Silverman: 'Genius' Chip Kelly Has Figured Out How To Lose In NFL
By Steve Silverman
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As his Philadelphia Eagles were getting obliterated by the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Day, the look on Chip Kelly's face said it all.
The look was that of a football "genius" who was thinking about his next move. When you are an NFL coach and your team gives up 45 points in back-to-back games against the Tampa Bay Bucs and their rookie quarterback and the Lions and their struggling offense, the verdict is in.
Kelly's personality and system is not going to work in the NFL.
If you remember, Kelly was supposedly the smartest guy in the room when the Eagles hired him away from the University of Oregon prior to the 2013 season. He had taken the West Coast offense and put it on steroids, and he was going to dominate in the NFL, the same way he had in the Pac-12.
In addition to his brilliant football mind, Kelly had a certain swagger to his personality that long-time NFL people found very off putting. It seemed as if Kelly not only said he was going to win games and championships with the Eagles, but that he would do it in a way that would show the rest of the league the direction professional football was going.
He was going to write the script that the Eagles would follow for a decade and that the rest of the NFL would follow.
While he had some strong moments in each of his first two years -- his teams were able to win games and put up impressive numbers with a relatively unknown quarterback like Nick Foles calling signals -- Kelly did not have the breakthrough that owner Bob Lurie was expecting.
Kelly's Eagles went 10-6 in each of his first two seasons, but they lost a wildcard playoff game in 2013 and didn't make the playoffs last year because they lost three of their final four games.
Nevertheless, Lurie gave Kelly the keys to the kingdom, and the coach started remaking the team shortly thereafter. His big moves were bringing in Sam Bradford and DeMarco Murray while getting rid of LeSean McCoy and Nick Foles.
Bradford's injury history made him a questionable acquisition at best, but bringing in Murray seemed to be a real head scratcher. Murray was the league's leading rusher last year in Dallas behind the biggest and best offensive line in the league, but he was no McCoy.
When McCoy is healthy and at his best, he is the most versatile running back in the league. He is a perfect fit for the way Kelly wanted to play because he is such a strong receiver out of the backfield in addition to being a productive runner.
Bradford has struggled most of the year and he has never looked comfortable in Kelly's offense. That's not a surprise considering Bradford had played just seven games in 2013 and '14.
He has been out in recent weeks with a concussion and a left shoulder injury and that forced the Eagles to go with Mark Sanchez, another Kelly favorite.
Kelly has not gotten the kind of effort or consistency to keep him on the Eagles' sideline much longer. How could Lurie want to keep him employed based on the current tailspin?
Kelly's belief in modern training and preparation techniques is interesting and may hold some benefit, but when this team has played on Sundays (or Thursday), the Eagles have been more than a step behind most weeks and now appear to be hopelessly out of the playoff race.
The Eagles have slipped to 4-7 after losses to Miami, Tampa Bay and Detroit. If that's not bad enough, New England, Buffalo and Arizona are looming. They could be 4-10 when they are preparing for their final two games against Washington and the Giants.
This is a team that should be 7-4 or 8-3 at this point, but Kelly has lost the Eagles and he is not going to get them back.
He should have his feelers out for a return to college football. There's an opening at USC, and that would allow Kelly to go back to his beloved Pac-12, where he can show off his genius once again.
They have seen enough of him in Philadelphia, and Kelly needs to be relieved of his duties as soon as possible.
Follow Steve on Twitter at @ProFootballBoy
