EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — New York Giants offensive coordinator Matt Nagy will call plays from the coaches’ booth Sunday night against the Dallas Cowboys, he said Thursday.
Nagy spoke after practice at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center, in comments transcribed by the Giants. Kickoff at MetLife Stadium is 7:20 p.m. CT on NBC.
Nagy is in his 17th NFL season and his first with the Giants, according to his team biography. He spent the previous four seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs. From 2018 to 2021, he went 34-31 as the head coach in Chicago.
Nagy can still get Jaxson Dart on the phone from upstairs.
“I’m excited about it,” Nagy said. “I think that I’ve always been down on the field. When I was a quality control coach, I was up in the box for one year. So, I wanted to experiment with that in the preseason, and I was able to do that. I really liked it. You can see a lot more from up there.”
“Now, it takes away a little bit of the on the field element of being able to communicate and talk all the time, but there’s a calm in the box,” Nagy continued. “And for me, first time in this role as a play caller, OC being up in that box, I just feel like I can see things a lot better and then have the ultimate trust in the staff and being able to see things so that they can communicate to me what they’re seeing. And we’ve got the telephone too so I can always jump on the phone with Jaxson if I need to. But I’m excited about that opportunity.”
Nagy called the Aug. 15 preseason opener from the booth, ProFootballTalk reported at the time, with plans to move to the sideline for the second game.
Matt Nagy Prepares For Christian Parker’s First Dallas Cowboys Defense
Christian Parker, 34, was hired as the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator in January. Sunday will be the first time he calls plays in an NFL regular-season game.
Dallas allowed more points than any team in the NFL last season.
Nagy said Week 1 means facing a defensive coordinator who is calling plays for the first time.
“There’s a lot of ways to approach it,” Nagy explained. “And sometimes what can happen is you can get caught in paralysis by analysis because you think the things that you’re looking at, you might end up seeing. So, in the end, I think it’s best for us to worry about us and make sure that we do what we do well and then we adjust within.”
“So, every year there’s always unscouted looks,” Nagy added. “There’s things that they do, these opponents early on until you get more tape. You just got to adjust. And part of our job as coaches is to make sure that we are somewhat psychiatrists and psychologists with these guys and making sure mentally they understand that, okay, if a play didn’t work, how are we going to adjust to it?”
“So, all week I just give a lot of credit to our coaching staff because they’ve spent a lot of time to kind of put this whole thing together,” Nagy noted. “And now the fun part is just trying to play fast on Sunday night.”
Earlier in the session, Nagy said Dallas does not know what it will see from the Giants, either.
What Matt Nagy Wants From Jaxson Dart On Sunday Night
As a rookie, Dart threw for 2,272 yards, 15 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions in 14 games. He also ran for 487 yards and 9 touchdowns, the second-most rushing touchdowns by a rookie quarterback in the Super Bowl era, according to the Giants.
At 23, Dart is learning a new offense, which Nagy said makes him a rookie again in some ways.
“We want Jaxson to be able to play fast,” Nagy said. “We want him to be himself. He’s a special talent. And it’s our job as coaches to take all this time that we’ve had to do it. And that’s what we’ve put together is a game plan that we think is to his strengths.”
“But at the same point in time too, we got to make sure that there’s going to be times in the game where we just got to let him cut it loose and continue to build every week,” Nagy continued. “This isn’t, there’s going to be good plays, there’s going to be bad plays, but how does he keep that up? It’s going to be an emotional time. Sunday Night Football against the Cowboys, a lot of emotions going on. He’s a competitor. So, I want him to stay calm, extremely confident, play fast and execute and just be a complete leader, but also just be himself, man. Cut it loose and have fun.”
In the Jan. 4 finale last season, Dart threw for 230 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 34-17 win over Dallas at MetLife Stadium.
