removed from his 2015 season with New Orleans in which he caught 74 passes for 825 yards and six touchdowns — all career

LAKE FOREST http://www.minnesotavikingsteamonline.com/dru-samia-jersey , Ill. (AP)As the interview unfolded, Matt Nagy could sense the Chicago Bears were a fit for him. He saw a franchise poised to make a big jump, sensed a connection with general manager Ryan Pace. ”I’m here because of the organization and the direction,” Nagy, the Bears’ new coach, said. ”I could feel that from the moment I was in that interview process.” Getting to work with quarterback Mitchell Trubisky is ”a benefit.” The Bears introduced Nagy on Tuesday, a day after he was hired as the team’s 16th head coach to replace the fired John Fox and help a charter NFL franchise emerge from one of its worst runs. He takes over a team that missed the playoffs for the seventh straight season and hasn’t finished above .500 since Lovie Smith got fired after going 10-6 in 2012. The Bears are on their third head coach since then, with Nagy trying to do what Marc Trestman and Fox could not. Both got fired with losing records, Fox’s 14-34 mark over three seasons giving him the second-worst winning percentage in team history. Chicago went 5-11 this past season on the way to its fourth straight last-place finish in the NFC North. A day after his first season as the Chiefs’ sole offensive coordinator ended with a playoff collapse against Tennessee, Nagy spent 4+ hours interviewing with Pace, president Ted Phillips and chairman George McCaskey at a hotel on Kansas City’s Plaza on Sunday morning. He and Pace, along with their wives, also had dinner that night. In between, he met with the Colts and returned to the Chiefs’ practice facility for exit interviews. ”When I went into this interview in that room it felt… it’s a special feeling,” Nagy said. ”(Pace and I) walked out, we just had a conversation among the two of us and you just kind of knew that this could be really good. Again, I’m going to be right there by his hip.” There are some big holes on offense, particularly at wide receiver. But the Bears have two solid running backs in Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen, not to mention a quarterback they drafted with the No. 2 overall pick after trading up a spot with San Francisco to grab him. ”This is about more than the quarterback,” Pace said. ”Yes Daniel Jones Jersey , that’s the most important position on our team, but this is about 53 players and it’s about leading a group of men and it’s about winning in all three phases.” A former quarterback at Delaware who played in the Arena Football League, the 39-year-old Nagy spent the past 10 years working under Andy Reid in Philadelphia and Kansas City. Though he didn’t start calling plays until late in the season, he has drawn praise for his work with Alex Smith. Nagy has also come a long way, from working in real estate while serving as a coaching intern with the Eagles during training camp in 2008 and 2009. Reid hired him as a coaching assistant during the 2010 season, and he’s continued to work his way up. That wasn’t lost on Pace. Nor was this: Nagy didn’t shy away from what happened against Tennessee on Saturday. He owned up to it during his interview with the Bears the next day. ”He owned it,” Pace said. On Tuesday, Nagy said he called ”every single” play – not Reid – when the Chiefs got blanked in the second half and blew an 18-point lead. ”For me, that was a failure in my book,” Nagy said. ”But I’ll grow from it, and I’ll learn from it, I promise you that, and I’ll use it as a strength here for me with the Chicago Bears.” Nagy said he will call plays on offense in Chicago. He also said he’s not sure if defensive coordinator Vic Fangio will stay or if the Bears will continue to run a 3-4 defense. Fangio interviewed for the head coaching job, as did Philadelphia quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo, offensive coordinators Pat Shurmur (Minnesota) and Josh McDaniels (New England) and Vikings defensive coordinator George Edwards. That the Bears hired an offensive coach was hardly surprising given how much they have riding on their quarterback’s development. Pace had said they were considering involving Trubisky in the search, but he was not in the interview with Nagy. The two are, however, familiar with each other. Kansas City interviewed Trubisky at the combine and had him visit prior to the draft. ”I had an opinion of Mitch (at the combine) where he was kind of introverted and I felt scripted, which 95 percent of the guys are in that atmosphere,” Nagy said. ”But we went ahead and took several quarterbacks that we were interested in and brought them in and basically had them for six or seven hours and let their personalities show Quincy Williams II Jersey , let them be who they are just in front of us. After six hours of being with Mitch, it was unbelievable.” — FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Ben Watson is at the point of his career in which he doesn’t want to take anything for granted.Not the 15 years the tight end has already played in the NFL with four teams. Not the Super Bowl he won with the Patriots as a rookie in 2004. And certainly not the opportunity to postpone his retirement to return to New England — the franchise that drafted him — despite facing a four-game suspension to begin the 2019 season for testing positive for a banned substance.But after the 38-year-old completed the first day of the Patriots three-day mandatory minicamp on Tuesday, he said he wants to make the most of this latest chance to prolong his career.“You never know the road you’re gonna take,” Watson said. “My wife always says ‘Enjoy the journey.’ That’s something I’ve tried to do, although I’m very intense. I don’t enjoy it all the time as much as I should. But there really is a journey to life as well as to the NFL in general. I’m happy my journey brought me back here.”Watson, who spent last season with the Saints, announced in December that he would retire at the end of the 2018 season after dealing with years of injuries, including a torn Achilles tendon that sidelined him for the entire 2016 season when he was with the Ravens.He said in a Facebook post last week that in the aftermath of his decision to retire he was prescribed a testosterone supplement by his doctors to help his body begin to heal from the years of football.Before he could officially file his retirement papers, he said he was randomly drug tested following the end of last season. He was notified of a positive test, but cast it aside because he had no plans to return to football.That changed in late April when teams, including the Patriots, began to make overtures for him to return. While mulling over the offers, he said he was open about the positive drug test to his potential suitors.It didn’t deter the Patriots, who wound up signing him to a one-year, $3 million deal last month as they continue to look to fill their void created at the position following the retirement of Rob Gronkowski.It’s a new start for Watson, who is entering his second stint in New England after stops in Cleveland, New Orleans and Baltimore.Despite the impending suspension, he will have a realistic chance to make New England’s roster. He began the Patriots’ offseason workouts as one of only three veteran tight ends on the roster, joining Austin Seferian-Jenkins Ryquell Armstead Jersey , 26-year-old Matt LaCosse and a handful of rookies.That group thinned out a little more after the team released Seferian-Jenkins on Tuesday.But Watson said he’s not approaching his second stint in New England with thoughts about being Gronk’s successor.“None whatsoever. Every year is a new team, whether a same player in in the same position or not, there’s always turnover in the NFL,” he said. “So, my biggest thing is always learning what to do and perform to the best of my abilities.”Still, the Patriots are going to need to find somebody at the position that 41-year-old quarterback Tom Brady trusts and is comfortable throwing to in the offense.Watson is four years removed from his 2015 season with New Orleans in which he caught 74 passes for 825 yards and six touchdowns — all career highs. He appeared in all 16 games for the Saints last season, catching 35 passes for 400 yards and two touchdowns.He said finding chemistry with Brady is something he will have to rediscover, but that the comfort is certainly there for the two vets.“There’s very few guys I can step on the field with and say, ‘Man, I look up to that guy.’ I played with one in New Orleans in Drew Brees, a guy that’s been in the league a few more years than me,” Watson said.“Obviously coming in as a rookie and walking into a locker room where Tom Brady who was a young Tom Brady then, just four or so years in the league, but he was very accomplished.“For him to still be on the field is very cool for me. In that I’m still an older guy, but there’s still somebody for me to sort of pattern myself after as well.”Notes: The Patriots signed third-round pick and defensive lineman Chase Winovich. The 6-foot-3, 255-pounder was a four-year letter winner at Michigan, playing in 45 games with 26 starts and totaled 185 tackles, 18 sacks and three forced fumbles.