One of the reasons Chip Kelly ended up failing in Philadelphia was that he tried to do too much, essentially making himself the head coach and general manager of the Eagles. According to one former member of the team’s front office, Kelly might have been better off if he respected the opinions of his coworkers.
A former Eagles executive who wished to remain anonymous told Matt Lombardo of NJ Advance Media that Kelly hardly ever listened to scouts. More specifically, the exec claims scouts had “no say” over who the Eagles drafted in 2014.
“Right before that draft, the scouts set the board,” Lombardo’s source said. “Then Chip got a hold of it and totally turned it around. Scouts had no say at all in that draft. Anybody that Chip didn’t want, that player’s card got removed from the board and thrown in the trash. Those guys were never even in the discussion.
“Almost immediately, you had a lot of scouts looking around and wondering, ‘Why am I even working? Why the hell are we even here?’ We put all of this work in, put the information in and Chip changed everything and took whoever he wanted to take.”
The Eagles ended up selecting former Louisville linebacker Marcus Smith with the 26th overall pick. Smith appeared in 13 games last season but did not get much playing time. Eagles vice president of football operations Howie Roseman recently took responsibility for drafting Smith, but the anonymous former exec says he had a “third-round grade” on Smith and certainly implied that the decision was Kelly’s alone.
“Chip had a rude awakening, thinking that his system was going to win more than players win,” the exec said of Kelly’s time in Philly. “Systems are good. Coaches can get guys to play up to their optimal levels, but you still have to have good players to win.”
Not surprisingly, Kelly is not in charge of player personnel in San Francisco. Although, the recent comments he made about free agent signings with the Eagles show how Chip is hesitant to accept responsibility. He’d probably deflect the blame whether he was in charge of personnel or not.
