Ron Rivera and Matt Nagy have been coaching in the wrong cities. There are good and bad coaches. There are also good and bad coaching situations. Outstanding strategists could be pushed out of the league for not succeeding immediately. On the other hand, poor Head Coaches could succeed for a while, if the conditions are correct.
Josh McDaniels is an offensive innovator. He received a head coaching opportunity in 2010 and failed. The conditions were not ideal. Nick Saban is arguably the best college coach in history. His one-year head coaching adventure with the Miami Dolphins, however, was a wreck. Skill and experience are one thing, timing is a completely different beast.
Matt Nagy and Ron Rivera are good head coaches for different reasons. Rivera is a tough, defensive-minded leader of men with a talented offense. Nagy is a tough, offensive-minded leader of men with a talented defense. See the disconnect?
Rivera needs to be in a system where he can rely on an innovative offensive coordinator to manage decent production while his defense takes care of limiting the same from the opposition. Nagy needs to be in a system where he has the offensive pieces to run the same novelty plays that Andy Reid has popularized in Kansas City.
So how does this change translate to results in 2020?
The Bears defense returns to the level of intensity seen under Vic Fangio’s direction in 2018. They limit teams to under twenty point averages for the season and lead the league in defensive scoring. On offense, Rivera has pegged an innovative mind as his offensive coordinator and Cam Newton is leading an explosive offense with David Montgomery leading the NFC in all-purpose yardage.
In Carolina, the Panthers’ have focused the money saved by cutting ties with Cam Newton to beef up their run defense. Matt Nagy has developed radical plays that have made McCaffrey blossom into the MVP of the league while increasing the production of Curtis Samuel and D.J. Moore. The Panthers are leading the league in scoring and are primed to secure the number one seed in the NFC in mid-December.
The above represents the best-case scenarios for both franchises under the new head coaches. What’s the worst-case scenario? Well, just take a look at their respective 2019 seasons.
