Chip Kelly: 'Put some Galoshes on and go play'

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- There's a steady rain in New England, but the Eagles and Patriots are practicing outside. Practice was moved up to avoid thunder and lightning, and the coaches have taken a business-as-usual approach to the joint practice.

"Put some Galoshes on and go play," Kelly said.

The format remains the same, barring lightning: one-on-one, special teams work, seven-on-seven, group work, and situational work.

"Try to do the same thing," Kelly said. "Depends how wet it is. We can make adjustments to what's going on."

**Kelly does not yet have a formal plan for how much playing time each group will get in Friday's preseason game. He said it depends on what happens during the next two days of practice.

**Kelly mentioned how he used to come to Patriots' training camp practices when he coached at New Hampshire. That's when Kelly first met Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

"I used to come down and visit practice," Kelly said. "He was very gracious. He's always been really gracious to the local college coaches. They were always open for us to come and watch and visit."

**Kelly was not surprised the Eagles defense looked better than it did against the Patriots one year ago. He said that's the natural progression of the team.

"You hoped you grew over the course of the year," Kelly said. "I think we were 10 days into camp. So to expect us to perform yesterday like we did a year ago, we would be way behind the eight ball."

**The players down on the depth chart do not get as much work in these practices. Kelly said the trade-off is going against better competition. He said they cannot practice for four hours, so that's the reality of how these practices will go. And he was not particularly sympathetic to the plight of the third-team and fourth-team players.

"As we say, don't count your reps, make your reps count," Kelly said. "You better take advantage of them. Your answer can't be, I'm not playing well because I didn't get enough reps. If you only get three reps, make those the best reps you can."

**LeSean McCoy might want gain 2,000 rushing yards this season, but Kelly did not weigh in on whether that's a reasonable goal.

"I don't care," Kelly said. "I really don't care, and he knows that, and I've told him that. All we care is, are we winning football games? We've never been driven by individual statistics. He understands that. But if you ask, would you rather win a football game and run for 50 yards...or run for 200 yards and lose a football game, he'd tell you he'd rather rush for 50 and win."

**Kelly thinks there's a benefit in Nick Foles watching Tom Brady during these practices. He noted there are parts of Brady's game that the cameras cannot pick up, and that's what Foles can observe in person. Foles said on Tuesday that he's studying Brady.

"You're watching a first-ballot Hall of Famer, one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game," Kelly said. "When you get a chance to watch someone who is as good as they are at their craft, you can learn a lot of different things. That's the unique thing when you get to participate in situations like this is, when you're not in, what are you doing? Nick's a student of the game. For him to get a chance to what Tom up close, how he interacts, what he does, pre-snap, what he's doing post-snap."

zberman@phillynews.com

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