Seth Vigdor
There has been a lot of nonsense surrounding the Eagles recently. There have been rumors of Chip Kelly possibly being traded to Tennessee. There has been talk of Howie Roseman returning to the team. As of late, the defense has come under fire for their performances the last two games and rightfully so. They’ve looked horrendous.
All in all, it’s been a shitty season for the Eagles to say the least. Earlier this week, Malcolm Jenkins offered some criticism of Chip Kelly’s coaching methods, who’s probably the first player who’s done so that hasn’t been cut by the guy. Jenkins, on WIP’s Player’s Lounge show on Monday night, stated that he doesn’t like that any issues that arise aren’t addressed in a team setting. He seemed frustrated. Here’s what Jenkins had to say:
The one area on our team that we don’t do a good job is really holding guys accountable for what they do on the field,” said Jenkins. “We’ll talk about it in our specific units, in the defensive back room, D-linemen, O-linemen, whatever, but as a team, we never really hold anybody accountable for what they do on the field.”
On Tuesday, Jenkins felt the need to clarify his remarks.
It’s just my opinion. From a coaching style, I was brought up a little different. Most mistakes that players make were brought up in the team setting. But the approach here is in the individual rooms. That’s by design. It’s on purpose. A lot of times when things happen . . . mistakes aren’t necessarily pointed out in front of the entire defense.”
Today, Chip Kelly had a chance to defend his philosophy against Jenkins’ criticism.
Why don’t I do that?” Kelly said, via Paul Domowitch of the Philadelphia Daily News. “Because my right guard doesn’t really care what our free safety does. So it’s not really efficient for Matt Tobin to listen what the instruction is going on with the free safety.
When you want to get detailed in terms of making corrections, it needs to be done in the position group. Because those guys are paying attention to what goes on at their position. In this sport, more than any other sport, it’s very not related. What goes on for an offensive lineman is totally different than what goes on for a defensive back.
I think everybody should worry about their job and doing their job rather than saying, ‘I’m not doing this, but how come this guy’s not doing this?’ That’s when you get into finger-pointing. That’s not conducive to being successful,” Kelly said.
“I think everybody needs instruction, everybody needs help. And I think the more you can get specific with the individual player the better. To be in a group setting and say I think the left tackle made a mistake here and I want everybody in the room to know that, that doesn’t help the right corner. The right corner is going to say, ‘I’m worried about playing press-man. Why am I listening to what’s going on with the pass rush?’”
Chip Kelly opened up to the Eagles players after the spanking that they received from the Lions on Thursday. Jordan Matthews said that the conversation “was real” and “transparent.” If all of this conversation leads to the Eagles getting their act together, it will all be worth it. Perhaps the team will be in a better place once they get all of this off of their chests. One can at least hope, right? They still remarkably enough have a chance to win the division and make the playoffs.