Andy Reid: I knew Matt Nagy wanted an opportunity to have his own show

Matt Nagy is no longer with the Chiefs, as the team brought back Eric Bieniemy to be its offensive coordinator in 2026.

But according to Kansas City head coach Andy Reid, it has long been the plan for Nagy to depart the organization this year to run his own offense.

“We left it that simple, that’s what I would tell you,” Reid said in his Monday video conference. “I know everybody’s going to question everything and I get all that. It’s understandable. But Matt and I have a great relationship. And here he sits, and before the season, right before the season even started here, I knew that he wanted an opportunity to have his own show.

“He’s been a head coach. He was coach of the year. I mean, all the things I’ve said about him, I still feel about him. There’s nothing different there. He deserves to have a head coaching job. And if not, it gives him an opportunity to go out and do his thing.”

Nagy has received some interest from the Cardinals, Ravens, Raiders, and Titans in this coaching cycle. But with two of those teams already hiring head coaches, it appears more likely that Nagy will end up as a team’s offensive coordinator in 2026.

Reid compared the situation with Nagy to that of Bieniemy a few years ago, when Bieniemy departed the Chiefs to become the Commanders’ offensive coordinator. That gave Bieniemy an opportunity to run his own offense the way he saw fit. The same applies now for Nagy, who received a heart endorsement from Reid.

“[T]his gives Matt an opportunity to go out and run his show there and do what he does best — taking two Super Bowl championships with him and three Super Bowl appearances, and a top 10 offense that he was working with this past year,” Reid said. “He’ll go out and be able to put his own mark on things. That takes my name off of it, and he gets the purity of it. I was hoping that it would be a head coaching position — and it still might be that. He deserves that — definitely, for sure. And if that doesn’t work, it gives him an opportunity to step in as a coordinator and run a show from there.

“I mean, somebody’s missing a gem here. That’s how I feel,” Reid later added. “I would love to see him get picked up and going. And at the same time, we got back a gem. So, it has a chance to be a win-win here when everything’s said and done.”