5 Reasons Chiefs Should Pursue Scheelhaase for OC

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Somewhere, Todd Bowles is wondering what would’ve happened had he hired Nate Scheelhaase as his offensive coordinator a year ago.

The relatively unknown candidate got coordinator interviews with both the Jaguars and Buccaneers last January. The Jaguars hired another branch off the Sean McVay tree, Grant Udinski, and Tampa Bay opted to promote internally. This week, Jacksonville is in the playoffs and the Bucs are not.

Matt Nagy’s contract is expired and the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator has four head-coach interviews. Asked Monday about needing to potentially replace Nagy, Andy Reid didn’t appear to be in a hurry but Scheelhaase isn’t likely to be available long.

Most people can’t correctly pronounce Scheelhaase’s last name (it’s SHEEL-house), but if Reid brings him to Kansas City, they’ll memorize it quickly.

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Here are five reasons Reid should be hot on Scheelhaase’s trail when he’s eligible for his first interviews next week, after the Rams’ wild-card playoff game Saturday.

McVay assistants are gold

Hiring McVay coaches pays off. In a league plagued by parity, hiring candidates influenced by McVay is as good as Kareem Hunt in short-yardage.

Two playoff teams have head coaches who are former McVay assistants: Green Bay (Matt LaFleur) and Jacksonville (Liam Coen). Another, Houston, has an offensive coordinator from McVay’s tree, Nick Caley. And two other current head coaches, Minnesota’s Kevin O’Connell and Cincinnati’s Zac Taylor, came to their current posts directly from McVay’s Rams.

A Kansas City kid

Now McVay’s passing game coordinator, Scheelhaase cut his football teeth on the Missouri side of Stateline Road, at Rockhurst High School. The Thomas A. Simone Award winner as the Kansas City area’s best prep football player, Scheelhaase met his wife at Rockhurst, too.

McVay promoted Scheelhaase to prevent him from leaving

After leaving Bowles in the dark as he covertly negotiated his deal with Jacksonville, Coen quickly went after Scheelhaase last January. Bowles wanted him, too, to replace Coen. McVay stepped in and ended all discussion, promoting the rising coach to passing game coordinator.

Then, McVay made crystal clear how valuable Scheelhaase was to his staff.

“The best thing I can say about him,” McVay said after promoting Scheelhaase last January, “there are certain people you're around and they come in and they have a role and a responsibility that's defined and they do a great job of that. But the great ones, they redefine what that is because they just do a little bit more and they're just a little bit more intrinsically motivated and they got just a little bit better feel on how you deal with people.

“And I think this guy's a special coach, and I'm not going to take for granted the time that I do have with him. Because I thought it was cool that he chose to stay with us with some other opportunities he had. That meant a lot to me and he is a rising star without a doubt.”

1,231 pass attempts in college

Legendary NFL analyst Rick Gosselin researched the most important factor in determining whether a quarterback will succeed at the NFL level: The number of pass attempts he had in college. Patrick Mahomes had 1,349 at Texas Tech, for example. Justin Herbert had 1,293 at Oregon.

Who better to serve in a leadership role than a 35-year-old Scheelhaase, who started four years at Illinois and threw 1,231 passes. He has that as a foundation, in addition to his coaching acumen gleaned under McVay.

Ability to reach younger players

From 2018-23, Scheelhaase ascended on Matt Campbell’s Iowa State offensive staff. Brock Purdy, Breece Hall, David Montgomery, Xavier Hutchinson, Jaylin Noel, Jayden Higgins and Kene Nwangwu – who already has five career kickoff-return touchdowns – all came through the Cyclones program with Scheelhaase on staff.

Reid addressed that topic on Monday, noting that the first-year players in Kansas City this past season experienced a 6-11 setback, something no Chiefs players have tasted in 13 years.

brashard smit — Jan 4, 2026; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Kansas City Chiefs running back Brashard Smith (24) gains yardage against the Las Vegas Raiders during the first quarter at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images | Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

“Yeah, so this class is the only class that hasn't really had success,” Reid said Monday, “and so they haven't experienced that part of it. And so, it's important that when they left here, that they understood that really what needs to be taken care of, and try to make that as crystal clear as you can to them. … That these are the expectations. It’s a ceiling that we want to keep ourselves at, and anything less is unacceptable.”

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