“Mixed” is a great way to describe the early reaction to John Harbaugh’s hiring of Matt Nagy as offensive coordinator for the New York Giants. Early voting in our poll shows that fan’s feelings are all over the place.
Big Blue View contributors are discussing the move like everyone else. And, to no surprise, there are mixed feelings. Here is the conversation that broke out in the Big Blue View ‘Slack’ channel in the moments after the news of Nagy’s hiring broke.
“Am I wrong, or is that an underwhelming choice?”
“I am… Whelmed. I think I want to go back to his offense before [Justin] Fields to get an idea of what he’d do with Dart.
“He does have a rep as a great ‘culture’ guy, so I can see the appeal for Harbaugh.”
“I suppose on the plus side, he got more out of [Mitch] Trubisky than anyone else has, and it would have been more if not for the double doink. But I don’t have any impression of him as far as a distinct offensive philosophy. Osmosis from being with Reid maybe.”
“The Chiefs’ offense has been pretty stagnant the last few years (despite the 2 SB wins). But some of that has been personnel-driven. It’s not an exciting pick but I’m not sure how much else was still out there.”
“I am whelmed myself, but it is hard to put a lot of the failings of the Chiefs’ offense on Nagy alone, especially when he doesn’t call the plays and probably just provides feedback to Andy Reid’s offense.”
I do wonder if [Joe] Schoen having Trubisky on the Bills’ roster for a couple years and the relationship with [Mike] Kafka played a role. A bit of inside info on how Nagy is and runs things as a coach.“
“When you think about Harbaugh’s history this makes a lot of sense. He has always hired an offensive play-caller with experience. Nagy has that. Andy Reid is a mentor. Nagy has a ton of time spent working for Reid. Add 2+2 and we probably should have always considered Nagy a top candidate. Even though the Giants seemed to keep that one pretty quiet.”
“Good points, Ed. Unless I am wrong, I believe that Harbaugh has a history of hiring former head coaches for coordinator roles which should have put Nagy on our radar as well. It is also kind of interesting that the Giants were able to keep this so quiet. Perhaps this is showing what kind of ship Harbaugh is going to run where leaks occur less, especially with large moves.”
“As far as scheme goes, Nagy does seem to incorporate a “New West Coast” philosophy mixing in some RPOs and some of the core Air Raid passing concepts. I mentioned to Ed last night that I was wondering if Kingsbury’s background as an Air Raid guy gave him a leg up since Monken was also an Air Raid disciple as a college coach. This could be an interesting fit for Dart, and he’s definitely the second-best QB that Nagy’s ever worked with… Not that Trubisky and Fields set that bar all that high.“
“I’m warming up to this, even if I’m not overly excited by it. I think this hire adds to the idea of a professional, experienced coaching staff and a culture change. Bringing in an OC who has been both an OC and a HC and who has been in the high pressure situations of conference championships and Super Bowls is good for a young team that’s trying to learn how to win. And it gives Harbaugh someone experienced who he can trust.”
“I wonder if [Todd] Monken had left earlier would Kafka had gotten more consideration? Nagy is the same pipeline as Kafka without the experience of working with Dart. And that might have lead to keeping Carmen Bricillo as well, with recommendations from the organization as we as Harbaugh’s father. The next hire — quarterback’s coach — is now very crucial and I can see that being a younger candidate, like Weis Jr.”
“I do think Kafka probably should have been option two. And I wonder if that’s part of what Harbaugh was talking about when he said he wished the Browns would have made a decision sooner.”
