Nick Piccone
Evan Mathis won a Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos, but he never would’ve gotten a chance to do so if then-head coach of the Eagles, Chip Kelly, released him last summer. The two sides were at an impasse, and Mathis’ contract wasn’t worth reworking to Chip, so Mathis was eventually released. Mathis had a few teams lined up for his services, but ultimately chose the Broncos as his landing spot. Mathis landed with a team that he said would have eaten Chip alive.
There were many things that Chip had done that showed me he wasn’t building a championship team,” Mathis wrote in his e-mail to 9NEWS. “Two of the main issues that concerned me were: 1. A never-evolving, vanilla offense that forced our own defense to play higher than normal play counts. 2. His impatience with certain personality types even when they were blue-chip talents. The Broncos team I was on would have eaten Chip alive. I don’t think he could have handled the plethora of large personalities.”
…
The Eagles extended an offer but Mathis and his agent Drew Rosenhaus decided to table negotiations until after the season so he could focus on football.
After that season, Roseman was stripped of some authority while Kelly was given full control of football operations. When Rosenhaus reached out to resume negotiations, Kelly said he had no knowledge of previous negotiations.
“Since I wasn’t going to be paid what I was offered and I wouldn’t simply be given better incentives to play for a coach who wasn’t building a winning team, I decided I wanted out of Philadelphia,” Mathis wrote. “I hope Chip learns from his experiences in Philadelphia and grows as a coach. Maybe he’ll find some constructive criticism from this.’’
Now that Chip’s with the 49ers, he seemingly has no problem leaving the player personnel decisions to others. It just so happens he completely destroyed the Eagles. And the players seemed to see right through that. Thanks, Chip.
And just for good measure:
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