Peyton Manning is one of the most respected football minds in NFL history. A tireless worker and incredibly intelligent, nobody questions his knowledge of the game. That is why when he offers opinions on certain people around the league, it’s taken pretty seriously. It turns out he has one involving Matt Nagy.
Manning broke down the Chicago Bears head coach and his team on his popular ESPN+ series “Detail” this week. He took a look at their wild comeback over the Detroit Lions and what were some of the big reasons it happened. The Hall of Famer believes a lot of it had to do with the play calling of Nagy.
He views the Bears head coach as somebody who has a creative mind and a great understanding of play design. That was on display from one of the earliest moments of the game.
He had other pieces of evidence to back up his claim. Later in the game, people might remember the outstanding catch made by Allen Robinson. The one where he had to lay out for it, gaining 22 yards. While Manning liked the throw from Trubisky for what it was, he had a bone to pick about the decision. Why? Just watch.
The fun continued. By the 4th quarter, Nagy was pulling out some familiar concepts with some interesting wrinkles to help spark the Bears’ comeback. After Jimmy Graham had a nice catch-and-run to set the team up 1st and goal down 23-13, Trubisky ran a sprint left option and found Javon Wims in the corner of the end zone for the score. Manning explains why the play worked so well.
People have loved to dog on Nagy for his play calling. To be fair, he’s definitely had some rough moments in his career. At the same time, poor quarterback play has often overshadowed how good he actually is at drawing things up to get guys open. The fact that Manning has taken notice is a true source of validation.
