Eagles fire Kelly/ 9ers hire Kelly

wv wrote:

He won more games than Fisher.

w
v

Which may mean, the # of games won or lost is not the key reason for firing or not firing a coach.

Word is, the players didn’t like playing for Kelly. They didn’t like playing in his system.

Compare that to the Rams:

CHRIS LONG

(On this team’s resiliency since going 4-8…)
“They aren’t giving participation trophies for this team not quitting. But this team, it’s not what we do. It starts with coach Fish (head coach Jeff Fisher). Coach Fish preaches we’re going to come to work and fight every day. Even when the chips are down, that’s when you find out what people are made of. I think we got the right kind of guys in this locker room. It’s on purpose. It’s no accident we have those guys.. . .This is what football is about. We aren’t going to playoffs, but not everybody in this league plays it out to the end and not everybody in this league cares when everybody says there is nothing on the line. This locker room is totally different than that. It’s a blessing to be in this room.”

laram

[re: Kelly’s Eagles offense:] defenses haven’t caught up with squat.

Guys, (slow guys) are still running free in the secondary.

The problem…as with any offense was the pieces.

O-line is old and broke down, D’marco Murray bad fit, no consistent running game, no deep threat on the outside. Too many dropped passes and breakdowns.

Chip Kelly needs to self-evaluate after shocking dismissal from Eagles

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/writer/jason-la-canfora/25431268/chip-kelly-needs-to-self-evaluate-after-shocking-dismissal-from-eagles

No matter how poorly Chip Kelly was performing, no matter what you thought of his personnel decisions or management style or the direction in which the Philadelphia Eagles were trending, firing a coach on a Tuesday night with one game left in the season is shocking. It speaks to a deep personal divide between team and individual. It is, at its core, very personal.

It’s a bold move by Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, and such a decision is, as several people who know him put it, “totally out of character.” To do so less than a year after casting general manager Howie Roseman in a different role and handing full autonomy over the organization to Kelly makes the reversal all the more stunning. Had Kelly been fired next Tuesday, I would have been surprised. For it to occur in this fashion, at this time, was such a departure for this organization I had to read the official statement on the team’s website three times before I totally believed it was not a hoax of some sort.

Sure, the team was off the rails. And yes, Kelly the wannabe personnel guy had botched this year about as bad as he possibly could, and he had major issues within the locker room and all over the building, for that matter. But he is not a buffoon. He had won 10 games each of his previous two seasons. He had, by last December, shown Lurie sufficient acumen that he was deemed the man worthy of overhauling the entire organizational paradigm, of altering the entire flow chart of the Eagles, and of bestowing Bill Belichick-ian levels of power upon. He was, in Lurie’s own estimation, the man to take the franchise “from good to great,” and now, just 15 games later, he is no longer wanted in the team facility.

There were monumental failures since then, without a doubt. After already alienating many around him, and discarding DeSean Jackson and Evan Mathis and others, and then shipping out LeSean McCoy and trading for and empowering Sam Bradford and whiffing on his reshaping of the offensive line and losing Jeremy Maclin and paying Byron Maxwell like a top-five corner … well, I could go on and on. And his hubris was getting old. And his big brother tendencies of monitoring everything everybody was doing had long worn people out — even some of the very coaches he initially brought in with him.

But still. He didn’t even finish his third season. That’s truly bizarre, even in a league where nothing should really surprise us anymore and where coaches are getting fired in damn near September. I never pegged this for more than a three-year dalliance from the get-go, but for it to end in a terse statement in late December, well, even I wasn’t skeptical enough to have predicted that.

So what else went wrong? Well, Kelly was losing people throughout the building, sources said, even outside of football operations. His autocratic tendencies got the best of him. His allies were few and far between. The idea that DeMarco Murray somehow led this charge is preposterous, I’m told, but in fact Lurie had begun having serious reservations a few weeks ago, when he began reaching out to confidants about how to proceed and began doing research on the pool of potential candidates elsewhere. He started to doubt whether Kelly The Innovative Coach was quite smart enough to overcome Kelly The Personnel Demagogue. Everything having to be Kelly’s way — moving events around to fit his schedule, things having to accommodate him — grew troublesome.

Lurie didn’t go into his meeting with Kelly with the intention of firing him, I’m told. More, it was to take his temperature and continue to feel him out and gather information that would lead to his ultimate decision on what to do with his organization in 2016. Obviously, things went sideways and what Kelly had to say didn’t mesh with the owner’s vision, and Lurie became convinced that for as radical as a Week 17 firing might be perceived, it was time to do it. The fact that Kelly didn’t seem inclined to scratch and claw to remain in his perch, sources said, did him no favors as well.

Thus, the divorce. And one that is anything but amicable, despite whatever parties will say publicly. It’s a bit ironic that within hours of the Jaguars giving a public statement affirming that Gus Bradley will indeed return for 2016, with Bradley a cumulative 12-35 (.255 winning percentage while playing in the woeful AFC South) since arriving, Lurie announced Kelly was fired. Bradley would have been the Eagles hire had Kelly not agreed to come east — after a second pursuit — with permission granted to bring in his own personnel man (Tom Gamble, who lasted two years). And now Kelly, with a 26-21 record, one playoff appearance and two 10-win seasons, has been ousted. The other coaches the Eagles had most recently interviewed were Ken Whisenhunt (fired earlier this season) and Brian Billick, who I don’t believe has interviewed for a job since.

Kelly’s entire system, it seems, has failed. Former coordinator Bill Lazor took it to Miami, where it did not work and Lazor, too, was an in-season casualty about a month before Kelly. The quarterback who Kelly somehow found success with in 2013 — the one season where this offense really did appear possibly revolutionary — Nick Foles, lost his job midseason to Case Keenum despite the Rams trading Bradford for him and rewarding him with a foolish though fairly lucrative contract extension. (I’ve said before and will say it again, the crowning achievement of Kelly’s pro coaching to this point is without a doubt culling a 27-touchdown, two-interception season out of Foles in his first season at the helm).

Perhaps the league has caught up to him, as Kelly’s offense has been middling at best the past two seasons. His hyperspeed approach did leave his defense hanging and his teams did seem to fade in the final quarter of the year. Maybe his approach really is best catered to kids playing 11 games a year rather than pros playing 16. Or maybe he just lacked anything close to sufficient talent to run it (even though he was now hand-picking it, oddly enough).

I tend to think he will not achieve close to the level of success he deems worthy of him until or unless he returns to the college game. And if he were to sit out nine months, he’d have every crooked booster in America beating down the door of his agent, David Dunn. He’d be the man. Instead he’s saying he’s all about this NFL thing, which might just end up being his ego getting the best of him again. The 10-win seasons and all the attention he brings with him will have other owners flirting, though they’d be best to try to get Lurie to speak candidly to them first before they wave contracts Kelly’s way.

I’d venture to say that Chip Kelly needs Marcus Mariota exponentially more than Mariota needs his college coach, and anyone turning over the building to him had best understand exactly what they are getting into. Kelly is going to have a tough time winning over any pro locker room. He’d have to be willing to first truly admit his varied mistakes in Philly and then be willing to actually make significant changes to avoid repeating them. The idea that he will be the next Belichick, who builds a dynasty when given a second chance, may not be wrong, but if it happens it won’t be without considerable self-evaluation.

I have no doubt that someone like Stephen Ross in Miami, perpetually trying to find some big fish to take his money to coach his team, will be enamored, and the idea of Kelly “fixing” Ryan Tannehill will certainly be yapped about in that front office. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam tried like hell to land Kelly three years ago. You could make a case for the Colts or 49ers, too, I suppose. But even without total personnel control — and an owner would have to be wacky to hand that to him now — you are still making a bargain that all of Kelly’s other control — practice schedules, sports science, player monitoring, analytics, weeding out big personalities from the locker room, prizing his own schemes but always criticizing “execution” — actually works as well.

Certainly, he has displayed enough to warrant a second chance. And in a year with so few A-list coaching candidates, and with the Eagles already the third team on an interim coach and Black Monday sure to be ugly next week, there will be some opportunity. Ultimately, however, some approaches just work best in college, and without significant self-scouting and a willingness to reinvent himself at least to some degree, Kelly might find that out again on some December night a few years from now.

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Evan Mathis rips Chip Kelly, his former coach in Philadelphia

http://www.theredzone.org/BlogDescription/tabid/61/EntryId/54937/Evan-Mathis-rips-Chip-Kelly–his-former-coach-in-Philadelphia/Default.aspx

After winning his Super Bowl ring with the Denver Broncos, Evan Mathis broke his silence about Chip Kelly, his former coach with the Philadelphia Eagles, Phil Sheridan of ESPN.com reports.

In an email exchange with 9News in Denver, Mathis took shots at Kelly, now the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers.

“There were many things that Chip had done that showed me he wasn’t building a championship team,” Mathis wrote. “Two of the main issues that concerned me were: 1. A never-evolving, vanilla offense that forced our own defense to play higher than normal play counts. 2. His impatience with certain personality types even when they were blue-chip talents.

“The Broncos team I was on would have eaten Chip alive. I don’t think he could have handled the plethora of large personalities.”

Kelly released Mathis last June, just before the Eagles were scheduled to hold a mandatory minicamp. The veteran guard signed with the Broncos, who went on to win Super Bowl 50 over the Carolina Panthers.

With the Broncos, Mathis started 12 regular-season games and three playoff games, including the Super Bowl.

“It is just all part of the story,” Mathis said after the Super Bowl. “Everything that happened is what led me to where I am now. Ultimately, I am thankful for every single thing that happened.”

Mathis, 34, said he was scheduled to have ankle surgery on Wednesday and was unsure whether he would play next season. In his email to 9News, Mathis offered conciliatory words about his former coach.

“I hope Chip learns from his experiences in Philadelphia and grows as a coach,” Mathis wrote. “Maybe he’ll find some constructive criticism from this.”

from MMQB

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/04/03/colin-kaepernick-trade-broncos-49ers-titans-jalen-ramsey-nfl-draft

Chip Kelly has his hands full in San Francisco

The other day, NJ Advance Media reported that Eagles scouts had it up to herewith Chip Kelly, beginning with his first draft in Philadelphia in 2013. It reminded me that until a coach wins, and wins big, there’s going to be great skepticism, regardless of the coach’s résumé. “Right before that draft, the scouts set the board,” a club official was reported to have said. “Then Chip got a hold of it and totally turned it around. Scouts had no say at all in that draft. Anybody that Chip didn’t want, that player’s card got removed from the board and thrown in the trash. Those guys were never even in the discussion. Almost immediately, you had a lot of scouts looking around and wondering, ‘Why am I even working? Why the hell are we even here?’”

I’m reminded of 2011, when the Patriots had the first pick of day two, No. 33 overall. The scouts, I’m told, were expecting the Patriots to pick one of two front-seven players, Jabaal Sheard or Brooks Reed. Instead, Belichick went with his gut, taking a tall corner with an injury history, Ras-I Dowling. He ended up being a bust. Sheard, particularly, and Reed haven’t been superstars, but they’ve had significantly better careers. Point is, you never heard a peep out of the Patriots, mostly because Belichick earned the right to pick whoever he wanted, with three Super Bowls at the time to his credit. And Kelly will get the skepticism until he wins.

Today, Kelly begins his second try to win in the NFL, after his 26-22 run with the Eagles that ended in his unceremonious firing by Jeffrey Lurie last December. At 8 a.m. Pacific Time today, he’ll get to meet with his players for the first time since being named coach of the team nearly three months ago. I talked to him about the past, and his future—but before the Colin Kaepernick news broke over the weekend.

MMQB: Does part of you feel like you’ve got to prove yourself as an NFL head coach?

Kelly: Not coming after what I’ve just gone through. I don’t look at it like that. I think you want to prove yourself every day. I want to prove myself after my first year, I want to prove myself after my second year, after my third year … I look at it that I landed in heaven and I am really excited to be in San Francisco. The organization is first class and it is about excellence. We’ve won 20 division titles since 1970, six NFC championships, five Super Bowls. You walk down the Bill Walsh Way on the way into the building and you’ll see five Super Bowl trophies in the lobby. It’s an unbelievable organization. How it is set up, the York family, what they do, how they treat people, I was blown away to be able to be part of that.

MMQB: Do you feel battered after the Philadelphia experience?

Kelly: No, not at all. I coach football in the NFL. I have one of the greatest jobs in the world. I don’t think I would ever feel battered.

MMQB: Biggest lesson learned in the NFL so far?

Kelly: Everybody has got to be on the same page.

MMQB: Players, front office, owner?

Kelly: Everybody, really, but it’s really important with the front office.

MMQB: How far away are the Niners from being really good again?

Kelly: I don’t know. The unique thing about the CBA is I feel like I have been there for awhile, but I don’t know our players. [The 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement mandates that new coaches are not allowed to have significant contact with their players till April, and the NFL’s new coaches have their first contact with players today.] All you are allowed to do is introductory superficial conversations, Hey, how are you doing? So we really don’t know what exactly we have. I mean, I know we have a lot of talented players, but until you work with them …

And I think the landscape changes even in the division, who is adding and subtracting players. You look at the Rams. James Laurinaitis isn’t there anymore, Chris Long isn’t there anymore. But Aaron Donald still is there though. So when you go through it, it will be interesting because in this league so much changes on a yearly basis that looking at film from a year ago and looking at it moving forward, you just go, Wow, it’s changed. And it happens fast. This team three years ago was on the 5-yard line going in at the end of the Super Bowl, that close to winning it all. Three years later, I’m the third coach they’ve had since. You can win the NFC championship one year, then win four games the next year. Things change fast.

MMQB: Cliché question, but I wonder when you look back at what you did at Oregon, and how the pro game is different from the college game, what’s the biggest difference?

Kelly: In the first game of our 2010 season, we beat New Mexico 72-0. No one beats anyone in the NFL 72-0. I think 55 percent of the games last year were decided by seven points or less, 24 percent by three points or less. It’s really intriguing, to be honest. Smaller rosters, obviously. We’d dress 100 guys for home games at Oregon. A lot of that was we used to use dressing for games as kind of a reward for guys who worked hard in the program. But now, with 53-man rosters, and you’re not even dressing all of those, you’ve got to use key starters on special teams. And when you eliminate eight offensive linemen and two quarterbacks and most of your defensive linemen, that means you have a pretty small pool to choose from for all of your special teams. That’s very big.

Then I’d say the talent is the biggest factor after that. It’s so close. You look at college football. There’s a saying that the top teams in the country—Alabama, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin—they win nine games in February [through recruiting]. They pick the players they want. Here, of course, you can’t do that. So you have to find other ways to win. You’ve got to be smart about who you draft, who you develop and how you coach them. That’s the great challenge. I love the challenge of it.