By Harry Allison
It’s no surprise that Amani Toomer, a former New York Giant wide receiver who is now an NFL analyst for NBS Sports, thinks that Chip Kelly has been a failure.
But it is shocking that Toomer seems to be so misinformed and is parroting the conventional wisdom from 35,000 feet!
“I don’t think any of his moves have really turned out,” Toomer told 97.5 FM The Fanatic on Friday.
“You look at DeMarco Murray and he hasn’t panned out the way you’d like him to. He got off to a slow start. Sam Bradford got off to a slow start as well. It hasn’t looked good so far. Maybe he turns it around, but right now his grade would not be a passing grade as a general manager.
“The Philadelphia Eagles haven’t been playing as well on offense. I think Sam Bradfordstruggled a little bit. Even though the last half of the game last week he started to show some signs of improvement. I don’t know what you have in this Philadelphia football team. I don’t know if the talent isn’t there. I don’t know if Chip Kelly got rid of too many players. They seem to be struggling, pretty bad.”
Despite Bradford’s rocky start to the season, the former top overall draft choice has completed 64.4 percent of his passes and thrown five touchdowns and just two interceptions over the past two weeks. Still, Toomer hasn’t been impressed by Bradford’s performance in the early going.
“He looks like a quarterback who doesn’t know where to go with the ball,” Toomer said. “He just seems unsure of himself. Usually a quarterback hits his back foot and his drop and the ball is out. Almost like a reaction to where he’s going somewhere with the football. Seems like he’s pumping a little bit. He’s not really sure. Makes you think he’s not really grasping some of the concepts in Chip Kelly’s offense.”
Toomer says that despite going 20-12 in his first two seasons, it might soon be time for Kelly to put up or shut up.
“I think that he gets a lot of credit for winning 10 games over the last two years,” Toomer said. “There’s no bowl games in the NFL. There’s only one bowl game in the NFL. Unless you go and win that Super Bowl at the end of the year, nobody cares. You make it to the playoffs, that’s great. Coaches get fired after making the playoffs and not winning it all after awhile.
“I think his offense is slowing down and teams are finding ways to figure it out. It doesn’t seem like it’s as effective as you’d like.”
