Eagles

This Scathing Takedown of Chip Kelly Will Make You Embrace Doug Pederson

By Kyle Scott

Published: Sep 9th, 2016 · 2:42 PM EDT

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There’s a headline I thought I’d never write. But here we are– two days before the start of the season and I’ve finally come around on the idea of embracing Doug Pederson as our head coach. What choice do I have? Chris Brown of The Ringer made it easy, though, with this scathing takedown of Chip Kelly’s offense, his failure to evolve, and seeming unwillingness to acknowledge his faults. I mean, ouch:

Then … nothing. Kelly’s 2015 Eagles offense was essentially unchanged from 2013 (and the 49ers offense this preseason looked identical as well), and what two or three years prior was fresh is now stale and easily defended. If anything, Kelly’s later offenses were more simplistic than his earlier ones, as the creative motions and formations that Kelly once used so well largely vanished.

And it’s not only the running game — Kelly’s pass game has been in stasis since 2013 as well. Though Kelly’s teams have always been run-first affairs — at Oregon he frequently admitted that “we run the ball better than we throw the ball” — to win in the NFL you must be able to throw when the other team gears up to stop the run. And, despite showing the flexibility to experiment in 2013, there has been zero evolution in Kelly’s passing offense since, and, like Kelly’s running game, most defensive coaches can identify what pass play is coming based on how his players align.

Brown builds his takedown largely on Chip purposefully getting away from running quarterbacks, which makes his zone read concept useless and the rest of his offensive predictable. Without the threat of the quarterback keeping the ball, defenses can key on the running back, and Chip’s traditional runs are often tipped off by the formation, allowing defenses to check into stunts that easily stop the play, often behind the line of scrimmage.

This thing is filled with easy-to-understand analysis and video and is well worth your time if you want to feel a little bit better about the fact that, yeah, Crusher Doug is now the Eagles’ head coach. Timeout. Yeah, I’m still in.