At least one Philadelphia Eagles player is sick of playing for Chip Kelly, according to that player’s agent.
The agent of an Eagles player, who chose to remain anonymous so that the player does not face backlash, told Matt Lombardo of NJ Advanced Media on Tuesday that Kelly has lost his locker room.
“Chip Kelly has lost the team,” the agent said. “Between the losses and his bull[bleep] methods that aren’t working, I can tell you that the players have tuned him out.”
Perhaps more telling, the agent claimed that there is a player on the team who could be playing through an injury but is choosing to remain sidelined because “he won’t play hurt for Chip.”
The Eagles are only one game behind the New York Giants in the NFC East, but it feels like the wheels are coming off in the wake of a blowout home loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. On Tuesday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter said he believes Kelly and the Eagles are “sick of each other” and that Kelly would likely be more comfortable elsewhere. Schefter later clarified that those thoughts were merely his opinion and not something he heard from a source.
But none of this is new, anyway. Reports about Kelly being in danger of losing his locker room surfaced more than a month ago. Stephen A. Smith said recently that many of Kelly’s players dislike him. And before all that, there was speculation that Kelly will leave Philly for this high-profile college coaching job.
Of course, winning has a way of solving problems. Should the Eagles go on a run and make the playoffs, the “Chip Kelly is a dead man walking” narrative will cool off — at least for a little while.
