Memorial Day Reading: Rebuilding Year?

Thank you very much to the men and women who serve and sacrifice for our country, including those in our Birds 24/7 community.

We hope everyone is getting some down time in over this long weekend. Like many of us, the Eagles will be back at it tomorrow as OTAs begin. We’ll give a more detailed preview in the morning.

If you need a fix in the meantime, take a listen to Mike Missanelli’s interview with Jon Runyan. The former Eagle and U.S. Representative believes that we should reserve judgment on Chip Kelly until he’s had the chance to build the roster in his vision, and has no issues with his decision to “hit the reset button” prior to Year 3. But Runyan cautions that said transition might be a bumpy one at first.

“I say give him the opportunity to get his own people in there and see what happens. It may turn out to not be that great of a season, but you go through those growing pains,” said Runyan. “When you have massive turnover like that, that creates some inconsistencies. The lack of communication and that non-verbal communication that you have with your teammates — because you don’t have as many reps with them, that shows itself on Sundays.”

With so many new players at prominent positions, Runyan believes the lack of familiarity will lead to mistakes early on until everyone gets a feel for one another.

“It could be bad, but you never know. You get a defense getting turnovers and a prolific offense putting points up, it changes the whole dynamic,” he said. “It can happen, but history says it’s not going to be pretty.”

Runyan also offered some thoughts on Kelly’s system and training methods. You can give the interview a listen here.