The Chip Kelly experiment is a failure
Pack your bags, Chip Kelly. Make sure your favorite hoodie is in there.
You're going back to college.
If there was any lingering hope for Kelly to succeed in the NFL, it vanished when the man once hailed as a football savant attempted a field goal trailing by 24 points with five minutes on the clock in Sunday's loss.
Kelly never had a chance of living up to expectations - some predictions for the ways he would revolutionize the pro game included gambling on every fourth down and always attempting two-point converts - but it's striking how pedestrian his Eagles have been.
On Sunday, Kelly's squad surrendered a rookie record five touchdown passes for Jameis Winston in a 45-17 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Forty-five points. That's the kind of number we were led to believe the Eagles would put up on a regular basis with Kelly at the helm.
When the Eagles stuck their neck out to sign Kelly away from Oregon, college football's fastest and most dangerous offense, and promptly expanded his power to full authority over all football matters, including player personnel, much of the football world bought the hype.
How silly that looks now that the Kelly experiment is an unmitigated failure.
Like Oregon, Kelly's Eagles race to run as many plays as possible (and, in fairness to Kelly, many teams have copied the model), but they rarely show any ability to transform that pace into points.
It's not hard to see why. Kelly has systematically stripped the Eagles of talent. For various reasons, many of which remain unknown, he chased DeSean Jackson, LeSean McCoy, and Evan Mathis out of town.
He let Jeremy Maclin walk in free agency, then showed a severe lack of planning in his pursuit of several running backs. Big-money signing DeMarco Murray has never looked like a fit for Kelly's scheme.
Kelly also traded Nick Foles and a second-round pick for Sam Bradford, perhaps the worst possible choice for a passer to run his scheme, then inexplicably tried to sign Bradford to a long-term deal.
The Eagles are extremely fortunate those contract talks broke down.
Would things have been different if Kelly found a quarterback? Perhaps. He won't be the last coach whose career is derailed by sub-par talent under center.
Kelly seemed to acknowledge his desperation for a quarterback this spring, when he is rumored to have offered half his roster to the Tennessee Titans for the right to draft Marcus Mariota.
A reunion with Mariota in Tennessee is probably Kelly's only hope of staying in the NFL, but it's hard to see the Titans expressing much interest.
Instead, Kelly will likely be forced to head back to college, where his reputation remains such that he should have his pick of several high-profile jobs.