Afternoon Notes: Checking In On Chip

Where’s Chip?

“Wherever football is being played” seems to be the appropriate answer.

Chip Kelly was on the sidelines for the National Championship game between Oregon and Ohio State Monday night. While in Texas, he reportedly interviewed Houston director of pro personnel Brian Gaines for the new personnel exec gig.

On Tuesday, he was in Los Angeles to observe an NFLPA Bowl Game practice.

.@Eagles Head Coach Chip Kelly spotted at this morning’s #NFLPABowl practice: #Eagles pic.twitter.com/5kFTcntMaH

— NFLPA Bowl Game (@NFLPABowl) January 13, 2015

And today, he’s in St. Petersburg, Florida for an East-West Shrine Bowl practice. 

Chip Kelly & over 100 scouts on hand at #EastWestShrineBowl watching #odu Taylor Heinicke! http://t.co/7ebRkuMHCg — Ronald Whitcomb (@ronwhitcomb) January 14, 2015

Heinicke (6-1, 205) won the Walter Payton Award for best player in the FCS in 2012. He completed 63 percent of his throws for 3,476 yards and threw 30 touchdowns to 16 interceptions this season for Old Dominion. Mel Kiper had him listed as one of his top 10 quarterback prospects back in October.

“Some guys are worried about his size and his arm strength,” ODU offensive coordinator Brian Scott told the Virginian-Pilot, via NFL.com. “But the guys who like him, they really like him. You watch guys who struggle in the NFL and they’re the guys who can’t process information quickly. Unless you can go through your receivers — one, two, three, four at a time, very quickly — you’re not going to make it. And that’s something Taylor does so well.”

Here’s some tape on Heinicke courtesy of DraftBreakdown.com.

This behavior is nothing new. Kelly attended more Pro Days than any other coach in the NFL last year by all accounts, and has been hands on since taking over as Eagles head coach. Now that he has full control of the personnel side, he’ll be as involved as ever.

Bowles, Shurmur

 Todd Bowles has been tabbed as the next head coach of the Jets. While his brief stint as defensive coordinator with the Eagles was a disaster, he was put in a very difficult spot. Sheil tweeted out this link earlier from November of 2012, when a frustrated Bowles lamented that his group was unable to execute “a high school Cover-3.”

Bowles was dynamite as DC of the Cardinals, earning this opportunity.

Buffalo hired Rex Ryan to be its head coach and Oakland is expected to go with Jack Del Rio. Both the Bills and Raiders expressed interest in Pat Shurmur. Now that those two positions are filled, it seems like a good bet that Shurmur will stay in his current role with the Eagles.