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Op-Ed: It’s Time to Fire Chip Kelly

Seth Vigdor|

The time has arrived to fire Chip Kelly and it doesn’t have to be a bad thing for all parties involved. Let me be the voice of reason.

Chip Kelly became the Head Coach of the Philadelphia Eagles in January 16, 2013. In his first two seasons as coach, the Eagles were 10-6, which sounds great. However, since the Eagles beat the Cowboys last Thanksgiving, they’re 4-11. More importantly though, Chip Kelly has lost the locker room. That my friends is truly problematic and you can see it all over the field. In the last two weeks, the Eagles have lost to Tampa Bay 45-17 and Detroit 45-14. It’s so bad that the Lions players are saying that the made the Eagles “tap out.”

Players are taking verbal shots on fans and players are taking anonymous jabs at each other through the media. This whole thing is just a shit show and you almost have to laugh as an Eagles fan to avoid crying.

There have been plenty of terrible moves in the Chip Kelly era, as I’ll get into in a bit, but perhaps the move that will come back to bite him in the ass, is the move that he didn’t make – keeping Riley Cooper on the team after his racist rant.

Warning: NSFW!

That was the ultimate disgrace and Cooper should’ve been dismissed from the team immediately. Then new coach Kelly, he had the opportunity at the time of incident in 2013 to make a stand and do what’s right. But, then again, this is the NFL and what’s right is never done. Kelly missed the boat there and to this day, whether right or wrong, the question of “Is Chip Kelly a racist?” still persists.

Issues such as racism can be very derisive for obvious reasons and this incident set Kelly off on the wrong foot in Philadelphia.

Next on the list of Kelly mistakes is the laundry list of roster moves that he made. Every coach wants to have their own players on the team, but it seems like Chip Kelly players that he doesn’t like all happened to be superstar players. Some of his boldest moves were:

  • Releasing DeSean Jackson
  • Not signing Jeremy Maclin when he wanted to re-sign here
  • Trading LeSean McCoy for Kiko Alonso
  • Trading Nick Foles for Sam Bradford

How did all those major moves work out for Kelly and the Eagles?  Kelly got rid of the core of the Eagles because they weren’t a “Chip” guy. I understand that he wanted his type of players, but it’s impossible to control (unless your name is Belichick) all of the personalities on your team.

Another key move that Kelly made was hiring Billy Davis as his defensive coordinator. I haven’t liked what the guy has done since day one.

At the very least, Billy Davis needs to be fired now. He lucked out with the special teams unit getting him off the hook last year, and this year his defense has improved. The last three weeks, though? That’s the Billy Davis we all know.

But, won’t the issues still persist if Davis is fired, and the root of the problem still here in Philadelphia? You bet.

Enough! I can’t take it anymore.

This doesn’t have to be a bad thing for all parties involved. There’s already a job waiting for him at USC if he leaves the Eagles or what about the head coach position at LSU that may be opening up in the coming weeks? I mean let’s not drag the inevitable out any further. We all know where this is heading. Let Chip rebuild his brand in college and let the Eagles rebuild their team that Kelly has shit on.

The move is yours to make Jeff Lurie. It’s what’s best for business.

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