It’s hard not to remember as a Philadelphia Eagles fan just how bad Chip Kelly was. Sure he won here. In three seasons as Philly’s head football coach, he posted back-to-back 10-6 seasons in year one and year two before losing the locker room, alienating a fan base, and completely falling off of the wagon in year three.
In 2015, he went 6-9 before being axed prior to the final game of the season, a game where Pat Shurmur of all people, stepped in for Week 17 and utilized DeMarco Murray correctly (that was the only time all year that happened). The result was a Week 17 victory over the hated New York Giants, a team Shurmur would wind up coaching in 2018 and 2019.
Finding reasons to pick on Kelly is easy if you’re an Eagles fan, but he did do some nice things here. He did, after all, draft Lane Johnson, Zach Ertz, and Nelson Agholor (hey, he was good for that 2017 season). He was also responsible for bringing Darren Sproles over. It’s just so much easier to remember how frequently Kelly did the wrong thing.
Here’s something else worth mentioning too. We pick on Chip about this from time to time, but looking back, are you starting to look at that decision to bury Howie Roseman in the equipment room as a wise one? What if Doug Pederson could have done that in 2020? Had he been able to do so, Philly might have been able to win four more games (or maybe more).
Okay Philadelphia Eagles fans, let’s be fair here.
Now, we’re all torn about this. If Roseman’s still in that equipment room, you can make the argument that Philly still doesn’t have that Vince Lombardi Trophy. Of course, we’ll never know the answer to that, but here’s what we can all agree on. Howie’s burned bridges with the last two Eagles head coaches which should lead us to a question here. What if Chip was actually right about Howie and the rest of us were wrong?
Heck, he was wrong about Nick Foles, Sam Bradford, DeSean Jackson, LeSean McCoy, and about giving Riley Cooper an extension, but when you coach any stream for as long as Chip was here, you’re bound to get a few things right.
He was definitely right about Howie Roseman, but it doesn’t matter anyway. Philly’s vice president and general manager has been on the warpath ever since he was liberated from the equipment room, and until he’s given a reality check or is relieved of his command, this massive mess that we call the Philadelphia Eagles organization is going to get much worse before things get any better. You can definitely count on that.