Here is a good piece with Merrill Reese offering some thoughts on Chip Kelly.
There is no groundbreaking news here, but it does show what a good salesman Kelly is. He sat down with Reese after his hiring and picked Merrill’s brain. The Eagles recently had an alumni event and Kelly was great. He spent time with the older players and made them feel welcome. Kelly was the last person out of the room. He genuinely loves football. And it shows.
Good story here from Tim McManus on a documentary that is being done on DeSean Jackson. The documentary is being done by DeSean’s brother, Byron Jackson.
Byron recorded DeSean for years. There is bound to be plenty of really interesting footage to check out. DeSean’s father groomed him for the NFL from an early age.
Check out Tim’s story for some good nuggets, including some early friction between Andy Reid and DeSean. Papa Jackson was tough on coaches and Big Red didn’t want to deal with any of that.
Don Banks of SI.com wrote a piece about the teams most likely to bounce back from a bad 2012 season. Who does he think will go from last place to the playoffs?
Here are his thoughts on the Eagles:
“For starters, Eagles believers probably know the NFC East is an equal opportunity division and has been for quite some time. All four teams have won the division once in the past four years, and the last team to repeat as champions were the 2003-04 Eagles. It doesn’t take 12 or 13 wins to claim the East, either. The most recent three division champs went 10-6 or 9-7, so it’s not a mountain that can’t be scaled in one expedited burst, as the Redskins just proved. There’s so much change underway in Philly, and that usually requires an acclimation period of sorts and enduring the baby steps phase of the rebuilding process. But Chip Kelly doesn’t really strike us as the patient type, and if he can find a hot hand at quarterback, solidify the offensive line and shore up that sieve-like secondary, the Eagles have the skill-position weapons to win with. This isn’t a club facing a three-year slog back to contention.
2013 playoff chances: 50-50, but climbing.”
That seems like a pretty fair assessment of things.
Felix Jones coming to the Eagles seems like a no-brainer for both sides. The Eagles wanted another talented RB to add to the mix. Jones wasn’t getting much in the way of free agent interest so now he comes to a team that can use his skill set and will likely play 3 RBs.
Matt Moseley writes for FOX Sports Southwest and offers a different take. I don’t think he’s very high on Jones. Here is the opening paragraph.
“The Dunkin’ Donuts stores in Greater Philadelphia received some wonderful news Tuesday when the Philadelphia Eagles signed former Cowboys running back Felix Jones to a one-year contract. The former Cowboys second-round pick showed up for training camp in July at least 10 pounds overweight, and promptly failed a conditioning test. “
Ouch.
The one point I would make to Moseley is that coming to Philly is perfect for Jones. Chip Kelly won’t allow Jones to be overweight. Kelly will have the nutrition guys all over Jones. They’ll be feeding him grass, soy, or cloud stew if that’s what it takes to get Jones into shape.
Jerry Jones country club ways are a thing of the past.
Jason Cole of Yahoo.com has a lengthy, 2-part interview with Michael Vick. Often, things like this are boring and close to worthless. This interview had a handful of interesting comments from Vick.
In Pt. 2, Vick explains that he was warned by a friend/mentor that he was going to go to prison if he didn’t change his ways. Vick’s response.
“I laughed at him. I laughed at him.”
Vick thought his money and fame could get him out of any situation that arose. He learned the hard way that wasn’t true, not by a long shot.
The good news is that Vick is a changed man.
Jimmy Smith had a great NFL career, mostly with the Jags, but he has found hard times and is now on his way to prison. Drugs were a problem for Smith throughout his NFL career.
What some people may not know is that Smith was an Eagle for a short time. I always wondered why Smith was cut. Dan Shonka spilled the beans today on Twitter.
#JimmySmith has always been a talented WR. We had him in Philly & he was our best WR. He was cut by RichKotite because of his drug problem
— Dan Shonka (@Ourlads_Shonka) May 14, 2013
Shonka was a scout for the Eagles back in the 90’s. He would certainly know what was going on back then.
It is interesting to see those comments. Back then the Eagles had Fred Barnett and Calvin Williams, a pair of talented WRs. It must have been obvious to see just how talented Smith was, making his issues all the more frustrating.
The Eagles also lost WR Cris Carter to drugs and alcohol in the 1980s. In the 1990s the team lost LT Bernard Williams to drugs. It is incredibly frustrating to see careers sidetracked or ruined like this. Even worse is when drug use affects someone the way it did Smith and he’s headed to prison. Such a shame.
LeSean McCoy has been a terrific RB for the Eagles on the field. Off the field, things have been less than ideal. He had a bizarre spat about child support and other things with the mother of his child on Twitter. The charges she made against McCoy weren’t good and his response was even worse.
Now comes a TMZ report involving McCoy beind sued over an incident on a party bus. Jimmy Bama wrote out the pertinent details. McCoy’s response is that he doesn’t know the woman, but she was on the bus with a friend of his.
This could be a shakedown scheme or a legit incident. Either way, Shady needs to be careful. He needs to be smarter about the fact he’s a public figure and that is a good and bad thing. Don’t let yourself be put in a position where people can accuse you of the wrong thing.
And if he did what is alleged…that’s dumb, dumb, and dumb.
We also have the bizarre Mark Barkley story. Shady told the media he had been calling Matt Barkley “Mark”. Matt told the media Shady had been calling him Matt the whole time. Is Shady goofing around with the media? I don’t quite get this. Nothing wrong going on here, but it is an odd story to say the least.
“Keep an eye out for 2 UDFAs I hear Eagles already like: ILB Jake Knott (Iowa St.) and C Kyle Quinn (Arizona). Could be 53-roster sleepers.”
Quinn makes a ton of sense. He is a good athlete and has the kind of frame that Chip Kelly likes. Dallas Reynolds and Matt Tennant are far from sure things. Quinn has experience at G and C, and we know Kelly likes versatile players.
Knott is tougher. He didn’t show the physicality in college to be a thumper. He isn’t athletic enough to count on as the WILB, or playmaker. Knott dealt with shoulder injuries his last couple of years and finally had surgery in late 2012. If that shoulder hindered his ability to take on and shed blocks and he’s able to do that now, Knott could be a serious roster candidate. He is a natural LB and has good instincts.
Great news from Paul Domowitch:
Donovan McNabb confirmed today that he will retire as an Eagle in September, probably at Week 3 game v. KC when Andy Reid is in the house.
— Paul Domowitch (@pdomo) May 14, 2013
Donovan never won the Super Bowl, but he was the QB for a decade of great success. Eagles fans hopefully will embrace Donovan as time goes by and his achievements start to stand out more. You know the old saying “sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees”, that seems to be true with McNabb’s time with the Eagles. His issues were so focused on that we didn’t always appreciate the good things he did.
It will also be cool if Donovan’s ceremony does happen when Reid can be on hand. They helped make each other into major NFL success stories.
We’ve all heard a ton about Chip Kelly and the fast-paced offense he is bringing to the NFL. One thing we need to be clear on is the fact that Andy Reid didn’t exactly run a slow offense. The Eagles were 4th in the NFL in seconds per play last year.
I guess the key here is context. Chip Kelly’s pace is beyond what is fast in terms of NFL standards. The only team that is likely to be at his pace is the Patriots, who led the NFL last year in offensive plays and the speed in which they were run.
Chip Kelly’s offense averaged 77 plays per game at Oregon over the last 3 years. This is one of the leading figures in college football, where there is more emphasis on offensive tempo. If Kelly can get the Eagles up in the 75 to 80 range (plays per game), I think he’ll be happy with that pace. Last year the Eagles were just above 67 plays per game.
