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Justin Fields Is Inevitable Says Matt Nagy

Former Bears coach tells Super Bowl reporters Justin Fields "without a doubt" will succeed based on his improvement in 2022.

Matt Nagy still has full confidence Justin Fields can succeed.

Nagy is part of the Bears past but at the Super Bowl the Kansas City quarterbacks coach and senior assistant didn't mind reflecting for reporters on his time spent working as Bears coach with Fields.

Nagy thought his former QB progressed nicely even if he has won only five out of his first 25 starts.

"We knew that he was our future," Nagy told reporters at Opening Night at the Super Bowl. "We wanted to handle him and do everything we possibly could to make sure that he succeeded.

"These guys are so young that when they're thrown into it everybody thinks it could just happen overnight, they're going to play like they did in college. That's not real."

Nagy urged patience in Chicago with Fields and that he will begin to read defenses and get the ball out faster like many QBs.

"I would say from where Justin was from where he came in as a rookie with us, he was in a great place," Nagy said. "These guys are young. They find concepts that they like, whether they're half-field reads, one eye, two eye, man, zone, etc. There's so much work that goes on. 

"He was a rookie again this year. He learned a whole new offense. It's going to take time. He's got all the tools. He's got a great future ahead of him."

Nagy kept an eye on what Fields was doing in 2022.

"I absolutely paid attention to him and I was so proud of the way that he grew this year as a quarterback," Nagy told the Super Bowl media crowd. "A lot of credit to their coaches, what they did with him, the schemes that they put around him and just the way that he took onto that."

Nagy pointed out that Mahomes is even still learning in Kansas City, so it's natural for Fields to be where he is in development.

"Like, again, we were a big part of drafting him and getting him to Chicago," Nagy said. "We were all in with Justin and unfortunately didn't get an opportunity to see where he could get to. But, again, that's a part of this process, that's a part of the NFL. 

"Those guys in Chicago, their coaches there have done a phenomenal job of working with him. He's one hell of a player. He has a very bright future in Chicago and I'm proud of him because he's a great kid, he cares immensely about the game, he loves it, he's passionate. He's going to keep growing."

Nagy deflected questions about his own game plan against Cleveland in Fields' first NFL start perhaps hurting the developmental process. It was the game when the Browns dialed up one blitz after the other against five-man pass protection and with little plan for getting the ball out to a hot receiver.

Nagy called it all more a case of the Andy Dalton injury requiring Fields to play too soon, but really didn't explain the lack of help in the game plan for so young of a passer.

"We go back to the Cleveland Browns game, right? It was a really, really difficult game," he said. "I think there were eight or nine sacks. It's not what we wanted for him, for Justin. We didn't want it for us. We didn't want it for Justin. 

"The last thing you want is to hurt somebody's confidence, a young quarterback like we did that game. No one wants that, you know, for anybody. And so we needed to learn from that and be able to change some things of how we handled him. But you wind up running out of time and you also know that schematically it just, it was a different situation."

Nagy in the end said there were regrets about how it all went down but ultimately the new coaches will work it out.

"At the same point in time, it's hard and it's stressful for these young guys because they know time is of the essence," he said. "Again it didn't work out with me and with Ryan Pace being a part of this.

"But it's now on to other coaches and with Ryan Poles. Then, again, we are all in on rooting for Justin."

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