October 06, 2015
The warning shots were fired at least a week ago, but Eagles coach Chip Kelly had better get ready to shout “incoming” if the team gets off to another slow start this Sunday at home against the New Orleans Saints.
The Eagles have stumbled out of the blocks at 1-3, and a savvy local fan base won’t be patient if the team looks like it is headed toward a fourth loss and a disastrous season. In simple terms, there will be hell to pay if things don’t start well on Sunday afternoon.
And hell in Philadelphia is a whole lot hotter than the same spot in most other cities. It is an especially nasty spot to be when your name is Chip Kelly, and you will have to take the abuse in the form of two people – Chip Kelly the general manager and Chip Kelly the coach.
Well, actually Kelly will have to face that heat in the form of three people: the general manager, the coach and the genius. Whether that term was self-applied or not, Kelly is perceived as the college genius who arrived in the NFL as a game changer from Oregon.
Many of Kelly’s moves have a distinct I-know-better-than-you feel to them, and that is fine as long as you can prove that you know better than most. The problem, as we sit here in October, is that it is starting to appear that Kelly doesn’t know better than most, and if that’s the case the Eagles are in a whole lot of trouble.
It was Kelly who fitted a turbo on the already powerful turbine of an offense at Oregon. It was Kelly who turned late Saturday nights into must-watch TV all fall as his system consistently churned up points and the Ducks were always near the top of the college rankings.
Now, he might be nothing more than a sitting Duck.
Given the performance of the Eagles over the first month of the season, he certainly is an easy target for both fans and critics. All of the seasoned NFL analysts who doubted that Kelly’s style of play could translate into the NFL are lining up with criticism.
It is a ready-made case of I-told-you-so and making it even more delectable is Kelly’s arrogant nature. The irony here is that arrogance is a necessary ingredient for any successful NFL coach, or for that matter the coach of any professional team, but in Kelly’s case there is a perception that it is not earned.
Thus, the Philadelphia Eagles are barely midway through the month of October and they are being viewed as case study in the balance of power within an organization, and the feasibility of playing the role of both coach and general manager.
This is just too delicious a crossroads to take your eyes off – especially if you are rooting for the crash. And it is especially enticing if you were one of the many who doubted the whole plan to bring in a college coach to run and NFL team.
Many of the critics got nervous when Kelly went 10-6 in his first season and earned a spot in the playoffs. This was just one year after the Eagles won only four games, and all of those who doubted it was possible to jump from college to the NFL looked silly.
Since then, Kelly has tinkered and tampered with the roster, getting just about everything he asked for – most importantly the added job as the club’s general manager and since then he has not looked like much of a genius.
In his short tenure, Kelly has gone through quarterbacks at a rapid pace and he is fully responsible for Sam Bradford as his latest decision. Bradford was a huge risk, especially when you take Nick Foles' previous success into account. Then again, what has NOT been a risk?
Certainly, not the exits of DeSean Jackson, LeSean McCoy and, most recently, Evan Mathis.
Many of Kelly’s moves have a distinct I-know-better-than-you feel to them, and that is fine as long as you can prove that you know better than most. The problem, as we sit here in October, is that it is starting to appear that Kelly doesn’t know better than most, and if that’s the case the Eagles are in a whole lot of trouble.
The guess here is that Kelly is a very capable football coach, and a coach who could very well wake the NFL up to a quicker way to run an offense. However, even the brightest coaches need a checks-and-balance system in place to get the most out of an organization.
Kelly will find there is little patience left within the Eagles fan base and he should have no problem with that since he has shown little patience in getting what he wants.
