August 06, 2015
I hear, and I forget; I see, and I remember; I do, and I understand.
Those were the words Eagles coach Chip Kelly used to describe what he termed the team's "educational philosophy." And while it may seem like a bunch of gibberish when you first hear it, there's something subtly poignant in the simplicity of that ethos.
The same philosophy could be written this way: The only real way to learn something is by doing it yourself.
Or as Kelly went on to explain: "You can talk about it and show it to him on tape as much as you want and that's all good and great. But they have got to do it."
With all NFL teams being limited to the same amount of practice time each day, Kelly makes sure his team is ahead of the rest of the league by running his practices a little differently and -- the same way he runs his offense -- a little more quickly.
On Monday, defensive coordinator Bill Davis talked about that in relation to the loss of Brandon Boykin and how it has helped rookie JaCorey Shepherd get up to speed:
“I think one of the things that separates us from all the NFL teams I’ve been with is the Chip Kelly system. Because it’s a no-huddle offensive system means the volume of reps you get per practice are much higher. I’ve calculated that it’s two to three times higher per practice. With all those offseason reps, which is way more than you get anywhere else, our backups and our younger guys — our new guys — get more and more than if you were somewhere else. And there’s nothing like a practice rep, on the field, to train somebody. You’ve got to keep doing it and doing it. And we covet the mistakes. ‘Come on and make your mistakes, guys. Don’t be fearful of mistakes. Come make them because you’ll learn from them.’ And I think all those offseason reps help the new guys and the young guys be better prepared to come out here and compete in the preseason and compete for a roster spot.”
It's their philosophy in action, a philosophy that's just as focused on improving the third-string players as it is the starters. And if you think that seems counterintuitive, there's a reason behind it.
Davis' answer was in response to replacing Brandon Boykin, who was traded to the Steelers on Saturday night. He was expressing how much more confidence he has in those players because of the added reps they've gotten this offseason. More importantly, it helps protect the Eagles when a player inevitably goes down with an injury.
"The injury rate in the National Football League is 100 percent," Kelly said in March. "It just depends on what the severity is."
That's part of the reason Kelly and the Eagles are so obsessed with sports science. They're trying to minimize the injury risk of their players. But they also know that eliminating them completely is impossible, and unlike many other teams, they're putting in safeguards to preserve their season should an impact player go down. It's the same reason they like consistent height and weight among the players at each position.
"All of [our] guys are getting a ton of reps and it pays off in the end, especially when you're trying to develop young players."
On Thursday, Kelly was asked about Davis' comments and expanded on how their number of practice reps differs from other teams:
"I think one of the misconceptions [is the amount of reps our ones get]. Our ones get the same amount of reps as every other teams' ones across the league. It's just the way we format our training sessions, our twos and threes get more reps than everybody else."
"In a lot of places the ones get 12 reps, the twos get six reps and the threes may get two. For us, it's even across the board. So we are just rotating in sets of four. Right now, in a team period the ones will get 12 reps, the twos will get 12 reps and the threes will get 12 reps."
So as you can see, the Eagles, unlike most teams, are just as concerned with getting guys who may barely play up to speed as they are with the starters. Because in Chip's mind -- at least according to his newly revealed "educational philosophy" -- you don't fully learn anything by watching others do it, and you learn even less by simply being told what to do.
For a roster as in-flux as the Eagles' is -- they could have anywhere from 10 to 12 new starters this season -- that could be more important than ever. And beyond the starters, there will likely be several more new faces, including rookies, contributing on a regular basis.
According to Kelly, they often benefit the most from his uptempo practices.
"We've always felt it has accelerated the younger guys [because] they also get [training] experience," Kelly added. "[On other teams] they are sitting in the classroom, they are learning, they are going through everything from a drill standpoint, but a lot of those guys just don't get a chance to show it to you in the training session because you only get one or two reps.
"All of [our] guys are getting a ton of reps and it pays off in the end, especially when you're trying to develop young players."
But this doesn't just serve the development of the players; it also helps Kelly and his assistants when it comes time to fill out the roster. The more work they see these guys put in, the more informed they'll be when it comes to deciding who starts and who sits, who stays and who goes.
"Then our decisions, in terms of our evaluations of them as players, have to be based on demonstrated evidence," the third-year coach said. "It can't just be, 'I think he's a good player. He's only been in there for a couple snaps, but I think he's going to be able to do it.’
"We are trying to put [the player] in as many situations as we can where [his talent] can reveal itself."
This may just be an "educational philosophy," but it isn't hard to see how it relates to a greater organizational philosophy, one that results in a player like DeSean Jackson, LeSean McCoy, Nick Foles, Evan Mathis, Jeremy Maclin, or Brandon Boykin no longer being in an Eagles uniform.
Kelly came from college; he's used to rosters turning over quickly. Only now, he has a lot more control over when -- and how -- that turnover happens. Still, in-season injuries are unpredictable and, in Kelly's mind, inevitable.
Better to be smart than sorry.
Here's more from Chip Kelly's session with the media on Thursday:
I think he's just getting back into the speed of things. The one thing he had not done -- he did a little seven on seven, but there's no pass rush in the offseason program.
So during OTAs and during mini camp he did a little bit seven on seven, but obviously you have time as a quarterback in seven-on to kind of set your feet and work yourself through progressions in terms of where you're going with the football. So it’s just good to see him back out in 11-on and a rush around him and having to adjust and move up in the pocket. He actually took off and ran two days ago in the Linc on the one where everybody was covered and he made a good decision there. It's just a process of him getting more familiar with the speed and tempo of things.
That was the first time we saw it [live].
He's a pretty athletic guy. I don't think people forget about that, in terms of Sam was very athletic coming out of college. He was a real good AAU basketball player coming out of Oklahoma. He actually played on the same team as [Los Angeles Clippers forward] Blake Griffin. He's a scratch golfer. He's a hell of an athlete. So, I don't think that's a question in terms of him from an athletic standpoint. It's just a matter of him just getting back up to speed and getting used to how we are doing everything.
I think he's really sharp with it. I think he feels confident, especially because of the work he put in over the last six weeks from when we broke on June 18 to now. He felt great in terms of what he did over the summer. We don't see him, when you're watching film or doing anything, that he's favoring that leg at all.
How comfortable he is in terms of what we're doing offensively and how he fits into it. I think each day, he's progressed and gotten better. So he's right on track for where we thought he would be after three days.
Same exact thing. I don't do anything differently. I didn't take over player personnel. The only difference is I have final say in terms of, 'Are we going to take you, John [Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia reporter John Gonzalez], or are we going to take Zach [Philadelphia Inquirer Eagles beat writer Zach Berman]?’ I make the final decision on that. But my day to day doesn't change. Ed [Eagles Vice President of Player Personnel Ed Marynowitz] runs the personnel department and he has done a fantastic job with that. But my day hasn’t changed, nor will it change.
He’s a tough, hard, physical runner. And that's what we really when we had it rolling at Oregon, we had guys like Jonathan Stewart, who is playing for Carolina and [Patriots RB] LeGarrette Blount. We are looking for downhill guys that can really penetrate a defense and Ryan fit that mold.
And the difference, I think, between Ryan and a lot of backs, and the reason he was a first-round draft pick, is that a lot of guys that are that size don't have that homerun speed. He ran a 4.37 at the Combine. You guys had a first opportunity, I think, to see him two days ago returning kickoffs. I think that's a big explosive body at 230 pounds that can run that fast.
It's kind of a unique combination to have. There are not that many guys that are that big and are that fast. When we had the opportunity to get him, he was always in our plan in free agency running back, he was one of the guys we had targeted very early.
I think he's getting better every day. I think he could catch the ball away from his body. It always seems like, even though he's six feet [tall], maybe six feet and half an inch, he plays bigger and taller and longer. He made a great catch on the sideline because he can extend. He can put his body in a lot of different situations.
He's got an extra gear that a lot of guys don't have. I think when he beats press coverage and takes off, you've got to make sure you understand how fast he is. I think sometimes we have underthrown him a couple times, just because we know how well he can accelerate. He does a great job of catching the ball and getting north and south and getting up the field. And he also has impressed us as a returner the first three days as a punt returner and a kick returner. We’ve been really pleased with him the last three days.
Same thing when we drafted him. A very, very athletic linebacker who has the potential to be a three-down linebacker in the [LBs] Mychal Kendricks and Kiko Alonso mold. He can cover; he's got a lot of skills from that standpoint. He's really stood out in the last couple of days on special teams. A real athletic, three down linebacker is what we've seen the last couple days.
I don't know. He was a guy we had targeted high. We didn't have a seventh-round pick – well, we did have a seventh-round pick, but we took a defensive lineman at that situation. But he was a guy we were very, very high on. Spent a lot of time with in the offseason.
That seems to happen every year. [Patriots CB] Malcolm Butler was a guy last year for the Patriots that no one drafted and ended up making the key play in the Super Bowl. It happens all the time. Why, I don't know, maybe he was at a little bit smaller school. He was a guy we were very excited about when we got the evaluation.
He just keeps showing up. You look at the play when Timmy [QB Tim Tebow] kept it and ran and has a big gainer of about 10 yards and then Denzel comes up, has a caused fumble, picked it up, scooped it up and had a fumble recovery at the same time. He seems to have a unique knack to always being around the ball.
No, and I think everybody's reaching with the whole parallels between guys. He's still a rookie and he's going to play inside, going to play outside and going to return kicks. We are just going to find where he fits best. But we didn't target Nelson when we drafted him to say, 'He's our replacement for Jeremy.’
I mean, we wanted to keep Jeremy, but we just got outbid from a pricing standpoint. We always wanted to keep Jeremy. That wasn't a plan of ours that we were just going to let Jeremy walk and we'll replace him with 'this.’
