This NFL summer, Matt Nagy and Ben Johnson have forged a distant brotherhood due to their shared connection to the Chicago Bears. Johnson, the former offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions, was named as the Bears’ new head coach for the 2025 season on January 21, intending to bring in a new era of success for a franchise that has struggled in previous years.
Meanwhile, Nagy is a former Bears head coach and one of Johnson’s most recent successors. He held the position prior to former head coach Matt Eberflus and is the last coach to lead the Bears to the playoffs, doing it in 2018 and 2020.
Nagy has only five words of advise for the new guy on the neighborhood.
“Win, and beat the Packers,” Nagy declared during an interview with WGN News at the 2025 Super Bowl opening night news conference.
Nagy is well aware of the fan outrage that may result from the Packers’ inability to win. While he did win at home versus Green Bay in his first season on the job, leading the Bears to the NFC North title, he went on to lose his next six games against the Packers, finishing with a 1-7 record against them.
Nagy also faced criticism from fans in his final game as Bears coach against the Packers. On Sunday Night Football in 2021, with the Bears losing by 18 points in the fourth quarter, he decided to kick a 43-yard field goal rather than try to convert on fourth-and-8 from the Packers’ 25-yard line. Less than a month later, the Bears fired Nagy as head coach.
Beating the Packers will be at the top of Johnson’s priority list in his new post, but the Bears’ 38-year-old head coach has prior experience in that area.
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