Murphy: In Chip Kelly, did Eagles QBs have a friend or foe?

As you've read once or twice in this space since the end of last season, the Eagles are a difficult team to project this season, particularly on offense. Chip Kelly's system was so unlike anything else in the NFL, it is virtually impossible to say for sure how some of these players will look in a more conventional system. This pertains mostly to two positions: receiver and quarterback.

There's a tendency toward revisionism after a changing of the guard, and to listen to many in this city talk, the Eagles were a putrid offensive football team during the Kelly reign. No doubt, Kelly came nothing close to the revolution that many expected when he jumped to the league from the college ranks, but they were nothing close to putrid. Putrid offensive football teams do not win seven games.

What they were, according to the numbers, was middle of the pack. During Kelly's tenure, they averaged 31.8 yards per drive, 12th in NFL. They scored on 36 percent of those drives, which ranked 15th. They scored a touchdown  on 23 percent, which ranked ninth (And they averaged 2 minutes, 5 seconds of possession per drive, which, of course, ranked last.)

Again, the Eagles were not a bad offensive football team by any measure. What they were was a mediocre offensive football team that was not good enough to score more points than their awful defense allowed. And they did so while playing  a style that did that defense no favors.

Yet the question remains: As mediocre as that offense was, did it really underperform its personnel? Is there any chance it overperformed that personnel?

It's an interesting question to consider with regard to the passing game, because the Eagles have pretty much the same situation under center as they've had since Donovan McNabb left town: a whole lot of uncertainty. A lot of teams with that kind of situation at quarterback will, indeed, become putrid offensive football teams. The Eagles have thus far avoided that fate.

In Kelly's three years at the helm, Eagles quarterbacks completed 62.7 percent of their passes, which ranked 15th in the NFL. Chiefs quarterbacks completed 63.7 percent, which ranked 11th. For what it's worth — and for an example of why completion percentage doesn't tell us much about a quarterback's effectiveness — the Packers and Patriots ranked 12th and 13th at 63.3 and 60 percent.

Yet the Eagles also averaged 6.7 net yards per pass attempt, which ranked seventh, behind only Denver (with Peyton Manning), Pittsburgh (Ben Roethlisberger), New Orleans (Drew Brees), San Diego (Phillip Rivers), Seattle (Russell Wilson), and Cincinnati (Andy Dalton). It ranked just ahead of Green Bay, Dallas, Atlanta, and New England.

That's kind of an interesting list to consider. The Eagles are clearly the outlier, as they are the only team listed that did not have a consistent, bona-fide starting quarterback under center. While Sam Bradford was not great last year, he played well enough to make the Eagles think he was worth retaining for at least another season. That's more than the Rams thought of him. Question is, how much did Kelly's system have to do with the solid stat line he produced?

The answer should play a large role in determining the fate of the Eagles' season.