Brad Childress Says Matt Nagy Was Uncomfortable with Colts Interview

Brad Childress interviewed today with Kap & Jordan on ESPN’s affiliate radio station in Chicago. The significance of Childress interviewing about Nagy is that he is personal friends and has worked with him in Kansas City as co-offensive coordinator when Doug Pederson left for the Eagles in 2016. If that isn’t interesting enough, Nagy’s back-story includes working in real estate with a man named Larry Wisdom, who was a player in Chicago suburban real estate and formally Nagy’s boss. Wisdom and Childress were high school classmates.

It is clear from these realizations that Nagy’s ties to Chicago were not new and that Brad Childress is someone who has more than one connection with Nagy. With Childress set to retire, there isn’t any motivation I can think of for him to make unfounded statements regarding his knowledge of Nagy’s head coaching interview process.

On the show today, at about the 10:45 mark, the following question was asked:

We had heard reports that he could have had the Colts job but he looked at this Bears situation and went: I like the young quarterback. I feel like I have a partnership with my General Manager, we’re going to grow together and build this thing. What is your take on, there were other suitors out there, on how he went about this decision-making process?

Childress’ response:

Well, I know for a fact — I wasn’t in the room — I know who he talked to first, who he talked to second. I know for a fact that this is a people business and that he felt entirely more comfortable [in the Bears] interview with the people who sat around there for four and a half hours than he did when he came out of the Colts interview. It’s quite statement because the guy who is at the Colts was with us for five years at Kansas City. You know, a lot of times you go with your gut. At the same time you are interviewing Matt Nagy, Matt Nagy is interviewing you. He is seeing what he is throwing in with and who he is getting in the car with and just like when you do a deal it has got to get something from both sides and I felt from him[fully] that they were two completely different kind of interviews and that he was enthralled with the people at the Bears, with the Bears situation, to jump in that boat.

There has been quite a bit of speculation surrounding the Colts coaching search and where the team is in the process. There are certainly coaching candidates that will not be available until teams continue to be eliminated from the playoffs but, as promised, very little has leaked out of West 56th Street.

What we know is that the Colts have interviewed Josh McDaniels, Kris Richard, Mike Vrabel, Matt Nagy, and are scheduled to interview Steve Wilkes tomorrow. We also know that some of the bigger coaching names that were on Chuck Pagano’s staff are already making their way out the door. Offensive line coach Joe Philbin will be joining Green Bay and special teams coach Tom McMahon and defensive backs coach Greg Williams are headed to Denver.

There was a great deal of speculation that Chris Ballard had Matt Nagy and Dave Toub high on his list after working with them at Kansas City. To this point, Toub has been radio silent on any interviews and Nagy has chosen to accept the Chicago Bears head coaching job.

Now, keep in mind that Bob Kravitz’s sources have indicated that Nagy was not offered the job in Indianapolis. Whether that was because Ballard felt stronger about another candidate or wasn’t completely sold on bringing Nagy on board is hard to say. It can just as easily be speculated the Kravitz is being told that the Colts didn’t offer Nagy because admitting that they did and that Nagy turned them down would leave egg on Ballard’s face (simply noting that out of all radio silence it seems odd that this nugget alone would leak).

In the end, all of this will likely not matter. The Colts will hire a new head coach, Ballard will likely pass on answering any questions about the interview process itself as he promised to keep it in-house, and a new staff will be built to lead the franchise into the future. Still, it is awfully odd that someone who was presumably close with Ballard came away uncomfortable with the interview and felt so good about the one in Chicago. Hopefully that is not a common theme.