The firing of Chip Kelly was a move Philadelphia Eagles fans thought might happen this upcoming offseason, but no one expected owner Jeffrey Lurie to pull the plug on Kelly with still one game remaining in the 2015 season.
Lurie’s decision to fire Kelly comes just 2 1/2 years after Kelly was hired as head coach, and almost a year to the day after Kelly was able to wrestle away full control from former general manager, Howie Roseman. Kelly’s first season in Philadelphia was a smashing success, as he went 10-6 and delivered an NFC East title to the city. While the Eagles’ 1-3 finish in 2014 cost the city a playoff berth, Kelly still recorded 10 wins for the second straight year and set a franchise record for points scored.
This season was his downfall, though, and downfall is putting it lightly. A slew of Kelly’s highly controversial moves have backfired, and there’s no one to blame but him. His two highest-paid free-agent acquisitions – $63 million cornerback Byron Maxwell and $40 million running back DeMarco Murray – were extremely underwhelming, with Murray even losing his starting job by late season. The Nick Foles-for-Sam Bradford trade has its supporters and critics, but it’s difficult to look optimistically upon the LeSean McCoy-for-Kiko Alonso trade, letting Jeremy Maclin walk in free agency, and the inexplicable decision to release both DeSean Jackson (two years ago) and Evan Mathis (this past offseason) didn’t make any sense.
Was it ego of a man who thought his system was a plug-and-play offense? His odd quirks in Philadelphia were well-known; the coach who gave everyone smoothies seemed to wear out his welcome in 2015 as the team fell apart, particularly a defense that had previously been on the rise. Giving up 38 points three times at the Linc doesn’t endear a coach to the city; neither does releasing Jackson while extending Riley Cooper. When All-Pro left tackle Jason Peters pulled himself out of Saturday’s elimination loss to the Washington Redskins, it didn’t help Kelly’s case.
Kelly’s initial contract with the team was set to expire after 2017, so as coaching contacts work, he will be paid the $32.5 million in full from Lurie. Kelly the coach wasn’t nearly as bad as history will remember him – he went 26-21 in almost three seasons, twice winning double-digit games, and doing so with a quarterback carousel of Nick Foles, Michael Vick, Mark Sanchez, and Sam Bradford. That’s not bad for a college coach who had never worked in the NFL before the Eagles hired him. But it was Kelly the GM who sunk this ship, and there’s no one to blame for this season but Kelly himself.
