Chiefs announce Brad Childress, Matt Nagy will be co-offensive coordinators

The Chiefs have officially settled on their new offensive coordinators, as the team announced Thursday that Brad Childress and Matt Nagy will split the duties.

Childress, 59, has served the last three years as the Chiefs’ spread-game analyst and special-projects coach, while Nagy, 37, has been the quarterbacks coach. Both will team up to replace Doug Pederson, who became the Philadelphia Eagles’ head coach Monday.

“I’m fired up about the opportunity to have both these guys in that position and maintaining continuity and stability within the offense,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said.

Reid said he will call the plays, though Nagy and Childress will have input. Childress will remain in the coaching box while Nagy will move to the sideline and be the voice in the quarterback’s headset.

Both will contribute to the gameplan each week, though Reid will continue to run the daily meetings where plays are installed, as he’s done the last three years in Kansas City.

“He enjoys doing that, he enjoys presenting in front of the team,” Childress said.

Childress was Reid’s offensive coordinator in Philadelphia during 2002-05, with the team ranking an average of 11th in the league in total offense. Childress said Reid called most of the plays then.

“There were times, obviously, where he said ‘Hey Brad, put a series together,’ and I’d do it,” Childress said. “But he loves to do that. That’s one of his passions, that’s one of his joys, and I know that’s what he’s enjoying about doing it the way he’s doing it here.”

Childress used his time under Reid as a platform to become a head coach in 2006, and he led the Minnesota Vikings to a 39-35 record before he was dismissed midway through the 2010 season. After sitting out 2011, Childress was hired as the Cleveland Browns’ offensive coordinator under Pat Shurmur, who was fired after the 2012 season.

In 2013, Childress joined Reid’s staff in a role in which he analyzed league-wide trends, among other duties.

Nagy, like Pederson, is a former quarterback. Nagy played in college at Delaware and spent six years in the Arena Football League. He spent a part of 2008 as a coaching intern on Reid’s staff in Philadelphia, thanks to recommendation from current Chiefs co-director of player personnel Brett Veach, his former teammate at Delaware who was a coaches assistant with the Eagles at the time.

“He just thought it would be a good opportunity for me to experience the NFL level as a coach,” Nagy said, “and it just kind of went from there.”

When the Arena League briefly folded in 2009, Nagy was selling houses when he asked to come back and do a second internship. He eventually joined the Eagles’ staff in 2010 as a coaches assistant and was promoted to quality control coach in 2011.

Nagy followed Reid to Kansas City in 2013 and has served as his quarterbacks coach since, helping the Chiefs’ signal-callers learn the offense.

“You need to be able to take that play that they’re installing, and you become a teacher in your classroom,” Nagy said, describing his role as quarterbacks coach. “So when we’re in here, I need to be my best at giving them another set of eyes to see the field, another perspective. I was fortunate enough to play the quarterback position all my life, so I have the ability to know certain situations that they’re in (and) what you see is a little bit different from what you get in the bird’s eye view in the box.”

Since joining the Chiefs in 2013, quarterback Alex Smith completed 63.7 percent of his passes for 10,064 yards, with 61 touchdowns and 20 interceptions. The Chiefs compiled a 31-17 regular-season record during that time.

“Matt’s got a nice feel for the game,” Reid said. “Some guys have a knack for it, and he’s one of those guys. And I’ve noticed with his participation that he’s got a pretty good grasp of the offenses and defenses in this league.”

Reid said the individual duties for Nagy and Childress haven’t exactly been divvied up yet, but “there’s plenty to work with there.”

Neither new co-coordinator seemed concerned about the split.

“We think alike, we work well together — we’ve done it the last three years,” Nagy said. “And once Coach came to us and talked to us about this, it was really exciting.”

“It’s not like it’s a three-man, everybody-speak-into-the-microphone-at-one (deal) when a play comes up,” Childress said. “All that stuff kind of gets worked out beforehand … we’re gonna spend enough time together we’re probably gonna be able to finish each other’s sentences.”

There is one way, however, that the duties have been defined, as Nagy will assume Pederson’s as the sole voice in Smith’s headset.

“I’ve been able to witness that and be able to learn from Doug and see how he does it, so I think the transition is going to be really smooth,” Nagy said. “Being in here with Alex and the rest of the quarterbacks for three years is a huge advantage.”

Nagy, however, noted that replacing everything Pederson did won’t be easy — even for two men.

“He’s really a good people (person) — he’s got a great relationship with all the players, everyone really got along really well with him,” Nagy said. “Being a former player in this league is very advantageous, so a guy like Alex Smith and Chase Daniel — guys that have been in this league for the amount of years they have — they automatically respect a guy like that, just because they know he’s been there, done that.”

This story was originally published January 21, 2016 at 3:14 PM with the headline "Chiefs announce Brad Childress, Matt Nagy will be co-offensive coordinators."