After the long but quiet summer break, the Eagles opened training camp in humid 90-degree Philadelphia weather. News broke that they traded cornerback Brandon Boykin to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a fifth round pick. (If he plays 60% or more of the snaps this year, that changes to a fourth round pick.) Boykin is an excellent nickel corner with long arms …
With the NFL preseason around the corner, all of the intrigue that has been building throughout the offseason will finally be seen on the field. One of the most interesting stories coming out of Eagles camp this year has been surrounding Chip Kelly’s two new quarterbacks – Sam Bradford and Tim Tebow. Both players have looked impressive thus far, with Bradford looking …
My new book is out. Controlled Chaos: Chip Kelly‘s Football Revolution tells the story of the Eagles’ crazy 2014 season, including the off-seasons before and after. There was a lot of turmoil, from the sudden release of DeSean Jackson and Chip’s bureaucratic death match with Howie Roseman to the explosion of wheeling and dealing this past spring, when Chip took …
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 …
What if the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil began a chain reaction that set off a tornado in Texas? This notion raised by MIT meteorologist Edward Lorenz has implications for causation in physics, economics and yes, football. The rise of the spread offense in the 21st century generated a butterfly effect on defenses. Coaches in bastions of the …
Most legends we hear about have one thing in common — they revolve around heroes. These legends also follow the same pattern of having a hero’s story arc. The hero comes in as a savior with a bright and promising future and has a major fall — only to rise again stronger than ever. During his time in Eugene, Kiko Alonso …
There is a lot of “conventional wisdom” going around about the Philadelphia Eagles these days. For example: — Chip Kelly is an offensive wizard who doesn’t care about defense. — DeMarco Murray is worn out and headed for a crash, while LeSean McCoy will be huge for Buffalo. — All of the Eagles’ new players — Murray, Kiko Alonso, Ryan …
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 …
Set the way-back machine to 1951 and get your DeLoreans up to 88 MPH. We’re going back to look at a famous Duck from Oregon‘s rich history. While Oregon has had many great coaches over the years, I think we can all agree that the coolest name of them all belongs to Len Casanova. Known as Cas to his friends, he …
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 …
In my last article I discussed all that Gary Campbell has done for the Oregon Duck program and his impressive collection of game-day suits. Even though his collection of suits is impressive, he may not even be the best dressed coach at Oregon. There is one man who can challenge him for college football’s best dressed coach and that is Don …
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 …