The Chip Kelly era in Philadelphia did not go as planned for the Eagles, and one of the main reasons for that was he did not get along with many of his players. From the sound of it, offensive tackle Jason Peters was one of them.
Peters is already enjoying his first training camp under new head coach Doug Pederson, who he says understands players a lot better. On Thursday, Peters told reporters he believes Kelly worked the team too hard.
“The same practices that we did in training camp were the same spring practices, exactly the same, so it’s pretty much we had training camp the whole offseason,” he said, via Andrew Kulp of CSNPhilly.com. “Even OTAs were the same exact practice. It kind of wore us down.”
Peters said it was just as intense during the season.
“We practiced on Tuesdays when Chip was here, and you felt it on Sundays. I did anyway,” he recalled. “If you run 100 times in a row, back to back to back, don’t you think your 50th time you’re going to be a little slower? But if you get a little bit of a rest, you’re going to be a little bit faster.”
In addition to questioning his practice methods, Peters also said Kelly’s system was too easy for opposing defenses to figure out. Though, he did say the Eagles’ struggles can’t be blamed solely on that.
“[The coaches] call the play, and we execute it,” Peters said. “But when the [opponents] know, and they’re professionals too, and they know what the play is, it’s tough.”
Kelly has a reputation for being a bit too hard-nosed, and that can backfire when you have little experience coaching at the professional level. Even one of his new players cracked a joke about it when the San Francisco 49ers hired Kelly. If Kelly doesn’t change at least some of his ways, things could go south in a hurry with his new gig.
