The Philadelphia Eagles had a very successful season, but it wasn’t enough to make the playoffs; like they did in year one of the Chip Kelly experiment. While maybe the early success of Kelly could have been dismissed as fluky, he’s totally legit now. The more moderate and more intellectual version of “The Mad Hatter” Les Miles, Chip Kelly has become today’s wunderkid genius of football.
Chip is the latest in the line of mastermind mad scientists in the NFL. (A la Bill Walsh, Mike Shanahan in his prime, Mike Martz before he was figured out, Dick Vermeil etc.
And now, we know that Chip Kelly will get to pick his own ingredients for the concoctions he’ll cook up.
Chip Kelly gets to be the grocery shopper, in addition to the chef. He gets to make the Philadelphia Eagles into his NFL version of the Oregon Ducks, if he wants. Here’s NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport:
“Chip Kelly now, along with the being the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and leading them to two 10-win seasons, he is now also running the scouting department giving him as much power as only Bill Belichick. They are the only two current head coaches now to coach and then run the entire scouting department.“
“This mirrors the structure that the Eagles had under Andy Reid with the head coach running the personnel department. Howie Roseman, the former general manager who received a promotion yesterday, he is now going to run basically the entire football operation. So what Chip Kelly wanted was simply to be able to choose his own players. He is going to have full final say on the kind of players who will be on the field for him, just like he had at Oregon. And just so we know this is clear, Chip Kelly will also be hiring the next personnel executive.
“Basically he will be hiring his own general manager.”
In other words, don’t be shocked if Chip Kelly can find a way to trade up and get Oregon Ducks QB, Heisman winner Marcus Mariota with the first pick in the NFL Draft. It could happen! Don’t put it past him. So now the Eagles are totally “The Kelly Factor” for 2015, maybe Eagles players will be saying “I’m going to Disney World” in 2016?
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2