The city of Philadelphia was basically on suicide watch after the loss to Dallas, with the only energy wielded by people forming lynch mobs for Chip Kelly. Much of the pessimism was realistic, too. The Eagles’ offense was easily the worst in the NFL, as their three running backs combined for negative yardage against the Cowboys’ decimated defense. Kelly was running …
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 …
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 …
After a soul-crushing three-game losing streak that knocked them out of the playoffs, the Philadelphia Eagles salvaged a bit of respect by beating the New York Giants 34-26 in the season’s final game, despite Odell Beckham Jr.’s best efforts. The rookie phenom tied Michael Irvin as the only other NFL player to get 90+ yards nine games in a row, …
Philadelphia played its long awaited showdown with the Washington LOLSkins and it was even nastier and more dramatic than anyone could have imagined. DeSean Jackson has been cocky and attitudinal since he played at Cal. No one doubted that he wanted to get revenge against the team that cut him over the summer (and cost him millions of dollars a …
Conventional wisdom dictates that a Philadelphia Eagles team whose offense earned the second-highest total yards would likely stay the course with its current personnel. Anyone who made that assumption ignored the fact that Chip Kelly does not care about conventional wisdom. The release of DeSean Jackson, the Eagles’ most dangerous receiver, this past March was a defining moment for Kelly. The …
It’s only year two of the Chip Kelly era in Philadelphia, and the Eagles have already overhauled their receiver group. They released three-time Pro Bowler DeSean Jackson and veteran slot receiver Jason Avant. They re-signed Riley Cooper and Jeremy Maclin. Then, they traded up in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft to select Vanderbilt’s Jordan Matthews, but the front …
It will be three months until real regular season football games begin, but the Philadelphia Eagles are at least doing something again. Phase 3 of the off-season program — the organized team activities or OTAs — began last week, with actual offense-against-defense drills and all the famous Chip Kelly practice twists: blaring music, extreme speed and innovative, often goofy practice devices. Only a …