Eagles place a bet on the future, hire Chip Kelly
Eagles hire Chip Kelly
Eagles place a bet on the future, hire Chip Kelly
Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
Up off of the floor, then. A splash of cold water on the face and away we go. Chip Kelly is the new coach of the Eagles. The Gus Bus has left town, replaced by what Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie believes will be the laser-quick offense of the future.
You know it took a big bag of money to pry Kelly away from the clutches of the University of Phil Knight. So this is where the Eagles-are-cheap narrative goes to die an overdue, deserved death.
You know, too, that the Eagles are not settling here, and that they did not bungle their search, and that pretty much everything said and written in the last week about this process has been conversation in search of reality. Well, this is the reality: the guy they wanted all along -- or at least one of the guys, along with Penn State coach Bill O’Brien -- is now theirs.
People who loved the idea of Seattle defensive coordinator Gus Bradley -- mostly because they heard him say “bleep” and yell at his player on a YouTube video -- could very well hate this. People who carry a fondness for old-style NFL football -- who wanted to rekindle something they last felt when Buddy Ryan coached this team -- and who disliked the way Andy Reid spent 14 years trying to outsmart people on offense, could also be in for a disappointment. Because the only certainty here is that Kelly plans to innovate on offense, and then innovate some more.
But in a league where you need to score 30 points even to think about winning most playoff games, and where the Patriots’ fastbreak offensive attack has helped to make them the even-money favorite to win the Super Bowl, the Eagles have grabbed as their coach the most prominent practitioner of hurry-up football in the nation (and the guy who schooled both O’Brien and Pats coach Bill Belichick on the concept).
We do not yet know the details about what happened. We do not know why Kelly walked away from the Eagles after a long interview right after Oregon played in the Fiesta Bowl, or why he has had this change of heart, or how much the Eagles intend to pay him for the privilege.
What does this mean for Nick Foles, the immobile kid quarterback who seems miscast if Kelly wants to play read-option football to go along with the hurry-up? Don’t know. What does it mean for Michael Vick, the expensive, aging quarterback on the roster who moves better than Foles but not as well as he used to move? Don’t know.
There are a million unanswered questions here. The answers will come when they come. Critics will see risk -- in the offense, and how it might translate to the NFL, and in the fact that Kelly has never worked in the league. It is fair to wonder. But to deny the potential upside is to ignore the trends that have been so evident in this NFL playoff season.
There are no certainties here, except one: that a franchise that had grown stale has just placed an enormous bet on the future.
- Nice to hear from a Duck Fan. My guess is most of the morons who post on here never even saw Oregon play, save maybe a BCS game. We fans have no clue what Chip has planned for this team. Give the guy a chance, maybe he builds a great innovative team.
— gyndavid - Thats wonderful in the NCAA's, but hes not going to get 4000 yards rushing in the NFL lol...its pathetc. The low football IQ of both the fans and the owner I am convinced are the reason this team has not wn anything in 52 years. Supporting a moron coach and owner,and now another failed strategy coming in. Chip Kelly made it to ONE championship game and LOST BY 3 POINTS, to a team that POUNDED THE BALL ALMOST 50 TIMES WHILE HE THREW THE BALL MORE THEN THEM. Again, this season, chance for a title game if he wins the toughst game against stanford, and shocker, he LOSES AGAIN...by 3 POIINTS..to a team that RAN THE BALL OVER 40 TIMES. So another offense first team with a gimmicky system that loses to the best defenses by 3 points, WOW I HAVENT SEEN THAT FOR THE LAST DECADE AND A HALF ALMOST. GENIUS GENIUS GENIUS GENIUS GENIUS
Everyone needs to chill out. Reid went 66-61-1 over the last 8 seasons and was lucky they didn't finish 5-11 or 4-12 in 2011. This is a team in need of a change and don't be surprised if Kelly pulls a power move and Roseman is out of Philly soon. I am sure that Lurie made a ton of concessions to get his new boy to the east coast.— Bill R4- Who knows. We shall see. Lurie's got a big set to go back and get this guy when other more established candidates would be a safer pick. Give him credit. But who knows how this will end up...— iskabobpatel
- Watch Kelly hire Romeo Crennel as his defensive coordinator. Crennel was DC for New England, is experienced, and knows the .— misterhman
- Apparently Chipper wants to bring in d-coordinator Grantham from Univ of Georgia. Saban and Grantham each use the same maxim when explaining their vision of football: “Big people beat up little people.” Imagine an Eagle coaching staff that wants a big physical defense.
And then it comes out that Chipper thinks that Foles was an awesone college qb who played out of this world against his Oregon team.
Vick gone, Foles at the helm all season and a big physical 3-4 defense has turned me from a Kelly detractor to a Kelly fan.— uts - Maybe I'm slow but wouldn't the title of this article "Eagles place a bet on the future, hire Chip Kelly" apply to any coach they hired? I'm just sayin.— massey1231
- I love how people bash this guy before he even gets to Philly. You want the ground and pound Buddy ball? Then go buy a Delorean and invent a time machine you morons. Todays NFL is about speed and creating mismatches. Did you even watch any playoff games? All high scoring because thats what the league wants. Then why not go get the best offensive mind in college football? Its a high risk high reward move and it took balls to do it. Do you want John Gruden or Brian Billick because they have a ring? One ran a team into the ground (Gruden) by making poor draft picks over and over again and along the way bringing in terrible qbs. Or Billick who yeah won a super bowl but the Ravens did it in spite of him. Do you remember the Ravens went something like 22 quarters without an offensive td. Yeah I want him lol. Not saying Kelly will be the next Belichick but Im a gambling man and I applaud the move. If you're a good, smart coach you'll succeed anywhere. Give the guy a chance. And by the way Oregon ran the ball about 55-60% of the time.— HateAndy
- I will say it again: Kelly is an innovator on BOTH sides of the ball. He drills stamina as well as discipline into players. They hit and run. We are gonna love the ride.— jjthree
- As Philly fans cheer for a few months cause they have a new coach...New York fans with Four Super Bowl Championships...keeps on laughing!!!!— MRD
- If he wins, the fans will call him "Poker Chip Kelly," because he's money. If he loses, the fans will call him "Cow Chip Kelly" for obvious reasons.— rhawnhurster
- Here come the halfwits. FIrst you wanted AR fired. Now you complain about the new coach. Injuries happen CG25...If Reggie White would have injured a knee he wouldn't have been the best of all time. You can't predict who will or won't get injured, or whether Foles will play or be traded or who the QB would be. I'll wait to see how the birds do before I jump on the Hate bandwagon...and for the people who call the Eagles Cheap...hmmm, their signing over the last ten years rank with anyones. Stop complaining and go home and figure out how to cut the deficit. Maybe you are better than that than you are at football. Go Eagles.— ceocreates
- well, the might as well draft johnny football right now...— esesjay
- lol, actually in some cases, you CAN. Statistically scramling QB's get hurt more often then pocket passers and thier peak effectivness is usually limited to just a few short years before they lose thier mobility. Whereas a pocket passer can maintain thier peak for many years. Also scramling QB's do not win superbowls and you can FACTUALLY look at guys who scramble too much and see that it has NEVER resulted in a superbowl. Its like people are just making stuff up to be negative here. There are a TON of potential problems with Kellys dumb gimmicky system and it is 50/50 that it will actually work reasonably well at all in the NFL. Probably less then that. Another stupid move for the dumbest organiztion in the NFL. There are so many things that could go wrong, and in the freaking NFL, the toughest football league in the world, they probably will. GIMMICKS DO NOT WIN CHAMPIONSHIPS. PATHETIC PATHETIC PATHETIC PATHETIC PATHETIC PATHETIC— CharlieGarner25
