Bears HC Matt Nagy: “I have a lot of respect for [Eli Manning]”

The New York Giants are looking to get back on track this Sunday, when they take on the Chicago Bears at MetLife Stadium. With the Bears in town, Chicago head coach Matt Nagy spent some time with the media on Wednesday. Let’s take a look at the biggest takeaways from the conversation.

On his time with Giants head coach Pat Shurmur with the Eagles...

“Yeah, Coach Shurmur was the quarterbacks coach when I was there as an intern my first year,” Nagy said. “What I remember about him is just how good of a teacher he was, the three weeks that I was there with him. The one thing I thought was neat, and this is a story I haven’t really told too many people but it just speaks volumes of who he is. Me being a young guy still playing at the time, I was a player in the Arena League, I was building relationships with that internship. A lot of coaches, you get so busy whether it’s during the season or in the offseason and when you get so many different phone calls from people, and he was the one coach that would always return my phone call or return a text message and ask how I was doing. That went a long way with me. I thought that speaks volumes of who he is as a person, and I always remembered that, I hang on to that and use that when I run into situations now with people calling me and texting me. Take the football side out of it, that’s who he is as a person and I have a lot of respect for him.”

On the Khalil Mack trade ...

“He’s everything and more than we thought,” Nagy said. “As I tell everybody, you know from going against him, I know from going against him in Kansas City what type of player he was when you have to compete against him. When you bring him into practice and you see who the person is within the four walls of the building, and you see how he is as a human being and his character and how he’s a leader, it just makes it even better.”

On who will start at quarterback for the Bears this weekend...

“We’ll see,” Nagy said. “We’re still going through that process. Mitch (Trubisky) is getting better, he’s improving each day, we like where he’s at, we’re in a good spot with Chase (Daniel) as well. We will kind of go day by day with it like we’ve done before and see where he’s at.”

On what he has saw out of Eli Manning this year...

“I have a lot of respect for him,” Nagy said. “I actually coached Eli in the Pro Bowl a few years ago. I got to know him as a person and a player a little bit there and see who he is, and I have a ton of respect for him. For the type of player that he is, the adversity he’s been through, I think that he has just so many strengths, just knowing the game, knowing where to go with the football. I appreciate that. This is not an easy position to play as a quarterback position, and he’s had a lot of success, he’s done well, and I think that we have a big challenge ahead of us this week with him back there as the quarterback.”