, Mahomes has done a lot of growing.
Nagy shared with reporters on Tuesday his thoughts on the area where Mahomes has grown the most since his rookie season.
“Yeah, I’ll tell you what, it is so neat to see his growth of where he’s at and what he’s done,” Nagy explained. “So, number one, he’s been through four years of a lot of wins, whether it’s the Pro Bowl, Super Bowl, that Super Bowl MVP, four Pro-Bowls, etc., a lot of wins. When you walk into that room for the first time, and you see him in a meeting room, and he’s sitting there having four different conversations, three of them are football; one’s off to the side on something else, you see his growth, his leadership.”
Nagy served as the quarterback’s coach and then later offensive coordinator for the Chiefs from 2013-2017. He would become the head coach for the Bears in 2018 before eventually returning to Kansas City this offseason as a senior offensive assistant & quarterbacks coach.
Nagy has noticed the quiet confidence that Mahomes shows both on the field and in the meeting room. He’s come away impressed with the way that he carries himself after all of the success that he’s seen in his young career.
“When he’s out here on the football field, it’s just wild to see what type of leader he is,” Nagy said. “He’s rare. In that time that I had, couple months after I got fired, I was able to read a book called ‘Relentless.’ It talks about being great leaders and being somebody that can just be great in the moment, and he has so much confidence, and when he walks in the room, results occur because of that confidence every day in practice. That’s rare, you don’t come across that very much, and he makes me a better coach because of that, he makes his teammate better players, and it’s just special.”
The reunion of Nagy with Mahomes could be the full circle moment for the Chiefs to unlock another level of the former league MVP. The leadership aspect of Mahomes skillset has improved over the years and it has been apparent to those in attendance at training camp too.
