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The Philadelphia Eagles decided to give head coach Chip Kelly complete control of personnel decisions heading into the 2015 NFL offseason. Since that decision, Kelly has made multiple head-scratching moves, and the roster doesn’t seem to be near as talented as it was before he took control. He traded LeSean McCoy to the Buffalo Bills for Kiko Alonso, who was coming off ACL surgery, and who played for Kelly at Oregon. Kelly then traded Nick Foles to the St. Louis Rams for oft-injured Sam Bradford, who was also coming off another ACL surgery. He also let Jeremy Maclin walk away in free agency and sign with the Kansas City Chiefs and recently released starting guard Evan Mathis.
Kelly did make some significant free agent signings by bringing in running backs DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews, and also cornerback Byron Maxwell. While Mathews and Murray form a dynamic one-two punch, it’s entirely possible that both players will get injured, as the duo have had a lengthy injury history. It’s a big risk for Kelly to take, and I don’t believe it was necessary.
McCoy has gone on record saying that all of the moves Kelly has made shows that Kelly is racist. I don’t necessarily believe that, but I do believe Kelly has a hidden agenda. He wants to prove to everyone in the world that his offense is successful, due to his brilliance, and not the talent on the roster. He wants to be considered a genius so that he can fill his massive ego, and he feels the best way to do that is to prove he can be successful with a weaker roster.
Case in point, Kelly’s four quarterbacks entering training camp are Sam Bradford, Mark Sanchez, Matt Barkley, and Tim Tebow. Tebow and Sanchez are the only quarterbacks of the four to have won a playoff game, and you could say the New York Jets and Denver Broncos were successful in spite of them. Bradford has missed 31 games in his five-year career, including missing the entire 2014 season. Barkley hasn’t shown anything of promise when given the opportunity to play.
Kelly continues to talk up a quarterback competition between the four players, even saying Tebow has a chance to win the job, despite him being the statistically worst quarterback in NFL history. Normally, you would dismiss his positive talk of Tebow as crazy talk, but with Kelly’s love affair for himself, it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see Tebow begin the season under center for the Eagles. It would be the ultimate way for Kelly to prove his brilliance to the doubters, if he could make the playoffs with the worst quarterback in the NFL.
With Kelly more interested in trying to convince the rest of the league how much of a genius he is, he is gambling with his future. If he fails to take the Eagles to the playoffs in 2015, Kelly could be searching for a new job in 2016. He is the one who constructed this roster; therefore, it’s up to him to make the team a contender. If Kelly loses his job after the season, maybe then he will realize he’s not the most intelligent football mind in the world like he thinks he is right now.
Jason Fletcher is a Featured Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @JasonFletcher25, “Like” him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google.
