FanPost

Why you're thinking about the Chip Kelly era all wrong

Look, there's no other way to say it. The 2015 Eagles season has been an absolute horror show. And most of the reasons for this disaster of a season are the direct result of the coaching and personnel decisions made by Chip Kelly.

There is absolutely nothing that Kelly has been good at this year. His play-calling has been bland and uninspired. His personnel usage has been head-scratching (hey there, Miles Austin!), the players seem to have lost the desire to play for him, his defensive coordinator may not last the week, and his off-season moves as the team's new general manager have all blown up in his face.

The Eagles should never have been considered a Super Bowl favorite after one very good preseason performance. Some of us knew that at the time, and everyone knows it now.

When you look at this roster and the players who have been on the field for most of this season, one thing has been clear. There simply isn't enough talent on the field for this team to compete. And it's really just as simple as that.

But for everyone calling for Kelly to be put on the next flight to Austin (University of Texas), L.A. (USC) or Nashville (Marcus Mariota reuinion), perhaps you should pump the brakes for just a minute.

There is no doubt that, after two 10-6 seasons and one playoff appearance, the Eagles have bottomed out. But what has skewed everyone's thinking on the state of the Eagles is Kelly's first season, when he took over a team that went 4-12 the season before, with holes all over the roster, and rode a ridiculously hot Nick Foles to a 10-win season and a playoff berth.

The Eagles followed that up with another 10-win team, but it was a 10-win team that did not truly deserve to start off the season 9-3. Foles was below average, LeSean McCoy looked like he had lost a step, and the defense (especially the secondary) was an absolute mess. Only a series of special teams touchdowns and defensive scores helped the Eagles win nine of their first 12. The three-game collapse after their Thanksgiving Day victory over Dallas last year, in retrospect, should not have been a surprise.

But that 10-win season in 2013 may have been the worst thing to happen to the Chip Kelly era. And when you think about this season, you realize THIS is the season the Eagles should have had in '13.

The Eagles and Chip should have gone through all this nonsense in his first season. Because they finished with such a good record, there was no way to address the one position on this team that matters more than anything else.

The quarterback.

Heading into his rookie season, armed with the fourth pick overall, there were simply no good quarterbacks to select in that draft. Remember the first two QBs taken that year, E.J. Manuel and Geno Smith. Yuck.

After the 2013 season, armed with too high a draft pick, Kelly had to ride a hot Foles into 2014, probably knowing all along that the wheels would fall off. And when they did, they had nowhere to turn other than Mark Sanchez.

So in his quest to land a QB that had the potential to provide some upside, the Birds went out and traded for Sam Bradford before this season. And while it was good to see Kelly wasn't in love with an obviously flawed player like Foles, Bradford's sizeable career should have been evidence enough that the guy was not going to take this team to the Super Bowl.

The real problem with that trade was giving up a second-round pick in the deal. Which is, incidentally, why Jeffrey Lurie needs to hire an experienced NFL personnel man to either assist Kelly this off-season, or remove Chip from the general manger's role entirely.

But the growing pains the Eagles are experiencing now should have occurred during Kelly's first season. He was supposed to struggle in his first few seasons as he built a program and tried to develop a quarterback. But he has not had that opportunity.

Perhaps now, as the team has fallen to 4-7 and a realistic path to 4-12 sits in front of them, Chip and the Eagles will finally be able to draft, or trade up to draft, a QB that can potentially lead the franchise going forward.

So maybe it would be best to forget about the 2013 and '14 seasons entirely. Pretend they NEVER happened. Instead, let's think of this season, 2015, as Kelly's first, because this is what should have happened in '13.

Kelly should have struggled that season like he is now.

If you want to remove the GM tag from Kelly's resume, I'd be all for that. But I'd keep Chip on and see if he can find that signal caller that he truly believes he can win with. And if they do draft a young QB, you have to give him a couple of years to develop him, too.

Jettisoning Chip would be the satisfying and more interesting thing to do this off-season, but I'm not sure it would make the Eagles better.

It would be healthier for everyone to just forget about the two years before this year. Pretend this is Chip's rookie season. Because honestly, this is what should have happened three years ago.