On third thought, Chip Kelly will reportedly become the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles after all. In another surprising turn of events from what has been an offseason filled with a whirlwind of changing information, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported on Wednesday that Kelly and the Eagles have reached an agreement. Oregon University confirmed the news on Twitter.
A little over a week ago, several reports surfaced that indicated Kelly had decided to stay at Oregon after interviewing with the Eagles and the Cleveland Browns. That news came just days after NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reported that Kelly was “very close” to a deal with the Browns.
Even before the Eagles officially fired Andy Reid, Philadelphia was fully expected to heavily pursue Kelly to become its next head coach. They were clearly persistent, and it’s possible that Chip changed his mind about coaching in the NFL over the past several days or the Eagles’ brass presented him with a better offer. As Around the League pointed out, a tweet sent out by Nico Fallah, an Oregon recruit who has since committed to USC, indicated that Kelly was still actively recruiting earlier this week.
Chip Kelly left?!?! He was at my house 2 days ago
— Nics ✌ (@NicoFalah) January 16, 2013
I’ll be anxious to see how Kelly reacts to life in the NFL. Chip is 46-7 in his four years as the head coach at Oregon, and he has turned the program into a national powerhouse with a spread offense that is built around speed. As we know, players on the defensive side of the ball are much faster in the NFL than they are at the college level. They’re also a lot smarter. If Kelly tries to bring Oregon’s offense to the NFL, I’m not convinced he’ll have much success with it.
