Chip Kelly was hired by the Philadelphia Eagles after putting together some of the best offenses in college football as the head coach at Oregon. The Ducks shined particularly bright in the run game, where they averaged 300 yards per game on the ground from 2010-12. That success and early returns as head coach in Philadelphia -- a 10-6 record in each of his first two seasons -- were enough to earn him control over the Eagles' personnel decisions.
The result through two games in 2015? An 0-2 record, 70 total rushing yards and an ignominious place as perhaps the NFL's most troubling team in the early going. Let's review how Kelly's big-name acquisitions did against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday:
- Quarterback Sam Bradford -- 23 of 37 for 224 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions and a TEAM-LEADING 9 yards rushing.
- Running back DeMarco Murray -- 13 carries for 2 yards, now 11 yards on the season after leading the league in rushing in 2014.
- Linebacker Kiko Alonso -- Suffered what appears to be a serious knee injury
- Cornerback Byron Maxwell -- Better against a Dez Bryant-less Cowboys, but gave up nine catches, 141 yards and two touchdowns to Julio Jones in Week 1.
The Eagles' 7 rushing yards against the Cowboys was the fewest gained by the franchise since 1961. That is not good.
Oh. Wow. pic.twitter.com/rIMo2VqP1v
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) September 21, 2015
The team struggled to open holes after it let Evan Mathis go in the offseason. It struggled to find open receivers after releasing DeSean Jackson and letting Jeremy Maclin go in the last two years. It bet on Bradford while Nick Foles is proving himself capable in St. Louis even without Kelly.
How Bradford performed had the potential to define Kelly's time in Philadelphia more than any other player. He has thrown four interceptions to two touchdowns through two games with a quarterback rating of 72.3 -- seven points worse than his career average. As a result, the Eagles might be the weakest team right now in what should be an exploitable NFC East.
Kelly has succeeded at every level and in every facet of football. To proclaim the Eagles a failure after two weeks would be premature. But he commanded, and was given, a lot of leeway to engineer the Eagles because of his reputation. He made moves that were debatable not because they were obviously bad, but because they could go either way.
Those decisions, thus far, have gone sour.
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SB Nation presents: Travis Benjamin's highlights from Week 2