What They’re Saying About the Eagles

Here’s a roundup of what the media are saying about the Eagles this week:

Chip Kelly‘s influence will be felt in the National Championship game tonight, and not just when Oregon is on the attack. Chris Brown with more:

Sweeps are as old as football, and the most famous is Vince Lombardi’s old Green Bay sweep. But under Kelly and offensive coordinator turned head coach Mark Helfrich, Oregon tweaked the blueprint, devising a way to run a version of the sweep in the context of a spread formation. Before this season, Meyer and his staff met with Kelly and his Philadelphia Eagles coaches, and in 2014, Ohio State made the sweep a key part of its arsenal…

The similarities between the Ohio State and Oregon offenses are no coincidence. “We know Oregon,” Meyer said in his press conference after the Sugar Bowl win. “I’ll probably be able to call Oregon’s plays because we study them and they study us.” Two units focused on evolving will undoubtedly enter Monday’s game armed with new wrinkles — and each side will need those innovations against an opponent that increasingly looks like a mirror image.

Kelly called Marcus Mariota “the most talented kid I coached in college.” There was a time when it was in question whether he’d be his QB at all, writes Zach Berman of the Inquirer.

Kelly needed to be convinced that Mariota should be his quarterback.

The Ducks initially secured a verbal commitment from former Texas A&M star Johnny Manziel and recruited UCLA standout Brett Hundley in the summer of 2010. Mariota was then a reserved Hawaiian with a modest prep pedigree discovered by current Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich, and Frost remembered Kelly wondering whether Mariota was too quiet.

Kelly quickly became a Mariota believer.

“It took about two days on campus before we all knew how good he can be,” said Frost, who was the wide-receivers coach under Kelly.

During a practice early in Mariota’s first fall camp, a lineman missed a protection. Mariota dodged a rusher, stayed in the pocket, eluded another defender, and scanned all the way from the left side to the right, where he snapped a 55-yard pass over a defensive back’s head to his wide receiver. There was not even a hint of panic on Mariota’s face.

“We all kind of looked at each other and knew we had a good one,” Frost said.

While there has been no official announcement as of yet, Reuben Frank explains why Cody Parkey is Pro-Bowl bound.

Cody Parkey’s former teammate on Sunday made sure Parkey became a Pro Bowler.

When the Colts beat the Broncos on Sunday afternoon, it meant the Colts and Patriots will meet in the AFC Championship Game next weekend. That means either Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri or Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski will go to the Super Bowl and drop out of the Pro Bowl.

And that means the first alternate gets in. And that’s Parkey. An official announcement has not been made by the NFL and likely won’t be until next week.

Parkey, whose 150 points set an NFL rookie scoring record and an Eagles franchise scoring record, will become the first Eagles rookie to make a Pro Bowl team in 26 years, since tight end Keith Jackson in 1988.

Chris Steuber gives us 10 draft prospects that the Eagles could have their eyes on, including Miami (Ohio) cornerback Quinten Rollins (6-0, 205):

Rollins is one of my favorite prospects in the draft, and given the state of the Eagles’ cornerback situation with Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher, he would be a welcome addition. A four-year starter on the hardwood for Miami (Ohio), Rollins just completed his first-year of college football as a fifth-year senior. Prior to this past season, he hadn’t played football since his senior year in high school. He’s still developing his overall game, but he proved to be a quick study, as he dominated the MAC and was named Defensive Player of the Year after he amassed 72 tackles and seven interceptions. Rollins’ physical approach and natural ball skills make him an intriguing defender who could line up at cornerback or safety at the next level.