For fans of the Philadelphia Eagles - and fans of the NFL in general - if Chip Kelly's moves thus far in the still-young 2015-16 league year have left you questioning the basic tenets of your life and the world around you, you're not alone.
According to a report from Jeff McLane of The Philadelphia Inquirer, league wide reaction from other NFL GMs has had a similar bent.
Opinion on Chip Kelly's moves from those I talk to around the NFL has seem based mostly on personal opinion of Kelly. Those that like him ..
— Jeff McLane (@Jeff_McLane) March 11, 2015
say give him time, the Bradford trade, for instance, could pay off. Those that don't like him (and there are many) say he's nuts and in ... — Jeff McLane (@Jeff_McLane) March 11, 2015
over his head as a GM. But even those that I trust to be impartial have all had the same take: "WTF is Chip doing?"
— Jeff McLane (@Jeff_McLane) March 11, 2015
That last one is probably the most accurate representation of the general feeling towards Kelly's short reign as an NFL GM.
A quick recap: an offseason after pushing to jettison Pro Bowl wide receiver DeSean Jackson for no compensation, Kelly traded another Pro Bowl player in running back LeSean McCoy to the Buffalo Bills in exchange for linebacker Kiko Alonso, flipped his starting quarterback, Nick Foles, and a 2016 second-round draft pick to St. Louis in exchange for injury-prone signal-caller Sam Bradford and watched wide receiver Jeremy Maclin walk away in free agency.
While many of the moves are defensible in their own way - Jackson reportedly struggled with Kelly's focus on culture and personality, McCoy was slated to count $10.25 million against the cap and isn't the north-south, one cut-and-go style of runner that Kelly prefers for his zone blocking scheme and Maclin is reportedly set to make somewhere in the neighborhood of $11 million per season on his new deal with the Kansas City Chiefs - taken together it's a jarring and somewhat overwhelming amount of change in a very short span.
Kelly, of course, emerged victorious from a power struggle with GM Howie Roseman this offseason and promptly undid much of the work Roseman and former Eagles head coach Andy Reid did in putting the Philadelphia roster together - it may be fair, as Tony Manfred of Business Insider argues, to view this season as Year One of the Chip Kelly era, despite his having been in the league for two-plus seasons now.
Kelly may be getting his first crack at really building the roster the way he wants, but he's no longer an NFL neophyte.
He clearly believes, based on his moves this offseason, that he needs to invest resources into the defense - hence the additions of Byron Maxwell and Walter Thurmond and the desperate chase for Devin McCourty - while his scheme on the offensive side of the ball will do much of the work when it comes to scoring points - as evidenced by the decision not to pay a highly talented runner that wasn't a perfect scheme fit in McCoy and a good, not great, receiver in Maclin.
Todd Herremans, a veteran guard jettisoned by the Eagles this offseason - along with Trent Cole and Cary Williams - said shortly after his release that Kelly believes his biggest asset on offense is his scheme and the position he values the most is quarterback.
It's not surprising then that Sports Illustrated's Peter King revealed Wednesday the reason the Bradford-Foles trade went down was because "Chip came hard after Bradford."
Bradford, a former first-overall draft pick who won the Offensive Rookie of the Year award in 2010, has struggled to remain healthy and produce consistently since. Of course, he was also forced to endure one of the worst offensive supporting casts in the league in St. Louis, so at least some of the Rams failures can't be pinned on him.
Whether the Bradford and McCoy moves work out for Kelly and the Eagles in the long run remains to be seen. One thing is for certain though; Chip is building the Eagles team in his image and isn't afraid to move any player or dump any contract if he thinks it will increase the chances of his team emerging victorious on Sunday.
