Chip Kelly Officially In The Hotseat After Winless Start

Chip Kelly was quite the hot commodity when he first entered the NFL. Now, the Philadelphia Eagles head coach is officially in the hotseat after the team finished in disappointing fashion last year and is off to an 0-2 start this season. When Chip Kelly was the head coach of the Oregon Ducks, his fast paced offense could do no wrong, and there were several professional teams who were wanting to lure him in. Now, the winners of the Chip Kelly sweepstakes look to the teams who didn’t get his services.

One of the biggest problems Chip Kelley’s detractors have with his approach is that he completely revamped his team over the offseason. Gone are Nick Foles and LeSean McCoy. In their place, Chip Kelly is starting Sam Bradford and DeMarco Murray. The change at runningback has been the biggest detriment to the offense. Murray is coming off a season in which he ran for over 1,800 yards. This year, he has 21 carries for 11 yards. Against his former team on Sunday, in a game many believed he would explode, Murray had 13 carries for two yards.

Perhaps even worse for Chip Kelly is that he doesn’t seem to have any answers. According to Deadspin, after another loss, the head coach could only say that he had to “assess everything.” That’s hardly the kind of comments fans want to hear when this was supposed to be a team competing for the Super Bowl. Chip Kelly’s claim to fame are the claims that he’s an offensive genius. That’s taking a real hit as he continues to replace offensive players and sees their replacements underperform their predecessors.

As SB Nation points out, the Foles and McCoy departures aren’t the only issues Chip Kelly’s team has. DeSean Jackson was let go last year, and Jeremy Maclin was also allowed to leave this offseason. That’s two starting wide receivers to leave the team in the span of 15 months. While the Eagles would claim they were able to fill those holes with players that better fit the Oregon Ducks-style offense they want to run, the results have not shown that. The NFL is an unforgiving place, especially when you come in from the college ranks acting as if you know better than everybody else. There’s very little doubt that’s the perception in Philly these days. Now Chip Kelly, who took over total control of the team this offseason, needs to prove he knows what he’s doing, or his tenure is going to be short.

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