Chip Kelly Breaks Silence: Will Not Mortgage Future For Mariota
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- Chip Kelly finally broke his silence on Wednesday afternoon, addressing the media about some of the team's recent transactions and about the power changes in the front-office.
Kelly, of course, was given full control over personnel decisions on January 2nd.
Here are some of Kelly's quotes from the press conference.
Personnel Power
"I didn't think I needed to control personnel, that was a decision that our owner made....That was a decision that Jeffrey [Lurie] made.
"We have a vision for what we want for football players here and I think we can articulate that.
"Mr. Lurie made that decision...My thought was how do we make this place better. I think Howie [Roseman] has done an outstanding job.
"I think there are a lot of things out there that people talk about that aren't true...We're trying to win a championship here.
"I've had conversations..I don't do contracts. I have talked to people, what our vision is, how we're going to use the player."
On Tom Gamble leaving: "That was made on the other side, that wasn't my call. I like Tom [Gamble]. I think Tom does an unbelievable job.
"Only real difference is I have final say [in the offseason].
On Roseman's office being moved: "There's a lot of people that moved. There's a lot of shuffling around."
On draft: "I would have final say [now]...haven't had final say in the last two years."
LeSean McCoy
"To get something you have to give something up and that's the way it works in this league...You get an outstanding young linebacker and a position that we have a huge need at...We had to boast our inside linebacker depth. And then really the result of it is the money that was freed up. The way we looked at it was we got Kiko Alonso and Byron Maxwell for LeSean McCoy. You'd love to keep everybody if you could pay everybody.
"Did we want to lose LeSean? Certainly not...We stood by him through the whole season.
"To be honest, I didn't even know the trade was going to go through. I tried to call LeSean that night and I got his voice-mail. I've reached out to his agent Drew Rosenhaus. I really would like to speak to him. I've got all the respect in the world...but he found out because Buffalo jumped the gun and called someone else. We told Buffalo we weren't happy with that. With St. Louis...we got a chance to talk to both players individually before they heard from somewhere else."
Sam Bradford
"Sam and Mark are [our quarterbacks]. You don't want to lose Nick Foles, but you're gonna have to give something up to get something. The deal with Sam Bradford. If he never tore his ACL, he would never be traded.
"The injury rate in the National Football League is 100-percent. Jason Kelce himself has come off an ACL and sports hernia surgery and made a Pro Bow. Jeremy Maclin had an unbelievable year for us, had 85-catches, he's coming off of two ACL's. Tom Brady has torn an ACL before. Drew Brees has missed a season. Peyton Manning has missed a season.
"If he didn't tear his ACL we wouldn't be talking about trading for him.
"Not sure many guys that aren't ever injured, ever come available.
"Everything is a one-year season for everybody and that's what this league...but we wouldn't have traded for him if we didn't think he's got tremendous upside as a quarterback.
"We've done our due diligence in terms of talking to Dr. Andrews...He has an outstanding skill set. He's a big, strong, physical quarterback. He's smart, he's intelligent, he's one of the most accurate throwers...he's wired right. I think we had some inside information because Pat Shurmur had an opportunity to coach the kid for a year."
Q: Chip, to clarify, you were offered a first-round pick for Bradford this morning?
"Mhm.
"We didn't bring Sam in here to be a chip. I'm the only Chip here."
Marcus Mariota
"Let's dispel that right now. I think that stuff's crazy...I think Marcus is the best quarterback in the draft. We will never mortgage our future to go all the way up and get somebody like that because we have too many holes that we're going to take care of.
"We have not had any discussions with anyone about any draft things."
Frank Gore
"My first chance I ever had the opportunity to talk to Frank was 4 0'clock and he told me he wanted to take a visit to Indianapolis. Was I blind-sided? No, not at all."
Jeremy Maclin
"With Mac, we did not want to lose him...we couldn't go as high as Kansas City went. I had a lot of discussions with Mac over the weekend. I know it was a very difficult decision for him."
DeMeco Ryans
Q: Will DeMeco Ryans be back?
"Yeah."
Kiko Alonso
"159 tackles in 16 games, played every defensive snap, had four interceptions. Very instinctive football player. He's tall, he's long, he's what we're looking for."
Byron Maxwell
"We've seen Byron first hand. Obviously, we thought he was the best corner available. Tall, long, physical, athletic..so I think he's a good fit."
Walter Thurmond
"Another guy available because he was injured. Captain when I was there at Oregon...come in here and give Walt to compete with Nolan Carroll and Brandon Boykin."
