Chip Kelly is a bit of an unknown in the NFL. He was successful at the University of Oregon, but just like every other college coach to make the jump into the professional league, his success rate is questionable. Kelly brought a new style of offense into the college game. Oregon's offense was quick and mobile. They ran the most plays per game because of their style of play calling. Now with the Philadelphia Eagles, Kelly intends on implementing that same system in the NFL. Will it work? According to former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski, that answer is no.
Jaworski has been analyzing game film and taking a deeper look into the way Kelly ran things at Oregon. While Kelly has been vocal about adjusting his style to a different system, but hopes to bring many similar tactics from Oregon to Philadelphia. Jaworski believes that Kelly needs to focus more on just adjusting to the NFL instead of trying to revolutionize it with a spread offense.
"It's easy to say, 'Yeah, it worked in college.' But then I looked at a game like Stanford. Stanford, a good defensive football team, shut them down. I hope it works. I like the innovation, but I think it's going to be very difficult. The NFL is a different league with fast players that have all week to prepare for you. At the collegiate level, you have 20 hours to prepare for that Oregon offense. But in the NFL, these guys work 17 hours a day. A day, not a week, - 17 hours a day getting ready, so there's no secrets," Jaworski said.
Jaworski believes there are fundamental flaws in Kelly's offense that will easily get exposed by an NFL defense. He notes that it is easy to lose to an up-tempo offense in college when they rarely see players moving that quickly, but NFL speed is a different story.
Eagles players have been raving over the changes that Kelly has made to the team so far. He has raised the speed of workouts and upped conditioning. Many of the players see this as a good thing an hope it translates during the season.
Kelly will certainly bring change to the NFL. He brought change to the college game. He aims for his transition into Philadelphia to be much of the same. His system is certainly different, but whether it revolutionizes the league remains to be seen.
