What They’re Saying About the Eagles


Chip Kelly

Chip Kelly. (Jeff Fusco)

With a 45-17 loss to an average opponent comes a certain degree of scrutiny, and that much has been felt at the NovaCare Complex in the wake of the Eagles’ biggest loss of the season.

Here’s what’s being said about the Birds, locally and nationally, including players questioning their teammates’ effort, and the fast-heating seat upon which Chip Kelly sits.

CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco writes that Kelly needs to be bailed out of his own power grab, because it’s failing in a major way.

Why is this on Kelly, who is the offensive guru? He is the de facto general manager now. He made all the moves in the offseason to build this team the way he wanted after he won a power play inside the building.

One of those moves was to sign [Byron] Maxwell to a huge contract away from Seattle. When the move was made, a handful of general managers told me it would be one that bombed.

That might be extreme, but Maxwell isn’t a No. 1 corner like he’s being paid to be or asked to be.

Kelly does a lot of really good things as a coach. I love the way he’s aggressive on offense. But the dual role is too much for him or any other coach. He needs help.

Former Eagles president Joe Banner ripped Maxwell’s effort on Twitter on Monday.

Mike Greenberg of ESPN’s Mike and Mike laid into Kelly yesterday morning, writes Pete Martini of the Statesman-Journal.

“You watch the way they just got destroyed yesterday, they stink. They have the wrong players. He got rid of all the right ones and brought in the wrong ones. They have gotten progressively worse every year as he’s put his guys in there,” Greenberg said.

“Chip Kelly, who got out of college before the posse could catch up to him, no longer has that problem. I don’t think, this is just my prediction, I do not believe Chip Kelly will be the coach of the Philadelphia Eagles next year. I think he’ll be coaching back in college, unless he can figure out a way to get to the Tennessee Titans, so he can coach (Marcus) Mariota.”

For the record, Mike Golic said he thought Kelly would be back in Philadelphia next season.

Either way, let the speculation begin.

Peter King of MMQB writes that the Eagles are the front-running landing spot for Colin Kaepernick this offseason.

I doubt San Francisco will be able to make a trade, because who’s going to want to pay Kaepernick $13.9 million next year when they’re not sure he can be their quarterback of the short- or long-term?

I talked to a few league people over the weekend about possible landing spots for Kaepernick, and the ones that seem to make the most sense, in order.

1. Philadelphia. If Chip Kelly is, as expected, still the coach, he’ll need a quarterback with his QB depth chart a disastrous minefield right now.

An anonymous Eagles player questioned DeMarco Murray‘s effort in the Eagles’ loss to Miami in Week 10, writes the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane.

It was third and 1, and DeMarco Murray got the handoff. He turned the corner and appeared to have the first down. But rather than finish off his run, he saw 185-pound cornerback Brice McCain coming at him, and he slid to the ground just barely beyond the first-down marker.

Millions watched it on TV and thousands saw it in person at Lincoln Financial Field, but the people it should matter to most were Murray’s teammates. And at least one, when asked on Sunday whether he thought the Eagles were giving it their all, noticed.

“Well, when you see DeMarco sliding before getting hit, you tell me. Was that giving full effort?” said an Eagles player who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “You see that [stuff], and it makes you wonder.”

Chris Chase of USA Today wonders Where in the World Will Chip Kelly Be in 2016.

I’ve been on Team Kelly since day one. I thought he’d become the first guy to bring in an offense from college and have it translate to the NFL. But after two-and-a-half years, I’m ready to declare the experiment as a failure. Unless the Eagles, who are 4-6 and stuck in third place in the NFC East, make a run to the division title, Kelly’s name is going to be brought up anytime the word “seat” follows “hot.” Ordinarily, a coach going  10-6, 10-6 and, say, 6-10 or 7-9 in his first three seasons, respectively, wouldn’t be in such a position, but the Eagles have regressed seemingly every quarter since Kelly’s debut in which his squad rolled out to a 33-7 lead over the Redskins early in the third quarter and everyone proclaimed him the king of the NFL.