Don't "Hate" on Chip Kelly Without Knowing the Facts!
The Philadelphia Eagles fired Chip Kelly this week. After going 10-6, 10-6 and 6-9 . Social media and sports talk shows were all very critical of Kelly. But before you “hate” on Kelly, know the facts. In the 2008 Movie, The Dark Knight, Christian Bale playing Bruce Wayne says, “I Believe in Harvey Dent.” Well…l believe in Chip Kelly and here is why.
Kelly took over and Eagles team that was a sinking ship under Andy Reed. In Reed’s last two years the team was 8-8 and 4-12. Kelly was hired and was one of handful of coaches, in the history of the NFL to win a division title his first year. Chip Kelly did all of this without a legitimate quarterback. Now let us look at two coaches during their first few years in the NFL and compare.
I lived in Cleveland when Bill Belichick was their head coach. Here was his record year by year.
6-10, 7-9, 7-9, 11-5 (playoffs) 5-11. Belichick was fired as the Browns head coach. He had a career record there of 36-44. The New England Patriots hired Belichick in 2000. His first year as the Pats head coach he was 5-11. The following season he started the year 0-2. There were rumors that if they started the year 0-3 Kraft was going to fire him. They were trailing the New York Jets and a miracle happened. Drew Bledsoe got injured, Tom Brady came into that Jets game and led them to a come from behind victory. The rest is history, The Patriots with Brady have won 13 out of 15 division titles. The year Brady got injured the Patriots didn’t make the post-season. ( They probably fired Bill because of that headband too)
Now… let us look at Pete Carroll. (Carroll is one of only 3 coaches to win a National Championship and Super Bowl. The other two were Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer.
Carroll’s 1st season with the Jets he had a record of 6-10 and was fired after 1 season. The Patriots hired him in 1997. He went 10-6, 9-7 and 8-8. He was fired after the 1999 season. In his first two years with the Seahawks his team went 7-9 and 7-9. It wasn’t until Russell Wilson became a starter that he had sustained success in the NFL.
So…in his first three season’s Kelly had a better record than legendary NFL coaches.
Bill Parcells 22-25. The year after Parcells won his first Super Bowl (1986) The Giants went 6-9 (players strike) the following year.
Even Great Coaches have bad years.
The Trolls on Twitter say, “Chip Kelly is a College Coach.” Yes Kelly was a dominate college coach. In 4 years his conference Record in the PAC-12 was 33-3. The Oregon Ducks finished ranked 11th, 3rd, 4th and 2nd. This was a conference that had Jim Harbaugh coaching at Stanford and Pete Carroll at USC. Bill Belichick and Urban Meyer spent time with Kelly to learn his offense
Both Carroll and Harbaugh have had great success in the NFL. It took Carroll a little longer but the college game now translates to the NFL. Look at the two most successful QB’s in the RedZone over the past 8 weeks. Cam Newton and Russell Wilson, Why? Because those teams run a version of Chip Kelly’s read-option. Almost every NFL runs a version of Kelly’s offense. He is not just a college coach, he’s a football coach. Teams are running no huddle and spread offenses to increase their chances of scoring more. Kelly’s offense is not a gimmick, it is the new NFL!
Kelly made the right choice in getting rid of Nick Foles, he has been awful with the St. Louis Rams. Foles had a career year under Kelly. In 2013 he completed 64% of his passes, had 27 touchdowns and only 2 interceptions. With the Rams he has completed 56% of his passes, has 7 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Kelly gambled with Sam Bradford and lost. Bradford has been atrocious all season.
If the Tennessee Titans are smart, they will hire Kelly immediately. I don’t necessarily feel that Kelly should be the general manager. There have been several great coaches that have struggled with both roles. Bill Parcells, Joe Gibbs and Jimmy Johnson got all the power and weren’t successful doing both.
Twitter Trolls have also said, “He only coaches one side of the ball.” He traded for Kiko Alonso and it is hard to have a great defensive team when your offense is amongst the leaders in 3 and outs. The defense will get worn down over the course of a game.
Kelly failed this year and after they were knocked out of making the playoffs Kelly owned it. He said, “Don’t blame the players blame me.” Kelly has been a success, in his first three years he had a better record than 3 hall of fame coaches, yet everyone wants to attack him. Why don’t you attack Rex Ryan, the guy talk’s trash every week and he hasn’t made the playoffs in 5 straight year. He refuses to evolve.
I hope Kelly is united with Marcus Mariota, that would be a formidable duo for the next ten years to come. You can’t win long term in this league without a quarterback. If you don’t want to take my word for it, just go look at Carroll and Bill Belichick’s record before they got Wilson and Brady under center. I believe in Chip Kelly.
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