Wednesday is Chip Kelly’s 52nd birthday, and he’s spending it flying to Detroit amidst a flurry of rumors regarding his status as Eagles coach. He had his roster, which was perhaps the most talented he has coached.
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One of the hallmarks of a coach who’s losing his team is that we begin to see stories in which anonymous sources question the coach’s methods and the team’s competitive. The Eagles lived before Kelly, and they’ll live just fine without him. As long as key members like Jason Kelce, Malcolm Jenkins and Connor Barwin buy in – and they do – Kelly will be fine.
Another anonymously sourced story in Philadelphia had a player saying that when running back DeMarco Murray slid instead of trying to break a tackle, it showed that Murray isn’t fully invested in the team. The players who quit against the Buccaneers, or if any do in future games, are an issue no matter who the head coach is. Having gone 46-7 in four years at OR, he is still highly regarded as a college coach, and there are now more than a dozen FBS programs looking for new leadership, including USC, Virginia Tech, South Carolina, Missouri and Miami. Kelly gets a ton of flak for blowing the team up and not keeping the previous cornerstones of the team. He is just too competitive to willingly take a step back. He has a 24-18 record with the Eagles during his career, but they have largely underachieved under him and he seems to have completely lost his team this season. Schefter made clear that once the season ends, Kelly is someone he’ll be keeping his eye on as the National Football League carousel turns. But if it’s the latter, if Kelly has convinced himself that the Eagles have good players and a good system and can be successful as now constituted, then Eagles fans should go off and have a good cry somewhere, probably in the fetal position.
That player personnel guy Kelly wanted next to him at all times?
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The Eagles were 19-9 in Chip Kelly’s first 28 regular-season games. What the heck happened? Kelly clearly still wants to coach, and he’ll have options galore in 2016.
