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Chip Kelly is Right: The Eagles Aren’t Bad, They’re Painfully Mediocre
By Jim Adair
Published:
In his press conference today, Chip Kelly said he doesn’t think the Eagles are a bad team “by any stretch.” I tend to agree with Chip. The Eagles aren’t “bad” per se, but hopelessly mediocre. So let’s take a look at one of those “by any stretch” measures, team rankings vs. the rest on the NFL in a number of categories. The list below will show you that the Eagles aren’t really bad, and they aren’t really good. Oh, except on defense. They’re really bad on defense.
- Total Offense
- 15th in yards per game
- 14th in passing yards per game
- 15th in rushing yards per game
- tied 16th in points per game
- Quarterbacking
- 13th in QB completion percentage
- 24th in yards per attempt
- 22nd in touchdowns
- 27th in fewest interceptions
- tied 18th in sacks allowed
- 26th in passer rating
- Rushing
- 14th in yards
- 21st in yards per attempt
- Downs
- 7th in first downs
- 20th in third down percentage
- tied 17th in fourth down percentage
- Total Defense
- 30th in yards allowed
- 30th in yards per game
- 26th in passing yards per game
- 29th in rushing yards per game
- 26th in rushing yards per attempt
- 26th in third down conversion percentage allowed
- 29th in fourth down conversion percentage allowed
- 28th in points allowed per game
- 18th in passer rating against
- 14th in completion percentage against
Operating under the belief that the top third of the league could be considered good, the middle third could be considered mediocre, and the bottom third are bad (a simplification, I know), the Eagles are mostly mediocre. They’re a middle-of-the-road team that dabbles in being bad, but rarely, if ever, approaches “good.” The positive for Chip is that the team isn’t bad everywhere, but it’s bad in enough spots that a one-year turnaround seems like a real challenge.
And we could get insight into that challenge on a whole new level … this year on HARD KNOCKS.
When he's not writing about sports here or ranting about them on Twitter, Jim is probably watching X-Files on Netflix or drinking a beer somewhere. Jim has nothing against hockey, it's just not his style. He once met Duce Staley at a Sixers game.