Offensive line has gotten lost in the Kelly shuffle
PHILADELPHIA >> Trust your system 110 percent. Get rid of the doubters, even the gifted ones who have made you and the rest of your operation successful.
Add a research and development department so private and guarded no one has much of a clue what they’re doing.
Twist the big boss’s arm until he lets you buy the groceries because, after all, you’re preparing the supper.
Tell the competition you’re a nonconformist who intends to not only beat them at their own game, but make them play your game.
Turn the music up loud … real, real loud.
Wake up one morning with the worst record in the worst division of pro football. Wake up blaming the like-minded people you’ve kept... for failing to execute because you know the system works, you’ve seen evidence of it.
In a nutshell, that’s the world as Chip Kelly knows it these days. It’s full of doubt, self-criticisms and frustration. Not a fun place to be.
It really is hard to believe the Eagles are 1-3 because, as he points out, a few kicks went the wrong way or one play didn’t break here and one play didn’t break there. Otherwise you can flip that record to 3-1. And then it hits you. The offensive line so grossly ignored the past few years is a shell of the relative five blocks of granite it was in Kelly’s first — and most successful — year offensively.
Left tackle Jason Peters is gutting it out when he’s not wearing out. Center Jason Kelce feels anxiety separation about every other week as he tries to get comfortable with new guards playing alongside him. Right tackle Lane Johnson is nursing a severely sprained knee.
Kelly lately doesn’t believe in drafting offensive linemen, at least not lately. He’d rather grow his own.
Well, guess what? In the last two drafts 67 offensive linemen have been selected. Thirty-four are starters.
The Eagles are one of just two teams who didn’t draft an offensive lineman the past two years. The other team also is from Pennsylvania although it wasn’t having nearly the difficulty the Eagles were scoring points until its franchise quarterback was hurt.
Let’s be real. Brandon Weeden, of all journeymen quarterbacks, is fully functional behind the vaunted Dallas Cowboys line that Kelly’s defensive coordinator, Bill Davis, spends so much time game-planning for.
Four of the Cowboys five starters on the O-line are draft picks.
To think you can grow your own line out of undrafted free agents and guys flat off the streets is a perfect illustration of just how stubborn and inflexible Kelly can be.
The Eagles’ quarterback, Sam Bradford, really is an upgrade over what Kelly had last year in Nick Foles and Mark Sanchez. It’s just that Bradford is playing with young guys who do knucklehead things and new guys who don’t know the system, or are anything but elite.
This past game rookie wide receiver Nelson Agholor, the first-round draft pick out of USC, followed a 45-yard reception with a fumble on a reverse set up just for him.
Later Agholor didn’t line up properly, resulting in a penalty that took an Eagles touchdown off the board and changed the way they had to play Washington. The game ended with Agholor fumbling a lateral from Jordan Matthews. What Agholor deserves this week is to play special teams and come off the bench against New Orleans.
Bradford threw three TD passes, no interceptions and survived five sacks by Washington. It should have been four TDs and no picks and no sacks.
We’re talking a signature game. It wasn’t because mistakes are more likely to happen with a lot of turnover and in some cases, guys that aren’t as good as some of the guys you ditched.
Think DeSean Jackson would have lined up improperly, fumbled the ball away twice or even thought about coming off the field if he didn’t turn that 45-yard grab into a score? Or Jeremy Maclin?
The running back situation almost is comical, and that’s largely because the line has been so ineffective.
It’s hard to tell if DeMarco Murray is a better back than Ryan Mathews or at his price — $42 million over five years — is a luxury. Darren Sproles is the team’s best back.
What almost is mindboggling is that Kelly cannot figure out how to get his team off to a decent start in the first half. The Eagles have gone threeand-out on their first possession in three of four games. They lead the NFL with 17 three-and-outs. Three-and-outs plus Kelly’s up-tempo scheme equal abject failure. The Eagles have scored a total of three points in the first halves of their three losses.
The defense, for all of its effort and grit, lacks a pass rush.
Someone should have noticed before Trent Cole basically was given a takeit-or-leave-it pay-cut. It was no coincidence Connor Barwin had 14½ sacks last season. Or that Barwin (2 sacks) is having a tough go of it now. The Eagles drafted Marcus Smith to be the third pass rusher coming off the edge. They’ve scratched him in all but one game.
The season is anything but over for Kelly and the Eagles. Playing in the worst division in football actually is beneficial.
It’s not even about getting to the playoffs this season but laying the foundation for the future. We’re not talking about wholesale lineup changes, which would be ridiculous at this point.
No, this is about a moderate culture change including a thorough evaluation of the way the Eagles should rebuild the roster. It’s not too late. You might have to turn the music down just a bit.