Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs are having, potentially, the greatest run in NFL history. After winning each of the last two Super Bowls and three in the last five years, the Chiefs can do what no other team has ever done before: win three Super Bowls in a row.
The only team in NFL history to win three-straight titles is the Green Bay Packers, who achieved the feat twice (1929 to 1931 and 1965 to 1967) before the inaugural Super Bowl. But Kansas City has as good of a chance as any other team to be the first in the Super Bowl era.
And while much of the credit rightly goes to their great players like Patrick Mahomes, Chris Jones, and Travis Kelce, the team's coach has been invaluable to their success.
But Reid, 66, despite seeming irreplaceable, will eventually need to be succeeded whenever it is that he decides to retire. Who can replace a legend, though? Well, it could be an obvious yet possibly unsatisfying choice.
Reid's coaching tree includes the likes of Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott, and current Jacksonville Jaguars head coach and former Philadelphia Eagles coach Doug Pederson. However, another name may be at the top of the list of Reid's potential successors: Matt Nagy.
Sports Illustrated's Conor Orr briefly explained Nagy's case to replace Reid as part of his annual future head coaches list.
“The current betting favorite to one day take the reins from Andy Reid in Kansas City, Matt Nagy’s career is worthy of further examination the more removed he becomes from his time leading the Bears,” Orr wrote.
“The former Bears head coach has been part of a flexible and battle-tested staff in Kansas City that has gone undefeated to this point with a rotating cast of veteran role players surrounding Patrick Mahomes.”
Could Matt Nagy replace Andy Reid as the Chiefs' head coach?
Nagy began his NFL coaching career as an intern for the Eagles while Reid was the head coach. And when Philadelphia fired Reid, Nagy followed him to Kansas City, where he became the quarterbacks coach. He spent three seasons in the position before being promoted to offensive coordinator, and in 2018, he became the Chicago Bears' head coach.
In four seasons in Chicago, Nagy went 34-31, led the Bears to the playoffs twice and an NFC North title, and was named the AP NFL and PFWA Coach of the Year in 2018. After a 6-11 season in 2021, the first losing record of his tenure, Nagy was fired.
More than a month later, Reid brought Nagy back to Kansas City as the quarterbacks coach. He ascended to offensive coordinator the following season upon the departure of Eric Bieniemy.
While Nagy would likely not be a particularly exciting pick to replace Reid, his limited success with subpar quarterback play in Chicago could be an indication he may thrive if given the reins of a Mahomes-led offense. Additionally, Reid's career, while undoubtedly more successful than Nagy's to this point, took a leap when he linked up with an elite quarterback in Mahomes.
As the coach of the Eagles for more than a decade, Reid led consistently strong teams that fell short of winning the Super Bowl. But after a 4-12 season and a second-straight year without a playoff appearance in 2012, Reid was fired.
And for the first five years in Kansas City, Reid, who had led the Eagles to four NFC Championship Games in his first six seasons, failed to make it to an AFC Championship Game once despite four playoff appearances and 10-plus-win seasons.
But then the Chiefs drafted and developed Mahomes, and the rest, as they say, is history. Since Mahomes replaced Alex Smith as the Chiefs' starting quarterback before the 2018 season, Kansas City has not won fewer than 11 games in a season nor failed to reach at least the AFC Championship.
In four of the six seasons (not including this year) in the Mahomes era, the Chiefs have reached the Super Bowl. Three times, they have won it.
Now, the undefeated Chiefs have a chance at another one and making history in the process.