Many Eagles players have ripped former coach Chip Kelly on his way out, but the embattled ex-coach finally has a defender from within his old locker room, offensive lineman Jason Kelce. The center named his linemate Lane Johnson in his rant, but he noted plenty of his teammates don’t realize how good they had it.
“I mean, I love Lane Johnson to death. But he’s only played for one head coach. How does he know the way other teams practice? His only mindset is on what other guys say … I mean who knows? I can tell you this. When we had Andy Reid, training camp was a lot harder than when we had Chip Kelly,” Kelce said.
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Kelce’s point is that while Kelly may not have had a warm personality, he was bringing new ideas to the organization that would help preserve players’ health.
“This is like one of the most pampered practice schedules I’ve been a part of to tell you truth,” Kelce said. “If I’m being honest, I think that we have massages, we have all these things put in place — we have smoothies. We have daily questionnaires. ‘How are you feeling today?’”
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The Eagles’ search for a new coach hasn’t been narrowed down yet, but two names have surfaced in rumors that would absolutely change the culture. One is former Giants coach Tom Coughlin, who comes with a strong recommendation from Bill Parcells. Coughlin doesn’t need any help though; he has two Super Bowl titles.
Another is former Super Bowl-winning coach Jon Gruden, who has spent several years now as an analyst for ESPN. Gruden reportedly informed the Eagles that he has interest in taking over, according to Philly.com. Both have reached the pinnacle of the sport, but both are also old-school, hard-nosed disciplinarians unlikely to worry about smoothies after practice.
“We had a number of practices where we put no pads on in the middle of the season — they tried to give us like bye weeks almost. We were still out there at practice, but we weren’t banging,” Kelce said. Players like Johnson will have to get used to “banging” in the wake of Kelly’s perceived failure.
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