Just like his Oregon team, Kelly's Eagles will focus on run

Before the first and only time he coached against a Chip Kelly offense, Jeff Casteel spent a desert summer morning in the cool comfort of his new office at the University of Arizona, watching film of the 2012 Rose Bowl.

Arizona had hired Casteel to be its defensive coordinator on Jan. 14, just 12 days after Kelly's Oregon Ducks had run over Wisconsin, 45-38, in Pasadena, racking up 345 rushing yards, conjuring big plays out of what's supposed to be football's most conservative play call: a handoff. Tailback De'Anthony Thomas had carried just twice: a 91-yard touchdown in the first quarter and a 64-yard touchdown in the third. LaMichael James had 159 yards and a touchdown on 25 attempts. Wisconsin didn't seem to know what was coming, and when it hosted Oregon on Sept. 22, 2012, Arizona didn't fare much better. The Wildcats allowed another 228 rushing yards to the Ducks and lost, 49-0, and Casteel can see the connection between what Kelly did then and what he might want to do with the Eagles now.

"They're so varied in what they do, and they're making you defend the entire field from sideline to sideline, from the line of scrimmage to the end zone," Casteel said Wednesday in a telephone interview. "He has multiple ways to attack you, and you have to play with discipline and eye control because he's reading people all over the field.

"I thought that we played pretty well defensively, and at the end of the game it's still 49-0. Really a pain. I'm glad he's in the NFL."

Everyone's wondering what the Eagles offense will look like next season, presuming Sam Bradford's tricky knee lets him become the starter at quarterback, presuming the team's wide-receiving group remains as modest as it is at the moment. Those wouldn't seem to be favorable conditions for trading away LeSean McCoy, but Kelly did it anyway, freeing himself to sign DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews and create a model closer to the offense he had at Oregon.

When McCoy told The Inquirer on Monday that Kelly's disdained "stars," he was closer to the truth than his sour-grapes tone suggested. If Kelly wants to divvy up carries among a few running backs, he won't care to listen to one of them complain about not getting the ball often enough - and Lord knows, McCoy let it be known he wanted the ball.

Now, though, Kelly has Murray (who is coming off one of the most demanding seasons any NFL running back has ever had), Mathews (who has played a full 16-game season once in five years), and Darren Sproles (who has never carried the ball more than 93 times in any of his nine seasons). A smart coach wouldn't necessarily want to lean on any of those backs, and by having the three of them share the burden, Kelly not only increases the likelihood that they'll remain fresh and injury-free, he lessens the risk for Bradford, too. It's easier to keep a quarterback out of harm's way when he's throwing 25 passes a game than it is when he's throwing 40.

"Chip wants to be able to establish the run and be able to put people in conflict off of the run game," Casteel said. "A lot of their throwing game is the play-action stuff, at least it was at Oregon. Quarterback-wise, at that level those guys are paid a lot of money, and you have to protect those guys."

Still, protecting Bradford would be just a by-product of an offense that, in Kelly's ideal vision, would be an innovative approach at football's highest level.

The conventional wisdom in the NFL these days is that a team has to throw the ball to pile up points. (This was a particularly well-worn talking point for Marty Mornhinweg during his tenure as the Eagles' offensive coordinator.) Teams that have relied primarily on their running game to win (the Seattle Seahawks in recent years, the New York Jets in 2009 and 2010) have also needed elite defenses to counteract their relative lack of offensive explosiveness.

But there has been ample evidence already over Kelly's first two seasons here that, with a healthy and vibrant offensive line and without a franchise quarterback, his running system can be the more dynamic aspect of the Eagles offense: Opening night 2013 against the Redskins, the "Snow Bowl" against the Lions, the two victories over the Giants last season.

"First and foremost always," Casteel said, "is the running game."

It was true of Chip Kelly in 2012, and he's taken steps to make it true again in 2015. He just had to get rid of the league's best running back to do it.