Bears select young QB guru as head coach
The Chicago Bears, looking for a coach to get the most out of quarterback Mitchell Trubisky and help them emerge from one of their worst runs, hired Kansas City offensive coordinator Matt Nagy on Monday.
Nagy, 39, spent the past 10 seasons working under Andy Reid in Philadelphia and Kansas City. He did not call plays until late this season, but drew praise for his work with Chiefs QB Alex Smith. Nagy was a quarterback at Delaware and in the Arena Football League.
“Up-and-coming, smart guy,” Chiefs assistant head coach Brad Childress said of Nagy. “He’s played the quarterback position, so he gets it. He knows how to teach. He’s got a great demeanor about him. He’s got a creative mind.”
Nagy replaces John Fox, who was fired after he went 14-34 in three seasons for a .292 winning percentage that is the second-lowest in team history. Chicago was 5-11 this season and hasn’t finished above .500 since letting Lovie Smith go following a 10-6 finish in 2012, two years after its most recent visit to the playoffs.
More hirings
The Cincinnati Bengals hired Teryl Austin as defensive coordinator. He held the same job in Detroit the last four years. Cincinnati was 18th in total defense this season, nine spots higher than Detroit, although the Lions had 32 takeaways to the Bengals’ 14.
The San Francisco 49ers hired Ken Norton Jr. as assistant head coach for defense; he’ll also be in charge of inside linebackers. Norton, who played for San Francisco, was fired as defensive coordinator by Oakland after three seasons.
NFL to investigate
The NFL and NFL Players Assn. plan to conduct a joint review to determine if the Carolina Panthers followed the correct concussion protocol after Cam Newton took a hard hit, briefly left Sunday’s game and then returned.
Newton and the Panthers insist it wasn’t his head that was hurt, it was his eye. This is the second time the team’s handling of Newton has been investigated. The previous time, in 2016, the team was cleared.
The Seattle Seahawks were fined $100,000 this season after it was found they failed to apply the protocol properly after Russell Wilson took a blow to the head.
Incognito drama
Jacksonville’s Yannick Ngakoue made headlines after Sunday’s Jaguars-Bills game with a tweet that implied Buffalo’s Richie Incognito had used racist slurs against him, and the defensive end stood by it Monday.
“People needed to know what happened,” Ngakoue said. “He knows what he said. I don’t got to repeat it.”
Incognito was suspended in 2013 after an investigation found he harassed Miami Dolphins teammate Jonathan Martin, including the use of slurs. Bills teammate Dion Dawkins said he didn’t hear Incognito say anything out of line Sunday, and no other Jaguars spoke up.