What A Day Chip Is Having Ryan Day That Is

Jun 17, 2014; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Mark Sanchez (3) runs drills during mini camp at the Philadelphia Eagles NovaCare Complex. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

It’s A New Day, Philadelphia

From the day of his hire, new quarterbacks coach Ryan Day has not gotten much press.  You see, he’s an crossword puzzle in the land of the Rubik’s cube.  He is an enigma, but not the three dimensional type of mind-boggle on par with “How will the Eagles turn no draft day currency into the top rated quarterback prospect of the 2015 NFL draft? type of paradox.

So for now, he’s just “there.”

But he’s new, and this is the year head coach Chip Kelly is in charge.  So what’s so special about Ryan Day?

Plenty.

First of all, he’s a product of the very system that Chip Kelly is trying to install in Philadelphia.  For the past two years, he’s taken NFL quarterback coaches and trained them to train the quarterback to run Chip Kelly’s offense.   Even on paper reading this it seems rather inefficient.  Day was one of the first quarterback’s to go with Kelly’s fast paced offense.

"“That was the beginning stages of his offense and that’s one of the things coach (Kelly)  does a great job with, moving and adjusting.  He doesn’t have a lot of blocking schemes, but window dresses his offense for defenses. They’re basically the same plays with different looks.  When he was at UNH (University of New Hampshire), we were a little more exotic, changing the offense every week. And every week, it created problems for a defense.  The best thing I can say about coach is that he’s always been able to adapt his offense to the personnel that he has.  He was like that at UNH and then at Oregon.  One of his greatest strengths as a coach is he’s a great thinker on his feet. His players love playing for him. I played for him 10, 12 years ago and he’s one of my closest friends in college coaching. I can thank him for everything in football that I’ve had. He leaves an impact on people’s lives.” –  an interview with Ryan Day"

The career of Day has been one that Coach Kelly has followed, and had this to comment about Day when he was brought in by Boston College to be their offensive coordinator:

"“He played for me and I coached with him.  He was a great kid and one of the bright minds as well as one of the best players I have ever coached. I think he is one of the best young coaches in the country and it was just a matter of time before he was running the show, offensively, somewhere.” – Chip Kelly as interviewed by Boston College website."

Despite the familiarity with Chip Kelly’s offense, Day is a new comer to the NFL.   In fact, his arrival is one of few, if any, coaches to be brought in with no previous NFL experience.   But considering the track record of the quarterback’s coach has been Doug Pederson, Bill Lazor, and Bill Musgrave, who have all taken offensive coordinator jobs after one year, the team is ripe for a change in tactics.

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