Flashback Friday: Chip Kelly selects Nelson Agholor 20th overall
Believe it or not, Chip Kelly still has his fingerprints all over this Eagles team. Look no further than wide receiver Nelson Agholor.
If selecting an MVP from an NFL team in the playoffs mirrored the way the NBA does it (you know, selecting an MVP from an entire series), you could have made a strong case for Nelson Agholor during the Philadelphia Eagles‘ first-ever playoff run that ended with the hoisting of the Lombardi Trophy.
From the time Philly kicked off their Divisional Round bout with the Atlanta Falcons, Agholor wowed us with great play from the slot receiver position, timely catches, broken tackles that resulted in first downs, and even an unexpected ‘jet sweep’.
Eagles fans could only swell with pride as the guy that had so many issues the year prior transformed into one of the important pieces of Philly’s offense.
Believe it or not, we can thank former Eagles head coach Chip Kelly for that.
Kelly will widely be remembered for his failures and shipping fan favorites out of town. Names like Jeremy Maclin, LeSean McCoy, and DeSean Jackson come to mind. It isn’t often, however, that we give Kelly credit for the few things that he did right.
He did draft Zach Ertz. He’s the one who selected Lane Johnson, and yes, with the 20th-overall selection in 2015’s draft, he surprised many of us by taking Nelson Agholor out of USC. It didn’t help that guys like Landon Collins were still available when he did so.
Agholor entered the NFL with all of the pressure that comes with being a first-round selection, and yes, even though there were rough spots and bumps in the road along the way and it took him three seasons to do so, Agholor proved he can play in the NFL.
On Friday, ’13’ turned 26 years young, and though the jury is still out on whether ‘Nelly’ is a part of this team’s long-term plans (2019 is the final year of his deal), two things can be said with certainty.
Next. Dallas Goedert feels he improved every aspect of his game. dark
One, yeah you could argue about an Eagles playoff MVP award for ’13’, but most of us would still give that honor to Nick Foles, and rightfully so. Second, let’s all just take a break from football talk to just say happy birthday. Philly owes a lot of winning the Lombardi Trophy to the work Mr. Agholor put in, but what’s crazy is we can probably all agree that Chip Kelly deserves some credit to.
It’s funny how things work out sometimes. Well, isn’t it?