The New York Giants‘ coaching staff, under new head coach John Harbaugh, is rounding into shape following its latest coaching hire: Matt Nagy as offensive coordinator.
Nagy, 47, was a candidate for several teams in this offseason’s head coach hiring cycle. Ultimately, he did not secure another head coaching job and will join New York’s staff as its offensive coordinator after spending the last three years in the same role with the Kansas City Chiefs. Nagy won two straight Super Bowls with Kansas City in the 2022 and 2023 seasons, and the Chiefs returned to the Big Game last year as AFC champs but lost to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Despite not getting a head coach job this cycle, the former Chiefs coach still brings some head coaching experience with him. Nagy spent four years with the Chicago Bears, where he worked with quarterbacks Mitchell Trubisky and Justin Fields early in their careers.
Here’s a closer look at the Giants’ decision to hire Nagy, including what it means for second-year quarterback Jaxson Dart:
Matt Nagy coaching history
Nagy has been a coach in the NFL since 2008, when he joined the Philadelphia Eagles as a coaching intern. Before that, the Giants’ new offensive coordinator cut his teeth as a high school football coach while playing quarterback for a couple of Arena Football League teams.
Here’s a full list of Nagy’s stops during his coaching career:
- 2001: Manheim Central High School, Pennsylvania – QBs coach
- 2002: Cedar Crest High School, Pennsylvania – QBs coach
- Summer 2008, Summer 2009: Philadelphia Eagles – intern assistant coach
- Fall 2008, Fall 2009: Palmyra Area High School, Pennsylvania – offensive coordinator
- 2010: Philadelphia Eagles – coaches’ assistant
- 2011-2012: Philadelphia Eagles – offensive quality control coach
- 2013-2015: Kansas City Chiefs – QBs coach
- 2016-2017: Kansas City Chiefs – offensive coordinator
- 2018-2021:Chicago Bears – head coach
- 2022: Kansas City Chiefs – senior assistant and QBs coach
- 2023-2025: Kansas City Chiefs – offensive coordinator
- 2026-present:New York Giants – offensive coordinator
Matt Nagy’s experience with young quarterbacks
Throughout his career as an NFL head coach, Nagy has been on the offensive coaching staff for four different young quarterbacks: Nick Foles (Eagles, 2012); Patrick Mahomes (Chiefs, 2017); Mitchell Trubisky (Bears, 2018-2020) and Justin Fields (Bears, 2021). Dart, the Giants’ second-year quarterback, will join that list for 2026, and potentially beyond.
Of the four quarterbacks to play under Nagy’s system early in their careers, only Mahomes has carved out a strong career as an NFL starter, though Foles did win a Super Bowl with the Eagles in a second stint in Philadelphia.
Trubisky is the only young quarterback to have a winning record during his time as a starter with Nagy. The Bears went 25-13 in the former No. 2 overall pick’s 38 games in Nagy’s system, though Trubisky’s time in Chicago was plagued by poor decision-making and evident struggles to read opposing defenses.
Foles went 1-5 in six games as a starter during his rookie year, when Nagy was the Eagles’ offensive quality control coach. Fields’ lone year with Nagy was his rookie year, which ended with a 2-8 record and Nagy relinquishing play-calling duties midseason. Many analysts criticized Nagy for not taking more advantage of Fields’ skill set as a mobile quarterback during his rookie year – the quarterback’s 72 rush attempts in 2021 were by far the fewest in any year during his three-year stint with the Bears.
Foles retired in 2024 after more than a decade of bouncing around as a journeyman backup quarterback, never starting a full season’s worth of games in any given year. Trubisky has settled in as the Buffalo Bills’ backup quarterback behind Josh Allen after flaming out as a starter in Chicago and serving as a bridge to Kenny Pickett in Pittsburgh. Fields is coming off a 2025 season that was one of the worst of his career before he was benched in Week 12.
Mahomes, the seemingly lone success story under Nagy, was not the Chiefs’ starter as a rookie in 2017 during Nagy’s first stint as Kansas City’s offensive coordinator. By the time Nagy returned to Kansas City in the same role, Mahomes was a veteran, and the Chiefs’ offense still declined after its peak years in the late 2010s-early 2020s.
Matt Nagy offense ratings
In 2016, Nagy took on his first offensive coordinator role with the Chiefs after Doug Pederson left Kansas City to become the head coach in Philadelphia. Kansas City’s offense was slightly better at gaining yards and slightly worse at scoring points in that first year, but it improved more in 2017.
One year later, Nagy took over as the Bears’ head coach, where Chicago immediately became much better at gaining yards and scoring points on offense. The Bears averaged more than 50 additional yards and nearly 10 more points per game than they had in 2017, though they still averaged the 12th-fewest offensive yards per game and were aided by a league-leading 36 takeaways on defense. Chicago’s offense never returned to the highs of the 2018 season under Nagy.
When Nagy returned to Kansas City and took over offensive coordinator duties again in 2023, the trend arrow for total yards and scoring offense pointed downward from the Eric Bieniemy years.
Here’s a closer look at how Nagy’s offenses have fared and where they ranked in several categories over the last 10 seasons:
- 2016 Chiefs: 343 yards per game (20th in NFL); 24.3 points per game (13th); 0.012 EPA/play (15th); 42.7% success rate (19th)
- 2017 Chiefs: 375.4 yards per game (fifth); 25.9 points per game (sixth); 0.082 EPA/play (fourth); 44.2% success rate (seventh)
- 2018 Bears: 343.9 yards per game (21st); 26.3 points per game (ninth); 0.039 EPA/play (13th); 46.3% success rate (10th)
- 2019 Bears: 296.8 yards per game (29th); 17.5 points per game (29th); -0.079 EPA/play (27th); 41.1% success rate (26th)
- 2020 Bears: 331.4 yards per game (26th); 23.3 points per game (22nd); -0.016 EPA/play (24th); 44.0% success rate (24th)
- 2021 Bears: 307.4 yards per game (24th); 18.3 points per game (27th); -0.087 EPA/play (29th); 41.4% success rate (26th)
- 2023 Chiefs: 351.3 yards per game (ninth); 21.8 points per game (15th); 0.021 EPA/play (11th); 43.8% success rate (12th)
- 2024 Chiefs: 327.6 yards per game (17th); 22.6 points per game (15th); 0.071 EPA/play (ninth); 47.7% success rate (eighth)
- 2025 Chiefs: 320.6 yards per game (20th); 21.3 points per game (21st); 0.042 EPA/play (11th); 44.5% success rate (14th)
What does Giants’ Matt Nagy hire mean for Jaxson Dart?
Nagy’s rocky track record of working with young quarterbacks and inconsistent offensive performances under his play-calling for the Chiefs and Bears does not bode well for Dart.
The Giants’ quarterback is coming off a promising rookie season that saw him throw for 2,272 yards, 15 touchdowns, and five interceptions to the tune of a 63.7% completion rate and 91.7 passer rating in 14 games (12 starts).
In addition to his passing performance, Dart took full advantage of his athleticism and mobility as a rookie, rushing 86 times for 487 yards and nine touchdowns. That rushing touchdown total tied Dart for second-most rushing touchdowns in the league by a quarterback behind Josh Allen.
However, the downside of Dart’s high rushing volume is the increased injury risk it entails. Finding a balance between using Dart’s mobility and passing skills will be essential to his development in his second season and beyond.
That’s where Nagy’s history of running offenses with a similarly skilled quarterback comes in, raising concern. During Fields’ rookie season in Chicago, Nagy failed to fully leverage the two-way quarterback’s elite mobility. The then-Bears head coach often left Fields in straight dropbacks behind a mediocre offensive line rather than calling more designed quarterback runs or plays with a moving pocket, such as bootlegs and rollouts.
Beyond the balance Nagy will need to strike in getting Dart moving and letting him sling it from a stationary pocket, there are concerns about how the offense might perform with a relative lack of weapons. Kansas City’s offense under Nagy struggled in recent years without a strong running back group and more than one standout wide receiver.
The Giants have a better pair of running backs in Cam Skattebo and Tyrone Tracy, but Malik Nabers is the only reliable pass-catcher on the 2026 roster with Wan’Dale Robinson set to hit free agency. Darius Slayton had the sixth-highest drop rate (14%) among receivers with at least 40 targets, and tight end Theo Johnson led all players with at least 30 targets at his position in drop rate (13.5%).
If Nagy can’t put together a successful offensive scheme built around Dart and an otherwise shaky offensive core, his time in New York may be short-lived. In that scenario, the Giants would have to hope their young quarterback can overcome the carousel of offensive play-callers so early in his career. Nagy is already the third (Brian Daboll, Mike Kafka).
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Matt Nagy coaching history: Young QBs, offensive ranks and more