October 19, 2015
When asked what grade he would give himself after the 2013 season, Chip Kelly had an answer ready to go. "I give myself a 58.8 percent," he said. When asked why, Kelly explained that the Eagles won 10 out of 17 games, or 58.8 percent.
By that measure, through five games this season, Kelly would give himself a 40 percent, which actually seems about right. Grading coaches is a fairly arbitrary exercise, but we'll give it a shot. If you read my columns, you know that I think that "per game" stats are a useless measure of the Eagles' efficiency, both on offense and defense. Instead, because the Eagles' fast-paced offense produces far more drives per game than a typical NFL team, a better measure of the Eagles' efficiency when comparing them with other teams around the league is "points per drive." We covered this at length a few weeks ago.
As we've all seen so far this season, the offense looks nothing like the highly efficient 2013 offense, or the still-productive 2014 version. It has fallen off drastically. In fact, Kelly's offense has declined in "per drive" stats since his offense exploded his first year in the NFL:
| Year | Yards per drive (rank) | Points per drive (rank) |
| 2013 | 6 | 8 |
| 2014 | 14 | 13 |
| 2015 | 30 | 19 |
That is an indication that teams around the league have caught up to Kelly's offense. We'll see going forward how well Kelly can adjust. Speaking of adjustments, the Eagles have a -16 point differential in the first halves of games this season, while they are +30 in the second half. If you're an optimist, you'll say that Kelly has done a good job making adjustments at halftime. If you're a pessimist, you'll say that Kelly isn't going into games with a strong plan.
To be fair, while the offense has sputtered, I think it has had to do more with... dare I say it... execution... than it has scheme. The Eagles have not thrown the ball, caught the ball, or blocked well in most of their games. That is indeed a matter of execution.
Still, there is room for Kelly to shoulder some of that blame.
Chip grade: C
While the Eagles' offense has sputtered, the defense has been a legitimate "Top 10" kind of unit this season. In the same way the offense has regressed from 2013, the defense has improved.
| Year | Yards per drive (rank) | Points per drive (rank) |
| 2013 | 25 | 14 |
| 2014 | 7 | 15 |
| 2015 | 9 | 7 |
Defensive coordinator Bill Davis gets a lot of criticism for reasons I don't understand. In addition to the being ranked 9th in yards per drive allowed and 7th in points per drive allowed, the Eagles have forced more turnovers per game (2.6 of them!) than any other team in the NFL other than the Broncos. It has by far and away outperformed the Eagles' offense.
Bill Davis grade: A-
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