The typically astute Jimmy Kempski spotted an interesting number in his profile of JaCorey Shepherd, one of two cornerbacks the Eagles drafted in the sixth round: The most obvious takeaway from Shepherd’s tape is how many footballs he gets his hands on. In fact, Shepherd had more pass break-ups over the last two years than any other cornerback that was …
Those of us who write about football are rarely ex-players or ex-coaches, and frankly that hurts our credibility with the people about whom we write. Chip Kelly didn’t even like having a non-“football guy” as his General Manager. And GM Howie Roseman — a legendary bureaucratic infighter — got kicked upstairs as a result of their death match. Reporters complain …
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 …
Football is a nearly year-round endeavor these days, for players, coaches, and (obsessive) fans. Between the Senior Bowl, the NFL Combine, free agency, the draft, and OTAs, news keeps flying year-round. Except for right now, and the next 6 weeks. This is the dead spot, the one stretch of solid vacation that coaches and players get. In prior years, Chip …
In his first two years as an NFL coach, Chip Kelly was a whirlwind of change, challenging the conventional wisdom on everything from players’ food to game tempo to the team schedule (giving his team Monday off after Sunday games instead of the usual Tuesday). And while Kelly’s “college boy” style was mocked at first, much of the NFL has …
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 …
Since our last update, the Eagles have finished their draft and signed a bunch of free agents to complete their roster. They also made some key staffing changes, which helps us understand some of those roster additions. I’m talking about the revamp of the Eagles’ pioneering Sports Science department. Shaun Huls, a very low profile former Navy Seals trainer, got a …
Chip Kelly always knew it would be tough to draft Marcus Mariota, even before he won the Heisman Trophy, led the Oregon Ducks to the National Championship Game and killed it at the NFL Combine. It didn’t dissuade anybody that Oregon lost the national title to Ohio State, or that Mariota’s pro day wasn’t nearly as good as his combine. …
Coach Charles (“Chip”) Kelly asked for control over the Eagles roster, trades and draft picks: owner Jeff Lurie gave it to him. Philadelphia’s sports writers have used the occasion to shake off the atypical friendliness they’ve shown toward Kelly since he was hired two years. They’re back to full-on Philly pessimism, watching every move he makes more closely than The …
For the second year in a row, Chip Kelly has tortured the Philadelphia press by not saying a word more than he has to during the off-season. Not surprisingly, this just makes reporters even more desperate to find out what the Mystery Coach is thinking. To be fair, Kelly hasn’t been quite as secretive as he was last year during …
Chip Kelly began his first stint as an NFL general manager the same way he coaches — fast, decisive, and not giving a damn with what anybody thinks. In the first three days of the official NFL year, when free agency and trading first become possible again, he outmaneuvered the entire rest of the league put together by adding 7 …
This is the silly season, from the end of the Combine to the end of the official NFL “year.” On March 10 we start all over again, teams have to fit under the salary cap and free agency opens. Until that date there will be no news, aside from the release of some expensive veterans, and no one will be …