February 23, 2016
Evan Mathis is now a Super Bowl champion after Chip Kelly released him back in June. The Denver Broncos guard and former Eagle recently emailed with 9News’ Mike Kils, and as it turns out, he had the same criticisms of Kelly that everyone in Philadelphia had by the end of the 2015 season:
“There were many things that Chip had done that showed me he wasn’t building a championship team. Two of the main issues that concerned me were: 1. A never-evolving, vanilla offense that forced our own defense to play higher than normal play counts. 2. His impatience with certain personality types even when they were blue-chip talents. The Broncos team I was on would have eaten Chip alive. I don’t think he could have handled the plethora of large personalities.”
Ouch. The best detail of Kils’ story is dates back to last March. Once a report came out that said the Eagles would release Mathis if they couldn’t trade him, Mathis simply texted Kelly with a link to an old Engelbert Humperdinck song called “Release Me”:
Mathis, a free agent after playing for Denver on a one-year contract, is still debating whether or not to retire. At the end of the story, Mathis says that he “hopes Chip learns from his experiences in Philadelphia and grows as a coach.”
It will be fascinating to see if Kelly can do just that.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
