The problem with the Eagles is not Chip Kelly – it’s Jeffrey Lurie
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The problem with the Eagles is not Chip Kelly
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"Kelly left the Eagles last week with a 26-21 record, no small achievement after taking over a 4-12 team in turmoil during the final year of Andy Reid’s tenure. Kelly’s feat of making the playoffs in his rookie NFL season was an extraordinary accomplishment, by any measurement.
Kelly also came to Philadelphia with no franchise quarterback in place – an old, battered Michael Vick and a young, immobile Nick Foles were his only options – two cancers in his locker room (DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy) and a racial crisis involving Riley Cooper just before his first training camp.
Somehow, Kelly turned that mess into a 10-6 team that took New Orleans into the final minutes of the playoffs two years ago. The coach then repeated that 10-6 mark last year, before his own failings as a GM sabotaged the just-ended season.
Chip Kelly is a good coach. A smarter owner would have presented Kelly with an ultimatum: You can keep coaching my team, but I’m finding a new GM. If Kelly declined that offer, then Jeffrey Lurie would have had no choice but to replace Kelly in both roles.
The guess here is that Kelly would have accepted the demotion.
But Lurie never presented that scenario to Kelly because it would have kept the owner’s favorite ally, Howie Roseman, in exile. In other words, Lurie chose Roseman over Kelly.
The owner favored a GM who failed repeatedly in that role for five years over a coach who had one bad season.
Chip Kelly deserved a smarter decision than the one Lurie made last week. As fans, we all did. Just ask yourself this question: Who has a better chance of winning a championship in the NFL, Chip Kelly or Howie Roseman?
Until he looks critically at his role in the failure of the team, the Eagles are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past generation.
Until Jeffrey Lurie identifies the real cause of the problem – himself – there will be no parades down Broad Street for the Eagles."