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Jason Kelce: Eagles needed changes

The center says that missing the playoffs was a blessing in disguise.

(Yong Kim/Staff file photo)
(Yong Kim/Staff file photo)Read more

MISSING THE playoffs last year wasn't such a bad thing, Jason Kelce said.

Wait, what?

"This might [tick] off a few people, but when we started off 9-3 . . . [but] we got lucky quite a few times to win games that we probably shouldn't have been in," the Eagles veteran center said. "I think that ending the season the way we did - didn't make the playoffs - in hindsight is almost a good thing because it forced the coaches and the organization to reevaluate what we had. Guys all of the sudden that were on the bubble, [coaches now knew] that we need to make an upgrade there. We need to do this. We need to do that to improve the team as a whole."

Kelce did not get into specific players, but the roster turnover has been the biggest sports story in Philadelphia the last 6 months.

Notables gone: Nick Foles, LeSean McCoy, Jeremy Maclin, Trent Cole, Cary Williams, Bradley Fletcher, Nate Allen, Todd Herremans.

Notables here: Sam Bradford, DeMarco Murray, Kiko Alonso, Walter Thurmond, Byron Maxwell, Tim Tebow.

"I thought we had a great locker room last year, we had great leadership on both sides of the ball," Kelce continued. "In all honesty, we were lacking in talent at a couple positions and that's why you saw a lot of upgrades."

"Upgrades" is a little optimistic given that it's still May. But after 3 days of noncontact work, Kelce likes what he sees.

"On paper, individually, we are better than we were last year," he said. "Obviously, we have some new pieces and we're still getting the cohesion down. [But] I fully expect us to be better than last year once the season starts. But I do think with the acquisitions we've made, we've got some more talent out here."

Meat head

Cowboys running back Joseph Randle raised some eyebrows the other day by suggesting that ex-teammate DeMarco Murray's terrific 2014 season should have been even better.

"He had a good year last year, and I got to sit back and watch a lot," Randle told the Dallas Morning News, "and I felt like there was a lot of meat left on the bone."

Murray led the NFL, and set a Cowboys team record, with 1,845 yards. He signed with the Eagles in March.

"Hopefully, he can taste some of that meat this year," said Murray, whose first game against the Cowboys is in Week 2 (Sept. 20) at Lincoln Financial Field. "It's not a big deal, I'm not worried about it."

Chip Kelly, also not rankled by Randle's comments, had another interpretation.

"Maybe that means [Murray's] not a big eater," the coach joked.

Going for two

Kelly was disappointed that the NFL competition committee did not adopt the Eagles' recommendation of spotting the ball on the 1-yard line for two-point conversion plays following touchdowns. The league instead is keeping the ball at the 2-yard line for teams that opt to go for two and moving it to the 15-yard line for a traditional one-point kick.

"If they want you to go for two more often," they should have made a change, Kelly said. "The ball has always been on the 2-yard line."

The extra point is now a 32- or 33-yard kick, as opposed to a 19- or 20-yarder. Kelly said his kickers have hit 96 percent of their field goals from 32 and 33 yards out in his two seasons as Eagles coach.

"I don't know what changes, to be honest with you," he said.

Kelly earned the nickname "Big Balls Chip" while at Oregon for consistently rolling the dice on all sorts of plays. Frequently, he'd go for two in the first quarter after the high-flying Ducks scored their first touchdown. He has been understandably much more conservative with conversions in the NFL.

"The numbers will dictate when you go for two," he said, "but they didn't entice you to go for two more . . . at least in my opinion."