Being sole voice in quarterback’s helmet doesn’t faze Chiefs’ Matt Nagy

When Matt Nagy was an assistant under head coach Andy Reid in Philadelphia, he sat in the press box during games, watching defenses carefully, trying to pick up on tendencies or trends. As the Chiefs’ quarterback coach the last three years, he has done the same.

But this fall, Nagy will find himself in a different position on game day. As the Chiefs’ new co-offensive coordinator alongside Reid’s trusted assistant Brad Childress, Nagy will now be stationed on the sideline, charged with relaying each playcall directly to the quarterback’s helmet.

It is an important job, one that former offensive coordinator Doug Pederson — who left the Chiefs this offseason to become the Philadelphia Eagles’ head coach — filled capably the last three seasons. And there is little room for error.

Nagy must hear each the Chiefs’ wordy playcalls, make the proper adjustment to it (depending on which hash the ball has been placed), and relay it quickly and clearly to Alex Smith ... who must then relay the call to his teammates and get them to the line of scrimmage with enough time left to set protections, call an audible or make other necessary adjustments.

“It’s a different element, a different bird when you’re down on the field,” Nagy said. “You’ve got to be on.”

The process of smoothly relaying plays quickly and accurately from the coaches to the quarterback should be a given, especially in the NFL.

But that isn’t always the case.

In 2010, the San Francisco 49ers reportedly had issues getting plays called using a similar system. They started the season with offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye relaying plays to quarterbacks coach Mike Johnson, who’d relay them to Alex Smith, then the 49ers’ starting quarterback.

But communication problems early in the season resulted in Smith sometimes hearing only a portion of the playcalls before the headset in his helmet would cut out after 15 seconds. Raye was fired after three games (all losses), and while the 49ers essentially played .500 the rest of the way with Johnson calling the plays directly to Smith, they finished a feeble 6-10.

Smith said the system the Chiefs currently use to call plays is standard across the league.

“The rarity would be early on my career, when I had a defensive head coach and the offensive coordinator would directly call it in,” Smith said. “But the vast majority like this, especially with a head coach who is involved in the playcalling, is that it does go through the OC or somebody on the sidelines.”

Through the Chiefs’ 10 offseason practices, there’s no sign of communication issues. Reid and two of the team’s quarterbacks — Smith and Aaron Murray — were highly complimentary of Nagy’s knowledge of the playbook, and ability to spit plays out cleanly.

“Absolutely, he’s doing a nice job with it,” Reid said.

In fact, Murray — who hears every play being called in his helmet, whether he’s taking the rep on the field or not — said Nagy’s intensity when calling the plays in practice is apparent.

“(He’s) very smooth — I mean, he knows the playbook inside and out, so it’s not like there’s no understanding about what needs to go on,” Murray said. “He knows what he’s doing … he’s acting like it’s a game for him, so it’s not only practice for us, it’s about these coaches, as well.”

Nagy, a former quarterback in the Arena League, credits Smith for making his job fairly easy.

“It's really not too challenging,” Nagy said. “The thing with Alex is he makes it easier on you. It's his fourth year now in the offense. We're at a point where I can give him the play, and he doesn't even need the formation. If he doesn’t hear me, then I'll repeat it to him, but he's been doing this for a while now, so it's pretty easy for him.”

Still, it’s important for Nagy to be on point. Before every practice, the Chiefs’ three offensive decision-makers — Reid, Nagy and Childress — have already decided which plays they want to work on that day. So Nagy knows what’s coming.

That won’t always be the case in games, especially in situations like the two-minute drill. But Reid has accounted for this, calling plays during the two-minute drill portion of practice that Nagy did not know were coming.

“I’ll go ahead and call them (in practice), just so he gets used to that,” Reid said.

These offseason practices are not the first time Nagy has relayed plays for Reid. Nagy and Childress were promoted in January, and the three of them got to practice their playcalling routine at the Pro Bowl in February as the Chiefs’ coaching staff led Team Rice in a 49-27 loss.

“Having that opportunity in the Pro Bowl to … go through the process was good for me and for coach, just for me to be down there and see what it’s about,” Nagy said. “They chopped five seconds off the play clock in the Pro Bowl, so you had to get it in quicker. You’ve got to know your plays inside and out.”

That will certainly be the case during the regular season. Nagy will be charged with cleanly relaying lengthy playcalls to Smith multiple times a game, whether they are 10 words long, 15 words long or more.

“Maybe 30 words,” Nagy said with a grin.

This story was originally published June 10, 2016 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Being sole voice in quarterback’s helmet doesn’t faze Chiefs’ Matt Nagy."