Let me start off by saying that Chip Kelly is at fault for much this season. His game management, something that should be expected to improve as college coaches adapt to the pro game, has been suspect. What I mean is there are certain scenarios in college where you go for it on fourth down (or don’t), kick the long-ish field goal (or don’t), press for more points (or don’t), etc. The calculations are different in the NFL, and all the odds and charts in the world can’t replace experience when you’re on the sideline and have 20 seconds to make a decision on a situation you’re being faced with for the first time. So Chip’s struggles in this regard are understandable. Not excusable, but understandable, and the sort of thing that should be expected to improve over time. But there’s more. He lacks command of in-game personnel decisions. He’s thrown players and coaches under the bus for things that ultimately roll up to him. His playcalling has been horrific. The multiple brutal starts are on him. And while the Eagles have adjusted nicely late in games (more on that in a second), Chip has displayed a stubbornness that would make Andy Reid blush. In fact, the only hallmark of Chip, the coach, that should be viewed as a success this season is the Eagles’ ability to outlast opponents late in games– likely a result of their intense and finely-tuned training regimen.

But despite all that, there’s been one common denominator during Chip’s tenure in Philadelphia: shitty quarterbacks.

These are the regular season quarterbacks Chip has had with the Eagles: Michael Vick, Nick Foles, Mark Sanchez, Sam Bradford. Every. Single. One. Of those guys has shown that they are not reliable starting NFL quarterbacks.

Let’s start with Vick. He easily has the most tools of anyone Chip has worked with here (or ever), but the convicted felon has shown time and again that he is anything but a consistent starter. He had his moments with Chip – oh, that first drive against the Redskins – but anyone who’s ever rooted for Vick knew how it would end: not well. Vick got hurt and in came Foles.

Andrew Porter wrote a piece for CBS Philly today in which he cited recent comments by Colin Cowherd and Peter King defending Kelly. Said Cowherd of Foles: “Nick Foles is a virtual MVP under Chip Kelly. Jason Garret can’t win a game with a backup quarterback. Jeff Fisher gets Nick Foles and ‘I’m gonna bench him.’”


Perhaps Foles and Kelly were the beneficiaries of the league being caught off-guard by Kelly’s offense in his first year here. But there’s no denying that Foles, who went to the Pro Bowl that year, was damn near great in his eight games as starter beginning with his seven-touchdown performance against the Raiders. These are his QB ratings in those games:

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Fast-forward two years and he’s just been benched in favor of Case Keenum(!). Chip Kelly deserves credit for extracting anything, let alone greatness, from Foles.

Sanchez. Dude, the chicken tender-eating bro is an average starter slash decent backup, and he’ll never be anything more. And yet, despite the Eagles’ late-season struggles last year, Sanchez turned in the best QB rating of his career – 88.4, a full six points higher than his next-best high with the Jets in 2011 – and best completion percentage – 64.1, eight points higher than his next-best high with the Jets in 2011 – coming off the bench for the Eagles late in the season.

And then there’s Bradford, a skilled deer confused by oncoming highlights who is on pace to have his highest completion percentage of his career, 63.9, this is after missing an entire season and part of training camp.

Granted, the Eagles throw into the backfield a lot, and that sort of thing does wonders for the ol’ completion percentage. But you can argue that perhaps with the exception of Bradford, Kelly has extracted peak performance from the other three guys– certainly Foles and Sanchez. But that doesn’t change the fact that Chip has yet to work with what any reasonable person would consider a reliable quarterback, let alone a great one. This is precisely why I can’t get over the Marcus Mariota thing. Sure, maybe the Eagles had no chance of moving up and all the talk was just over-exaggerated hype from blowhard self-serving knuckleheads like Sal Paoaoaoaooaoaoaoalonononoaoaononononononotonio. But Mariota, who has been AFC Offensive Player of the Week twice in his first 10 weeks (two of which he missed due to injury, and one of which his team had a bye), represented Chip’s chance to get a franchise quarterback and, even better, his guy. Every time I mention Mariota people tweet me or comment that I should move on. But I can’t. Because regardless of what it would have taken to get him, it would’ve been worth it. You can replace draft picks, linemen, linebackers. Those players are easier to come by. But there is a dearth of ++ quarterbacks– highly-valued centerpieces almost necessary for any sort of sustained success in the absence of a world-beating defense.

The problem now is that there’s no obvious target or path to obtaining a star, or potential star, quarterback. I don’t think Colin Kaepernick is the answer. And now that we’re nearing the end of Chip’s third year here, without improvement and without an obvious quarterback, time may eventually run out before we get to see what Chip is truly capable of in the NFL. As currently built, the Eagles are not constructed to win. It may not be the fault of Chip’s GM-ing, however.

The moves he’s made, or been behind, over the last two offseasons are mostly defensible. DeSean Jaccson is a bad apple. Foles was just benched. LeSean McCoy has shown signs of wearing down (through injury) and the Eagles have rushed for over 150 yards in four of their last five games. Todd Herremans and Evan Mathis are playing out their careers. Only an argument for keeping Jeremy Maclin can be made, but his departure was simply a matter of the Chiefs offering more. Maybe the Eagles should’ve matched.

But, sadly, until Chip is able to get a reliable quarterback – if he’s able to find one – the deck is stacked against him, so maybe he’ll want to keep Jon Dorenbos around to help him locate the card he so badly needs. Otherwise, the Chip Kelly era may prove to be a giant disaster, perhaps more due to circumstance than through any fault of Kelly’s. He needs a (reliable) quarterback.