Upon being hired as the Chicago Bears’ coach in January 2018, one of Matt Nagy’s first moves was to meet with defensive coordinator Vic Fangio to ask him to stay with the organization.

Fangio did stay and the Bears had the NFL’s best defense last year in winning the NFC North.

Nagy, also the Bears’ offensive play-caller, will face Fangio, now the Broncos’ head coach/defensive play-caller, on Sunday. During a conference call with the Denver media Wednesday, Nagy offered high praise of Fangio.

“We always reference (Kansas City) coach (Andy) Reid as the ‘beautiful mind’ on offense and I think you could easily say on defense, Vic has a beautiful mind,” Nagy said. “He’s a guy who is very, very, very intelligent football-wise…There are a lot of guys that way, but when you can teach it to the players so it makes sense to them and they can play fast, that’s his biggest strength.”

Before joining the Bears, Nagy worked on Reid’s staff with the Chiefs.

Asked how he benefited from Fangio’s experience/presence last year, Nagy said: “A lot just because, the thing is, when you’re a first-year head coach … you’re looking for guys with experience, guys you can trust, guys you have gone against before. He was exactly that. When I got hired, he was the first discussion/move I made was to meet with him. … He’s a very, very, very loyal human being who’s had a lot of success in this league.

The Bears and Broncos are both 0-1.

Chicago played last Thursday, a 10-3 home loss to the Green Bay Packers. The Bears gained only 254 yards (46 rushing).

“We definitely know where things are correctable,” Nagy said. “That was a weird game I hope to never be a part of again any way you look at it. It was one of those games.”