Davis: Chip does more for players than anybody

Eagles defensive coordinator Bill Davis was asked Monday about how Chip Kelly relates to players, in the wake of allegations that Kelly is too much of a control freak or even has trouble relating to black players. Davis said the criticisms make little sense to him.

Eagles running back Kenjon Barner, who played for Kelly at Oregon, had a similar take. Barner is one of eight former Ducks on the current Eagles roster, three of whom are African-American.

"He's outstanding," Davis said as the Eagles took the field for the second day of training camp. "He has got one of the most open-door policies of guys I've been around ... It's really being portrayed outside different than it is inside, because it really is an easy-to-be-around (atmosphere.).

So, why have former assistant coach Tra Thomas, running back LeSean McCoy, and corner Brandon Boykin expressed qualms over how Kelly relates to African-American players?

"I can't comment on what other guys think. I can only go off my experience and my relationship with Chip, Chip is not a racist. (He's) far from a racist,' Barner said. "Chip has been there for me in many ways other than football."

"I can't answer for any of those guys, of what they're thinking," Davis said. "I can just answer from my view, of being in 10 different organizations, with all kinds of different head coaches, schemes, systems, and I'm telling you, from the bottom line, this is a very good place. The players, we do more for players than (anyplace) I've ever been around. We do more for their conditioning, their body, their health, their mental health, their growth in all parts of being a man and a player, than anywhere I've been around. You can just ask the players about how much -- we spend time on them, their mindsets, on their moods, on how their bodies are feeling, the hydration, all of it. I think its a couple isolated guys, and they have to answer their own questions about that."

Barner said: "Chip is the same guy I met back in 2008 when I first got to Oregon. No different. Carries himself the same way. Acts the same way. Talks the same way. Treats guys the same way."

Is that last part maybe a factor here -- does Kelly treat 30 year-olds as one would treat a 19-year-old? Are you allowed to have a personality?

"We have more leeway" than the Ducks had, Barner said. "He treats us like men. He's not on you -- if you miss a class, you don't have to go see him, you're not getting phone calls, stuff like that."

Barner, 25, acknowleged he has been surprised by the things that have been said.

"I don't see it," he said. "My perception of him isn't that and would never be that."

Of the people who have criticized Kelly either for a perceived problem with race or just for being too controlling, only former corner Cary Williams came to the Eagles after Kelly was hired, and Williams' two-year run began right after Kelly arrived, when former general manager Howie Roseman had control of personnel. The players and coaches Kelly has brought in seem to be pretty enthusiastic about him and his methods.