Chiefs' Matt Nagy Weighs In on Jaguars, Xavier Worthy

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Kansas City offensive coordinator Matt Nagy spoke to reporters from team headquarters prior to Friday’s practice. The Chiefs (2-2) will visit Jacksonville (3-1) on Monday Night Football (7:15 p.m. CT, ESPN/ABC, KMBC Ch. 9, 96.5 The Fan).

To view his comments, watch below.

On Jacksonville’s defense:

“Yeah, the word when I first started watching them on Monday morning was opportunistic. On the back end, there's a lot of tipped footballs. Sometimes those tipped footballs are at the line of scrimmage with D-linemen. Some of these that you're seeing are in the intermediate levels.

“And I think what's impressive is then these DBs, safeties, corners, even linebackers, they adjust well to the ball. And then they, instead of dropping the interception, they make the play. They do a good job in zone, kind of reading the quarterback’s eyes in the middle of the field. And so just the more and more you see that, you see them taking the ball away, the strip tackles, strip the football. So, when you're doing that and making that happen, you're being taught that. So, it's a credit to their coaching staff, and then it's a credit to the players executing.”

tyson campbel — Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Tyson Campbell (3) tackles Houston Texans tight end Dalton Schultz (86) during the second quarter of an NFL football matchup at EverBank Stadium, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. The Jaguars defeated the Texans 17-10. The Jaguars defeated the Texans 17-10. | Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

On what he liked from Xavier Worthy’s return last week:

“Just the ability to, I think, bring back that energy that maybe was missing a little bit, which is natural. But the confidence, the energy. He was happy when he just ran out on the field in warmups; you could just see the big smile. He felt like a little kid being able to get out there and do what he loves. And that's contagious. It's contagious to everybody.

“You get him some early touches, first play of the game, even though it went for 1 yard plus a penalty; he got hit. And I think that's important. It went on the rest of the game. And we want to keep that going.”

xavier worthy, isiah pachec — Sep 28, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco (10) celebrates with Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Xavier Worthy (1) after scoring a touchdown during the second quarter against the Baltimore Ravens at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images | Denny Medley-Imagn Images

On Kingsley Suamataia developing confidence and playing better:

“It's a beautiful thing when you get those guys on the front end there doing what they did this last game. And it's going to happen intermittently at times. There's still going to be some times where there's some hiccups, and he learns on the run. But really, really special game that he put together.

“And for anybody and anything that we do in life, when you have confidence and you can play fast and you start believing more and more, it's infectious. And I think that left side, those young guys continuing to have that, it just moves on to the back end, with your quarterback, with your coaches, your running backs, everybody else is good.”

On how he knows Suamataia is more confident:

“Less mental errors, communication-wise being able to just recover if he gets beat. Could be as simple as a six-inch step. But just playing strong, you know, just playing confident. And I think in practice, you feel it, too. It doesn't just happen on game day. He's putting together some consecutive good practices.”

On what he’s seen from Josh Hines-Allen:

“Yeah, again, those edge players, him being one for sure, playing him over the years, powerful,
savvy, experience, strong, quick … like every superlative you can think of, it's him. And so, ton of respect. We got to know where he's at on every play.”

oluokun, hines-alle — From left, Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker Foyesade Oluokun (23), reacts to a forced fuble turnover with cornerback Tyson Campbell (3), back, and defensive end Josh Hines-Allen (41) during the second quarter of an NFL football matchup at EverBank Stadium, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025 in Jacksonville, Fla. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union] | Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

On Worthy opening up the offense:

“I think it did. And I think we knew that going into it. Again, we felt that going into Brazil that first game; we thought it was going to be similar to that, and then three plays later, you know, you lose that. But that's football. You got to bounce through that.

“That's a weapon that Coach Reid and Brett Veach brought in, and so we you know you want to be able to have those tools. And what's going on right now in that room, in the locker room, it's organically turning into just a bunch of guys that are playing fast. They're confident, they're happy, they're having fun, and that's contagious.

worthy, mahome — Oct 7, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) celebrates with wide receiver Xavier Worthy (1) and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster (9) after Worthy’s touchdown against the New Orleans Saints during the game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images | Denny Medley-Imagn Images

“And so the more of that you can have, the better. That's where we're at. But now the biggest challenge is we got to be able to stack it. We can't let what happened, and think it's just going to happen against a phenomenal defense this weekend. We got to do it again and just continue to keep stacking those.”

On what rookie Brashard Smith is doing well:

“Not making mistakes, mentally. He's doing what he needs to do. And then you saw a little sprinkle of it last week, when he caught that ball on the sideline and got hit a few times and stayed in bounds and probably got 6 extra yards that most people wouldn't get. That's the physical part that we see. The mental part is being able to eliminate the mistakes.

“We're okay with mistakes, but you just can't make the same mistake twice. Well, he's not doing that now. We're able to put him in on some packages where he can study those throughout the week. And you don't want him to play slow. You want to use his strengths, which is ball skills, speed, and then be able to put that into fruition. And we really want that to continue, to keep growing moving forward.”

brashard smit — Sep 14, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs running back Brashard Smith (24) is unable to catch the ball defended by Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Zack Baun (53) during the first quarter of the game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images | Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

On how Smith is progressing as a running back, after converting from wide receiver:

“Well, he is new at that position. I mean, he has a whole year at it. In college, it is different. In the NFL, probably with us, it's more schematics of what type of run game footwork-wise, whether it's inside zone, mid-zone, RPOs versus under-center, protection versus scat. There's a lot that goes into that. So kind of giving him a little bit at a time, and getting to a point to where, when we get to the end of the season, we feel like he can do a lot more for us, and not be so much one-dimensional at times, which is what we're trying to grow with.”

On how the team has done so well on fourth downs:

“Two things on that I would say. No. 1, I feel like throughout the week, the coaches have done a good job of being able to really talk through and communicate the plays that we like in this moment, whether it's a personnel that we like versus what they do, whether it's a concept or scheme that we like versus what they do.

kareem hun — Sep 28, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt (29) runs as Baltimore Ravens defensive tackle Aeneas Peebles (93) attempts to make a tackle during the first half at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images | Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

“And then getting to that moment and not wasting time and feeling the conviction of the call and executing it. And the players feel that. Last week, we didn't have as many third-down conversions, but we were 4-for-4 on fourth down at critical times. So,we talked about that on Monday morning with the team, like that's important. We got to keep that going, and it's a credit to the players for executing it.”

On reaching scoring position on eight straight drives over the last two games:

“Yeah, well, we love what happened last week, but at the same point time, this defense, they're very sound. They fly around. They play fast. The different types of zones that they play, they can try to confuse you, and then their execution is really good. So, we got to just make sure that we build off of that. It's a positive, but it can’t be one of those, you know, take one step forward, two steps back. You know, we got to keep that going.

“And it's all about prep, good week of practice, and then on game day, you want to just score a bunch of touchdowns and stay away from field goals.”

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