If Chip gets his man in the draft — Marcus Mariota — he’ll be well on his way to emulating Bill Belichick.
By Barbara Harrison
Okay, the Eagles may have lost Frank Gore to Indy, but there are plenty of other running backs out there, like C. J. Spiller.
So, for all you weak-in-the-knees Eagles fans who are buying into the silly meme that Chip Kelly is Andy Reid and 2015 will wind up like 2011 with free agents like Nnamdi Whatshisname ruining the team, here’s what Mark Eckel writes on NJ.com:
New England’s three running backs included an undrafted second-year player in Jonas Gray and a guy cut by Pittsburgh in the middle of the season in LeGarrette Blount. The Pats’ top two wide receivers were a seventh-round pick out of Kent State in Julian Edelman and a player Carolina didn’t want in Brandon LaFell.
Kelly, now in total control of all personnel decisions, may be inexperienced in the ways of free agency but he knows what he’s doing. He knows where he wants his team to be strongest and where he can fill in pieces here and there.
Like him, or not, Kelly is intelligent, very intelligent. And while it doesn’t take a genius to build a football team, it’s never bad to have the smartest guy in the room on your side.
Let’s see what happens over the next several weeks heading into the draft, where Kelly’s end game is to move up and draft his old Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota.
And that’s when the game will be won or lost. If Kelly gets his guy, in his mind he will have already won. If he doesn’t, then the plan didn’t work.
