Chip Kelly Update: Everything’s Good Again …

Mark Saltveit FishWrap, FishWrap Archive, NFL

… or is it? After weeks of despair and dissension, the 4-7 Philadelphia Eagles rallied to stun the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, 35-28. Chip Kelly outsmarted coaching legend Bill Belichick in their first head-to-head battle. Sam Bradford returned from injury and outdueled uber-QB Tom Brady, playing efficient, error-free football. Best of all, on Monday night the discarded DeSean …

Fixing the Philadelphia Eagles

Noah Smith NFL

With the early season struggles of the Philadelphia Eagles, suddenly everyone is breaking their legs jumping off of the Chip Kelly bandwagon — proclaiming that they saw it coming. Everyone has their magic fix for the offense: “If LeSean McCoy were still here they’d be winning,” one will say, or “Jeremy Maclin is the magical missing piece.” I’d even bet …

Sam Bradford the Next Drew Brees? Chip Kelly Thinks So

Noah Smith FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

The NFL off-season was filled with talk about Chip Kelly and Marcus Mariota, the match made in heaven that was so good it couldn’t possibly happen — and it didn’t. Now they’ve moved on to talking about Kelly and Sam Bradford. Kelly’s the coach so desperate for a headline, he traded for a QB coming off of two ACL tears in the …

Chip Kelly is Walking a Fine Line in the NFL

Caleb Couturie FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

There’s a famous Johnny Cash song, way before my time but great nonetheless, that summarizes Chip Kelly‘s NFL off-season perfectly. Kelly is walking a fine line, and if he slips it could end catastrophically for the former Ducks coach. If he succeeds, he could revolutionize how GMs and coaches approach player management and personnel decisions entirely. Kelly’s off-season began with the higher-ups …

Chip Kelly Update: The Dead Zone Lives!

Mark Saltveit FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Some people call this “the Dead Zone,” the part of the NFL season where everyone is on vacation, training camp rosters have been filled to 90 and the draft, OTAs and minicamp are over. It’s the boring time when nothing happens, right? I don’t think so. In some ways, this is the most interesting time of the year. Writers have …

Chip Kelly Update: “I’m not governed by the fear.”

Mark Saltveit FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

The winter and spring are long and barren for a football fan, especially one who follows Chip Kelly. The Eagles coach speaks to the press only at press conferences, and he basically doesn’t have any from the day the team cleans out its lockers after its final game until organized team activities (OTAs) start again in late May. There are …

Stephen A. Smith Stands Firm on Kelly Criticism

Jordan Ingram FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Stephen A. Smith, co-host of ESPN’s First Take and host of the Stephen A. Smith Show on Sirius XM, defended his comments concerning Eagles’ head coach Chip Kelly’s personnel decisions and the overall culture in Philadelphia, saying he did not call Kelly a racist. Smith explained his comments on his radio show : “… a bunch of idiots, in the world …

The Truth Behind Chip Kelly’s Latest Moves

Austin Willhoft FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Ever since Chip Kelly made the bold move of trading All-Pro RB LeSean McCoy to Buffalo for former Duck standout LB Kiko Alonso, NFL executives have been calling him either an absolute genius or a total fool. As of today, a flock of nine Oregon players are on the Philadelphia roster, five of which are defenders: Casey Matthews, Brandon Bair, …

The Philadelphia Ducks: Kelly’s Master Plan

Caleb Couturie FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

This piece was done in collaboration with fellow FishDuck writer and football expert Jason Selby. For those living under a rock, it’s probably best that Jason and I break the news to you now: Chip Kelly has an affiliation with the University of Oregon. In Kelly’s most recent move, the former Ducks coach traded his star RB, LeSean McCoy, for …

Reunited: Kiko Alonso and Chip Kelly

Jason Selby FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Just reported by every major news outlet in the entire world….. former Oregon Ducks, and current Buffalo Bills linebacker Kiko Alonso has been traded to the Philadelphia Eagles for running back LeSean McCoy. Adam Schefter of ESPN says the deal has been agreed upon, but “can’t be made official until next Tuesday.” Are you a little bit surprised about this? Many thought McCoy would only be traded if it meant Marcus Mariota in …

Should Mariota Intentionally Drop his Own Draft Stock?

Jason Selby FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

A very interesting article came out this morning from bleedinggreennation.com, discussing the ways in which the Philadelphia Eagles could land Marcus Mariota. Everyone knows how much Chip Kelly and his former Oregon quarterback would love to be reunited, but the Eagles having the 20th pick in the first round is way too low to grab the Hawaiian. If you read the article, you will realize that some of it is obviously …

Chip Kelly Update: Forget Seattle, Beat the Cowboys

Mark Saltveit FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

The Philadelphia Eagles under Chip Kelly keep reaching for the stars. They encourage fans to hope for a Super Bowl run with unselfish teamwork, clever schemes on both sides of the ball, and emerging young talent. Then reality slaps them back down to earth, as the Eagles lose to the top level of NFL teams: Green Bay (at Lambeau), San …