PHILADELPHIA -- Talk about a guy who's not afraid to rock the boat.
In his first big move as an NFL head coach, Chip Kelly on Monday riled up Philadelphia by sticking with Michael Vick -- an injury-prone 33-year-old whose best days seem behind him -- as the Eagles' probable starting quarterback. Then he talked up his offensive and defensive coordinators, Pat Shurmur and Bill Davis, whom he plucked off a deposed Cleveland Browns' staff that lost four more games last season than Kelly did in his four years at the helm of the Oregon Ducks.
There's healthy cynicism here about what a coach who has spent his entire career in the college game can create at the next level, much less with a quarterback with a penchant for turnovers. But Kelly insists that would be selling short Vick, the four-time Pro Bowler who reworked his contract to have another shot with the Eagles. Besides, he's not even promising him the starting job, saying former Arizona quarterback Nick Foles -- who started six games after Vick suffered a concussion last season -- also will have a shot.
"I think quarterbacks are a byproduct of their experience," Kelly said. "Some of the systems that they run, they don't ask him to get the ball out quick.
"I think he's got an unbelievable release," he said of Vick. "It's up and out and it's quick. I don't know what he's been asked to do in the past. But our job as coaches is to teach him to get the ball out quickly, because we have some playmakers on the offensive side of the ball that are going to flourish.
"But there is an open competition. Michael knows that. Nick knows that. Who the starting quarterback is to start the season off is going to be won on the practice field."
That's still months away and a lot can happen before September. But for now the Eagles, coming off a 4-12 season that will earn them the No. 4 pick in April's draft, will go against conventional thinking and let Vick and Foles battle it out.
Despite the fact Vick specializes in using his athleticism in the open field when he can't find a receiver, while the 6-foot-6 Foles is the classic dropback passer who seldom strays from the pocket, Kelly said he and Shurmur won't change the offense to suit their particular skills.
"I don't think it's two different systems," said Kelly, who is also thought to be bringing in former Ducks' quarterback Dennis Dixon off the Super Bowl champion Ravens' practice squad. "People try to look at what we've done in the past and where I've been and kind of paint it with one brush.
"But I don't think what we do offensively can be said in one or two words that we're either this or we're this. We're an equal opportunity scoring operation."
When the Eagles let Andy Reid go on New Year's Eve after 14 seasons, the thought was that Vick -- slated to earn $16 million under his old contract that he indicated he'd be unwilling to re-do -- would soon follow. But after meeting with Kelly and looking at the situation Vick reversed field, agreeing to essentially a one-year, $10 million deal, according to the Associated Press.
"What I look at is skill set, first and foremost," explained Kelly, who said he never promised Vick the starting job. "What he can do. How he can throw the football. How he can beat people with his feet.
"The one thing that attracted me to Michael after visiting with him, he's a competitor. I don't think he's afraid of anything, and he wants competition."
There's reason to believe if Kelly truly felt the younger, stronger-armed Foles could give it to him, Vick would be gone. Maybe that's why Kelly stopped short of guaranteeing both would still be wearing green and white when the season starts.
"We're not ruling out anything right now," Kelly said. "Our job is to put the best team on the field.
"So I don't rule anything out. I don't rule anything in. But I know moving forward we, as an organization, had to make a decision what to do with Michael, and I want Michael to be part of this team."
-- Jon Marks, Special to The Oregonian
Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/nfl/index.ssf/2013/02/chip_kelly_talks_up_downtrodde.html
december 21 2012 norad 12/21/12 winter solstice Jabari Parker 2012 australia
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