Philadelphia Eagles: Three Misconceptions About Chip Kelly

Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly is an enigma. No one really knows whether he’s a genius or whether he is in over his head. We won’t know if he’s made good personnel decisions for a while and we still don’t really know how good of a coach he is yet either.

I do think that there are some big misconceptions about Chip.

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I think Chip will continue to impress me as a coach and overall I have been happy with free agency. The biggest misconception about Chip was that he wants a mobile quarterback but surely now this theory is gone. Here are three other misconceptions that I think some people still believe:

1) Chip doesn’t need talent at offensive skill positions –

This idea started last year, a lot of people believed Chip just assumed his offense would succeed without DeSean Jackson. Its happened again this year, Chip clearly believes he can scheme offense because he didn’t re-sign Jeremy Maclin and traded LeSean McCoy, right?

Wrong. Releasing Jackson last year was fine because he had Maclin who could play the same role. He didn’t want to lose Maclin this year, reports suggest the Eagles offered about $9m per year and that’s about what he deserves. He went out and spent a lot of money on Demarco Murray and also signed Ryan Matthews to replace McCoy.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he drafts a receiver in the first or second round to replace Maclin. He drafted Zach Ertz and Jordan Matthews in the second round and Josh Huff in the third round. He’s also spent big money on two running backs. Chip Kelly does value talent at offensive skill positions, I don’t think he just believes he can scheme offense without talent.

2) He has no long term plan –

I really disagree that Chip is overpaying for players because he wants to win now. Yes he has overpaid for certain players but I have no real complaints about any of them. Look at the age of the players that he signed:

Sam Bradford – 27

Kiko Alonso – 24

Byron Maxwell – 27

DeMarco Murray – 27

Walter Thurmond – 27

Ryan Matthews – 27

All of them (except maybe Demarco Murray) should progress over the next couple of seasons. If Chip was so desperate to win now, I don’t think he’d sign some of the players that he has. I’m sure Chip does want to win now but I think he is planning for the future still. He wants to be here long term.

3) He settled for average at quarterback –

A lot of people think for Chip to win a super bowl, he needed to trade everything to get Marcus Mariota. He might still go and get Mariota but I don’t think he has to. Firstly, you don’t need a top 5 quarterback to win a super bowl. I think a top 15 is good enough if you look back over the last ten years.

Nick Foles is arguably a top 20 or better quarterback. In 2013 he was a top 10 quarterback. The Bengals are an example of a team who are settling with a quarterback who isn’t good enough – Andy Dalton. Chip could’ve stuck with Foles and played it safe but he didn’t.

He went out and took a risk and traded for someone with serious health risks but serious talent. Sam Bradford has a lot more talent than Foles. Coming out of college, he had more talent than Mariota does too. This is why I do not believe Chip has settled for average at quarterback, he has taken a risk on a player that could be great but might fail.

Next: Chip Kelly Gambles Could Doom Philadelphia Eagles?

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