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Eagles’ Chip Kelly Showing Signs of Josh McDaniels?

By Sayre Bedinger

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Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly is getting a lot of free passes as the leader of a franchise in the NFL. The Eagles have still won games, so it’s hard for anyone to be really upset about it or to make a huge fuss, but his trading of LeSean McCoy on Tuesday night in exchange for linebacker Kiko Alonso is the latest move that has me scratching my head and drawing forth memories of Josh McDaniels during his tenure with the Denver Broncos.

McDaniels was hired as the next great offensive mind in the NFL after putting together one of the most impressively orchestrated seasons the NFL has ever seen with the 2007 New England Patriots team that set all the records they possibly could (at that time) and then ended up coming four points short of a Super Bowl win and a perfect 19-0 season.

Not unlike McDaniels, Kelly came into a head coaching role in the NFL as a brilliant offensive mind that simply knows how to put points on the board, how to expose defenses in a wide variety of ways, and he clearly thinks he knows what personnel is needed to get the job done.

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I don’t blame Eagles fans for defending Kelly, and they should. Like I said, he’s been winning games. Not to the level of a Super Bowl contender (not legitimately, anyway), but to a high degree. High enough that he deserves the benefit of the doubt at this point. However, his trade of Shady McCoy is a move I think he could regret, not because Kiko Alonso is not a very good young player, but because McCoy was the Eagles’ best offensive player who had a bit of a down year this past year.

Kelly has now rid the Eagles of their star power.

That being said, Kelly and the Eagles have a ton of cap space, so you can expect them to be huge players on the free agent market. That doesn’t mean anything is guaranteed. There are a lot of NFL teams that have a ton of cap space, and Philadelphia is going to have stiff competition for some of the top players available.

You can argue that McCoy is trending downward, but I think that would be an overreaction to one down year. He has received a lot of touches, and might be nearing the mark where NFL backs start to decline, but where has his departure left the Eagles offensively? They have been left with Chip Kelly’s guys, and that’s going to make or break his current head coaching gig.

Josh McDaniels did the same thing in Denver, perhaps to a higher degree. He came in, didn’t like Jay Cutler or how he fit in his system, and tried to trade him. Broncos fans immediately hated McDaniels for it, but that turned out to be the right judgment call of personality, anyway. He completely cleaned house, as he needed to, but he created another dumpster fire by handing out poor contracts in free agency and drafting ‘his guys’ that fit ‘his scheme.’

That resulted in the Broncos picking players like Knowshon Moreno and Robert Ayers with the first two picks in the McDaniels tenure, followed a year later by Demaryius Thomas and Tim Tebow. Four first round picks, three virtual flops, at least as far as the Broncos are concerned.

McDaniels signed players he felt fit his idea of how a team should look, including guys like Brian Dawkins who provided great value to the franchise, but also players like Ty Warren who were just not very good.

And like McDaniels, perhaps Kelly just needs more time. Maybe he needs less control. One way or another, I wasn’t impressed by the McCoy trade even though I think the Eagles got a really good young defender. Rex Ryan signed off on a trade of a cheap, young, budding start at inside linebacker to get McCoy out of Philly, all the while absorbing his contract.

Kelly has also gotten rid of DeSean Jackson, at times a troublesome player that he needed to get out of the locker room. Josh McDaniels did pretty much the same thing with Brandon Marshall, but he turned Marshall into two high draft picks. Kelly also released veteran Trent Cole to free up cap space, a move that can’t sit well with his now former Eagles teammates. Veteran guard Todd Herremans was also released this offseason to create even more cap space for Philly.

He now stands to also potentially lose leading receiver Jeremy Maclin, who is going to be allowed to hit the open market if he doesn’t strike a deal in the next few days.

The Eagles have made horrible personnel decisions at cornerback and safety, leading to a much needed makeover for the secondary, which will undoubtedly come this offseason.

I think Chip Kelly is a brilliant offensive mind, but I don’t think his scheme necessarily is so good that they can just plug any player into it and be a playoff contender, but I guess we’ll soon find out. You have to think the odds of Kelly going after a 10th Oregon Duck are high with Marcus Mariota seeming like a blatantly obvious fit there.

The question is — now that Kelly has completely cleaned house in Philadelphia, can he win with his own guys? Nick Foles is probably not the answer, and he likely knew that from the moment he took the job.

A lot of the uncertainty right now in Philadelphia can be answered in free agency and the draft. Getting rid of LeSean McCoy at this time is not the absolute worst timing it could be, because if the Eagles really wanted to, they could go after DeMarco Murray in free agency or they could just draft one of the running backs from this ultra-talented class.

Losing Maclin wouldn’t be the end of the world, because the Eagles have Jordan Matthews coming up and yet again a really good draft class to pick a replacement from.

The problem I see right now is that Philadelphia has so many holes on both sides of the ball, and one season to rectify it. Can they build a deep enough team to contend right away? I am not so sure.

My comparison to Josh McDaniels doesn’t necessarily mean that I think Chip Kelly is going to fail. I think he’s going to continue to do well as a coach. The only thing I really worry about is with the kind of control he’s been given over the organization, he’s going to win his way and his way only. The plan is not really open to interpretation or deviation.

Like McDaniels, Kelly was given ultimate control over an organization immediately. Like McDaniels, he’s cleaned house. Like McDaniels, Kelly is implementing a style and brand of football that he believes is bigger than the players he puts on the field. That might be a ‘hot take’ but it’s the way I see it. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it either.

Unless it doesn’t work.

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