Matt Nagy’s comments on Justin Fields was taken out of context

There is more to what Matt Nagy said about Justin Fields

I am not here to argue with Matt Nagy’s decisions regarding Justin Fields. I am not on board with the idea of benching Fields for Dalton to start the season, but this is Nagy’s team and he will have to live and die by that sword.

That said, the quote by Matt Nagy was taken out of context. Let’s take a look at exactly what Matt Nagy said in full.

"When you see, I can go back to coach Day and the comment he made about generational talent, when you put a person, a quarterback, who can throw the ball like he can, can run like he can, and has the ability to process and the want, the fire and the competitveness — all that together — that’s why you go get him. So now, when we were able to get him, now you know, when it is his time, there’s going to be a lot of good stuff that we will be able to do with this offense, but that does take a little bit of time and you see that as you go."

Now, here is the part that is being circulated, over and over again.

"We’re learning too. Like this week, after him getting all the reps in practice, there’s things that we are seeing that maybe we did not see in the first two weeks because he was not getting the one reps."

However, the quote continues.

"And that part is good, that’s healthy, because now as long as we take that to him and say, hey listen, when you do this, this, or that, this is what you need to get a little better at, this is what you are doing well, let’s go back and see why you are a little late on this throw — all he’s doing is building blocks and a foundation of how he’s getting better. That’s the beauty of him having these great reps in practice, which he wasn’t getting, but now he is and we need to take advantage of it."

Alright, I can see how people are upset, but let’s not sit here and think that Matt Nagy is that incompetent to make the comment he made that is circulating without there being more to it. If you dissect the whole response, Matt Nagy is actually giving credit to himself and his coaches for the growth that Justin Fields has seen over the last few weeks and throughout training camp.

He is defending the fact that Fields has grown despite not seeing first-team reps in practice, but also notes they were not seeing these things before. Clearly, Nagy did not believe Fields was ready to start over Dalton to start the season, or he just wanted to stick to his plan and let Fields learn more before throwing him out there.

This growth by Fields is what they have seen from training camp until now in Week 3. In another response, Nagy talked about how awesome it is to see what the coaches do with Fields and the process they go through. However, he also admits that Fields still has things to work on.

Overall, I think Matt Nagy truly believes that following the same pattern and process that Patrick Mahomes went through in Kansas City is ideal for Justin Fields. Nagy constantly tries to emulate the Chiefs and his mentor Andy Reid. I also think that Nagy did not expect Justin Fields to show so much growth this early. Although Andy Dalton’s knee injury forced Nagy’s hand, it might not have been long before Dalton was riding the pine anyway.