Philadelphia Eagles introduce Chip Kelly as new head coach
The Eagles officially introduced Chip Kelly as their new head coach on Thursday. Here are some highlights from the news conference.
Philadelphia Eagles introduce Chip Kelly as new head coach
Philly.com Sports
The Eagles officially introduced Chip Kelly as their new head coach on Thursday. Here are some highlights from the news conference.
Jeffrey Lurie: This is a very, very exciting day for the Philadelphia Eagles. Exciting day for our city, and an exciting day for Eagles fans across the country… It’s been an excellent process … a carefully, targeted process… As I said early on, the whole key was to try to find the right leader, not make the fastest decision. We studied Chip [Kelly] for a long, long time. Everything we’d ever heard was so true…
Chip Kelly: It’s a real exciting time for me. The passion of this franchise was very, very evident. It was a difficult decision for me but this is a special situation … I knew this was the place for me, just needed to find a way to do it the right way… I’m excited. I know about the fan base in Philadelphia, and that excites me. Andy [Reid] told me what this organization is all about. There’s not a classier guy [than Reid]. I want to publically thank Andy.
The following quotes are all from Chip Kelly:
On transition to NFL: Football is football, and this is football at its highest level… It’s about putting together a great coaching staff and having great players… It’s still the game of football. It’s still X’s and O’s.
On putting together a staff: I’m right in the middle of [making a staff]. That’s been my first order of business since I arrived here.
On coaching the Eagles: I don’t think anyone envisioned this but I’m excited about the opportunity.
On continuing the tradition of the Eagles: That’s extremely important to me… Every day you come to work there’s a standard of excellence that needs to be lived up to… I don’t know what the future holds but I know that this organization is one of the top organizations in all of sports. I don’t take that lightly.
On his offense and the quarterback: There’s perception and reality. The perception is we run our quarterback all of the time. Reality is that’s not the case... I’m a huge fan of [Nick Foles]. He’s tough… He’s a competitor. He’s accurate and I’m excited about that… I don’t have any preconceived notions. I’m looking at film and looking at what direction we’re going to head here.
On Michael Vick: I’m going to look at everybody. We’re going to look at everything we can do to put the best product out on the field. There’s nothing that’s on the board right now. There’s nothing that’s off the board right now. We’re going to put an offense on the field that’s going to score points.
On his message to players: I can’t speak to anything that went on before here because I wasn’t here… We have one goal and that’s to get to the Super Bowl… The game of football is played by everybody. It’s a team deal. The best team wins.
On his decision to come to the Eagles: The people in the organization. The hardest thing for me leaving Oregon was the people. For me to leave, there had to be people here. The time I met with Howie [Roseman], Jeffrey [Lurie] and Don [Smolenski], it was evident to me of their passion and commitment. I knew it was a great fit… I’m an NFL coach and this is where I want to be. I made the jump and I’m here, and I’m excited to be here.
My goal right now is clearly defining what we want. What is a quarterback? What do we want here? … I’ve heard questions about “I want control over this. I want control over that.” I want to coach football. It’s a collaboration. We all want to be on the same page. I'm a football coach. I'm not a GM. I'm not a salary-cap guy. I just want to coach football. I have no delusions of “I want all of these titles.” I just want to coach football.
What he likes about the Eagles: The one thing that attracts me about the roster is the youth… Youth and speed are two things you can’t coach. I think we can win, but I’m not a guy who makes predictions. I’m not giving you a number [on the amount of wins the Eagles will get].
On defense: In terms of what do we want to be, we’re going to be an attacking-style defense… I can’t tell you we’ll be doing this or that.
On his coaching style: I never wanted to get pigeonholed as “this” ... I feel like I’ve got a pretty well rounded background in offense, defense and special teams.
On his timetable to make a decision: It was more my timetable than anyone else’s… I’m not stringing anybody along… I wanted to do it the right way. For me it was “how do I handle this to people at the University of Oregon.” I wanted them to find out from me… It told me a lot about [the Eagles] organization is that [they gave me time to think about the decision].
On impending NCAA sanctions at Oregon: We fully cooperated with [the NCAA]. It didn’t factor into my decision [to leave].
On the Eagles' offense: We’ll score anyway we can. I’m not married to taking a quarterback who can’t run and making him run or taking a quarterback who can’t throw and making him throw… It’s not about style. It’s about substance.
On succeeding in the NFL: No one has higher expectations for me than me. But I don’t like using I’s and me’s. Football is about we’s. It’s a we deal and about us getting our minds focused in the right direction.
On what kind of team the Eagles will be: People want to paint a brush and label an offense with one word. For us, it's about what tools do we have in our toolbox and what tools can we use based on the players we have... We’re going to put our players in the best positions to score points.
On his coaching staff: We're going to put the best staff possible that has the same vision as me.
I like him. Otherwise he's an unknown. We can hope for the best. I kind of thought he was known for his offense. Hopefully he'll bring a real offense to the team that doesn't center around the 6 foot QB running around and getting crushed by 250 pound defensemen. I also hope he gets that the NFC East is won usually with good defense. He can't forget about that.— Phillies2008WSChamps- Actually, most of them were told so many times by their parents that they were indeed failures that it is all they know. Blame the parents in this case for their negativity.— kjuggs77
- Somebody please tell Mike Missanelli and Jeff Lurie it's not pronounced "Ora-GONE." They sound clueless.— kjuggs77
- That was funny. Even after Kelly pronounced it correctly (Ory GUN) the dufus Lurie kept saying "Ora GONE". I cringed every time I heard it. It makes Lurie sound ignorant. Kind of like calling an Italian an EYE-talian.
- Oh no BP2, we hoped bedpan was lost in the netherworlds of the youtube comment sections where he belongs. Childish rants and I told you sos. Bunch of people love to hear themselves predict failure for the dream of saying they were right one day. Pathetic, and of course there are some of the same generalizations as Reid, you hear that in every type of interview because you get the same questions in different forms over and over and some questions just dont have direct answers that will please anyone.— peteike
- I hope this guy's tough and cleans house like Jimmy Johnson did when he came out of College with no pro experience to whip the Cowboys into winners.— oldfriar
- I have a good feeling that he WILL clean house and, if I'm Vick, I would be calling moving companies for estimates.
- I enjoyed the press conference, but did anyone else cringe when he said "it's about putting the players in the right position to be succesful"?— gjgreen3
- "I'm a football coach. I'm not a GM." as opposed to this quote from Rich Kotite who said " I'm a coach, your not a coach" in response to questions from a media person years ago here in Philly.— watsonmr
- Funny all of Chips answers were the same one's Andy Reid gave us over the years. Generic unspecific answers. It was just like and Andy Reid press conference. Expect more of the same.— Grapost
- Wow. I am almost impressed at the ability of some people to be reactionary and knee-jerk-negative over EVERYTHING. Chip Kelly may not work out, but there hasn't been a college coach in recent memory with this guy's reputation (No, the "'Ole Ball Coach" down in D.C. wasn't CLOSE to this guys rep in term of football IQ, innovation and work ethic). Any chance we can give him half a season before we predict utter disaster for the next decade? Also, seems like a lot of people are resentful just because he said good things about Howie and Jeff. What do you expect? Don't worry, Howie will defer to this guy when he has to. Gauranteed.— Zee77
- I like Kelly, but did anybody else count how many times he said "we've got to put the players in the best position to succeed"? It's almost as if Andy told him "just tell them you've got to put the players in the best position to succeed -- THAT'LL p*ss them off."— ghost of callison
- I'm hoping for the best for Kelly and the Eagles. Successful or not it is so refreshing to hear the Eagles coach not say, "I need to do a better job", "Times yours". Looks like Chip will be a lot more personable with the fans and the media. If he finds good assistant coaches we will be fine.— fanup
- For those complaining: at least most people know the name Chip Kelly. Not too many "fans" knew about the chubby quarterbacks coach from Green Bay.
Give the guy a shot.— kidretdes - I mean the guy said he is not going to run the same offense as Oregon. He did say he will evaluate his players and then design an offense based on that. One of the things that drove people crazy was Reid's inability to adapt. This guys says the exact opposite and he still gets ripped.— rationalphillyfan
- Boy, the nattering nabobs of negativism are out today! Kelly was not my first choice, but now he's our man. I'm behind him 100%. Let's see what he can do.— dlscholt
- Negativity has become a form of art in Philadelphia. What hapless lives these people must lead...— Russ
- Peace frog, do you have any reasons for your prediction? Or are you just being negative for the sake of being negative. There are so many people ripping this guy for no reason. How about giving him a shot.— rationalphillyfan
- Nah, you got all the football geniuses here who think they invented the game, like Reid did. Wonder how many of them even made the peewee team. Suited up once for the freshman team and they think they're Vince Lombardi. — mike l
lurie acts if pencilneck howie's the second coming of ron wolf or bill polian, even though he gave rave reviews to danny watkins and jaicqwan jarrett, signed demtress bell and let winston justice walk, keeping the eagles 20mm under the cap. ugh— hannibal barca- We can only hope that now that Reid is 3,000 miles away, that perhaps we can finally see a good draft pick in April. — BP2
- Hey, when the chips are down, everyone has to chip in, in order to stay chipper and let the chips fall where they may.— Squizzy Magee
- I just want to say kudos to Howie and Jeffrey for landing their man, and not giving up in the face of uncertainty. I also want to welcome Mr. Kelly to Philadelphia with open arms. I'm excited to see what you can do with our beloved team. PLEASE start with a good, thorough house cleaning. And if you're not sure where to start, check out the poll on this web site about which players and coaches should staty or go.— Squizzy Magee
- Can't wait until Chipster says, "I've got to do better with that." What a freakin' joke this is! Is Lurie looking to sell this team?
Eagles will win eight games over the next two seasons and Kelly will not be saying, "I knew this was the place for me."— peacefrog33756 - " I'm not a GM," said Kelly.
give it a try, Howie, I bet it rolls right off the tongue.
"On continuing the tradition of the Eagles:"
exactly WHAT "tradition" would that be?
most things this organization is "traditionally" know for should not be continued.
how about starting a new "tradition" and win a title ?
— ekw555 - Could be worse. Reid could still be here.— BP2
- Kelly; I'm a football coach. I'm not a GM"! Roseman; I'm an Accountant GM. I'm not a Football guy!— cooperhawk
- The Eagles are an iconic organization? Laughable. They are the embodiment of futility and Jeffy and Howie aren't about to change that.— Scope33
- the packers are an iconic franchise. the steelers are an iconic franchise. the eagles are a joke, with an all-time winning percentage of .484 (21st in the NFL) — hannibal barca
- hannibal, Great point as usual. Now that bedpan is blocked It is up to you, Charlie, nugget etc. to put the facts out there. — BP2
- thx bro. i was wondering what happened to bedpan — hannibal barca
- Because he outed all of the fraud Reid lovers that predicted a super bowl run for the Eagles this year, he was blocked. — BP2
- Impressed by Chip Kelly, not so much with Jeffrey Lurie after he gushed over the football saavy of Roseman and Smolenski. Football saavy? Come on, Jeff, nice try.— misterhman
