Eagles Wake-Up Call: Jaws Says Kelly’s System Won’t Translate

When Chip Kelly was hired, Ron Jaworski decided to sit down and study tape of five or six Oregon games.

Last week, he looked at a couple more. And the former Eagles quarterback just doesn’t see Kelly’s concepts translating to the NFL.

“It’s going to be interesting to see if this style of offense projects to the NFL,” Jaws said during an interview with Harry Mayes and Nick Kayal on 97.5 The Fanatic earlier this week. “I’m going to say no.”

“I just don’t see NFL passing concepts in this offense. It’s a movement offense by the quarterback, off the run-action, off the read-action. A lot of short, quick passes, dart routes, bubble screens. Very few plays down the field with NFL passing concepts.”

Jaws added that he’s had several conversations with Kelly and hopes he’s wrong. But he offered an honest assessment of what he’s seen on tape.

Of course, we don’t know exactly what Kelly is planning offensively and how it will compare to what he ran at Oregon. We know the Eagles aren’t going to huddle, and we’ve seen an emphasis on the running game, the read option and bubble screens at practices that have been open to the media.

But we’ve also seen the quarterbacks take a fair number of shots downfield.

Jaws’ other concern stems from the fact that opponents faced time constraints when preparing for Kelly’s offense in college. That won’t be the case in the NFL.

“It’s easy to say, ‘Yeah, it worked in college,’ ” he said. “But then I looked at a game like Stanford. Stanford, a good defensive football team, shut them down. I hope it works. I like the innovation, but I think it’s going to be very difficult.

“The NFL is a different league with fast players that have all week to prepare for you. At the collegiate level, you have 20 hours to prepare for that Oregon offense. Take out three hours of game time. You’ve got 17 hours in the course of a week to practice and prepare for that style of offense. It kills you in college. But in the NFL, these guys work 17 hours a day. A day, not a week – 17 hours a day getting ready, so there’s no secrets.”

Kelly has said all along that he’ll adapt his offense to personnel. We won’t know until next season starts how much the NFL version resembles what he did at Oregon.

WHAT YOU MISSED

The Eagles have received league approval to make significant changes to the Linc.

Matt Barkley is showing an early command of the offense. Tim explains.

The national media roundup includes one analyst who thinks Lane Johnson is a “horrific fundamental pass blocker.”

The Eagles are experimenting with a 3-3-5 nickel look that uses the outside linebacker in a “joker” role.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

Josh Norris of Rotoworld takes a closer look at fifth-round pick Earl Wolff:

On the point of tackling, Wolff loves to throw his body around, especially when lining up his target on the edge. That same physicality can be seen when closing in coverage, extending his arms to disrupt the catch point and cause an incompletion. Despite those flashes of violence, Wolff also understands when a conservative angle is necessary, specifically when working as the last line of defense from a single high alignment. There are areas of improvement as a tackler, including not recognizing crack back or seal blocks to open the edge, but Wolff is willing and showed a controlled aggression when dipping under blocks or working through trash.

Tommy Lawlor of Iggles Blitz offers thoughts on Michael Vick’s recent comments:

Vick is both right and wrong, as is so often the case with players. Fans do tend to go to extremes. If the guy couldn’t read defenses, coaches would have given up on him a long time ago. That said, it isn’t something he does consistently well. Part of this is due to ingrained habits. Vick has always been a playmaking QB. That often meant holding the ball and waiting for plays to develop. Going from that to getting the ball out quickly and accurately is a major change. Vick has shown progress, but it still isn’t a strength for him and likely will never be.

COMING UP

We’ll take a look at the safety picture and the depth chart at running back.

Follow Sheil Kapadia on Twitter and e-mail him at skapadia@phillymag.com.
Become a fan of Birds 24/7 on Facebook.