Kansas City’s backup quarterback has made quite an impression on the team’s coaches this season.
On Wednesday, Kansas City Chiefs’ head coach Andy Reid announced that his backup quarterback Carson Wentz will take Patrick Mahomes’ place in Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field.
And while Mahomes won’t be making direct preparations to play in Denver, offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said that the starting quarterback will be getting ready for the postseason by stepping back to see how the team’s offense works from a coach’s perspective.
Meanwhile, Nagy and Wentz will be hard at work.
”He made a little joke yesterday in practice that this was the most he’s talked in one day all year,” recalled the coordinator on Thursday. “We kind of chuckled about that.”
Nagy said that like the head coach — who has described himself as one of Wentz’s “biggest fans” — he’s rooting for the veteran quarterback to succeed.
“I’ve been following Carson — we all have — from the day he came into this league,” said Nagy, “[but] not really knowing him until this year. To see how he’s handled himself as an unbelievable No. 2 and backup — and what he did in training camp?
“Now he’s going to get an opportunity. You really appreciate people like him. Literally, this is not different for him because he’s gonna start. It’s not any different than any week that he goes into.”
Nagy has been around long enough to know there aren’t many players like him.
“They’re out there, but they’re hard to find,” he declared, “especially when you’re as talented as he is. So as a coach, you get pumped up — and you want to go out there and do everything you can to help him go out and lead the team to a win.”
Linebackers coach Brendan Daly also counts himself among Wentz’s admirers.
”He was one of the first people I ran into this morning when I got here,” he revealed. “I thought to myself, ‘You know what? That’s pretty cool that he’s going to get an opportunity this week.’
“People wouldn’t know he’s in here at 6 a.m. every day through the course of the year when he’s not preparing to be the starter. But it was cool to see him this morning in that same environment — and know he’s going to get an opportunity this week. [I’m] happy for him.”
