Chip Kelly is a Moving Target
It seems like every day over the past month, I wake up to another article on either, what makes new Philadelphia Eagles football coach Chip Kelly tick, or why the various facets (read-option, pace of plays, no-huddle, etc.) of the offenses he ran at the University of Oregon will or will not work in the NFL. While I do understand the fascination with all of these questions, I also think it is futile, because as much as we like to fit people into categories, it can’t be done with a moving target.
This is one of the traps that many coaches who have faced Kelly’s teams have fallen into and thus, learned the hard way. They study his offense and try to figure out ways to stop what they see in films of his previous games. Historically, this has been a sound philosophy, as most coaches run a fairly static offense and just vary the sets and play calls for each game. To stop Kelly’s teams though, you’d be better off looking at films of your own defense (looking for the things Kelly will see and try to exploit), and then go about fixing those shortcomings and tendencies.
Everything about Kelly’s strategy is based on being flexible, he’s not even married to the spread option, as many people assume. Unlike a majority of coaches, Kelly lets the skill-sets of the players he has determine the type of offense he runs. No two offenses he ran at Oregon were exactly the same. Kelly’s first and last year at Oregon were the only years he featured a future NFL quarterback. He also had very few NFL bound receivers while at Oregon. However, every year he had one or more future NFL running backs on the roster, so of course he relied more heavily on a run based attack.
Nearly all of the articles I have read lately act as though Chip Kelly’s only success was in the past six years he spent at Oregon. People in the know were well aware of what he was doing with his offenses at the University of New Hampshire, years before. Just like when he was at Oregon, he tailored his offense to the players he had. The last QB Kelly tutored at New Hampshire was Ricky Santos who finished his career as the NCAA’s third leading all-time passer, throwing for 13, 212 yards and 123 touchdown passes (also 3rd all-time) in his career, and who went on to play professionally in Canada.
Chip Kelly is one of the smartest coaches I have ever known, but that is not what sets him apart in my humble opinion. I could list a multitude of things that are integral to why he is the greatest living coach I know, but that would take a book. However, two of the main things that differentiate Kelly from a majority of the coaches I have been associated with are: 1) he is a constant work in progress who is focused on getting better daily, and is never satisfied and 2) he has the confidence to try anything that makes sense to him, regardless of what others think.
All these articles focused on understanding Kelly and his offense, miss the point. Even if anyone were to characterize who Chip Kelly is today and what makes him tick, it would be useless, because a week from now he will have grown to be a very different Chip Kelly.
