Eagles hire Chip Kelly

The Philadelphia Eagles are still in the hunt for a new defensive coordinator to add to Chip Kelly’s coaching staff, and they appear to be picking up the pace in their search. Browns linebackers coach Billy Davis and Ravens linebackers coach Ted Monachino are the latest candidates for the position.

Davis interviewed with the Eagles on Sunday, per Adam Schefter. He has served as the defensive coordinator with two NFL franchises throughout his lengthy career. He ran the San Francisco 49ers defense from 2005-2006 and later operated as the Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator from 2009-2010.

While it is expected that Shurmur will be the offensive coordinator for the Eagles, an official title for Shumur hasn’t been announced.

Shurmur is the latest addition to the coaching staff of Chip Kelly, who was introduced as the Eagles’ new coach last week. It was reported that Kelly will handle the play-calling duties for the Eagles, just like he did while he was the head coach at Oregon.

A few weeks ago, when everyone assumed that Chip Kelly was going to leave Oregon for Cleveland, SB Nation’s Jason Kirk sent me a message suggesting a Chip Kelly Spillymeal. However, once Chip woke up and realized he’d be living next to a river that bursts into flames every once in awhile, he quickly thought better and decided to stay at Oregon. The Chip Kelly meal got shelved until next year, it seemed. On Wednesday, we received an unexpected surprise, as the Eagles somehow convinced Chip that getting booed in the second quarter of Week 2 would be a better alternative to the listless depression of Cleveland. More importantly, the Chip Kelly meal was back on. Surely, no other sports story could surpass that on Wednesday, right? In any case, Chip will be hungry after moving all of his stuff east, so let’s give him a hearty meatloaf dinner, shall we?

STEP 1: I’ve never made meatloaf. It seemed easy enough. Just pile a bunch of meat in a pan and bake it for an hour. It turns out, blending a pork chop is difficult because they have ‘bones’ and ‘gristle’ that ‘break’ blender motors. So I had to call an audible here (football term!). We will use some softer meats for our dinner:

Jim Herrmann has informed the Philadelphia Eagles that he will remove himself from consideration for their vacant defensive coordinator position. Instead, he will remain with the New York Giants for the 2013 season.

Herrmann interviewed with the Eagles this past Saturday, but has already decided that he’s not interested in making this move within the NFC East. Philadelphia will continue searching for a defensive coordinator after Todd Bowles left the picture upon Chip Kelly’s arrival.

Joe Banner told Sports Illustrated’s Peter King that Kelly would have been a gamble to hire, leaving Cleveland wary of his potential. Banner noted the fact that Kelly was uncertain of making a move to the NFL, along with the fact that he backed out of coaching for Tampa Bay last year.

The Browns were the first team to speak with Kelly about moving up to the pros this season. Both sides met in Arizona back on Jan. 4, where a lengthy interview was held, but sources said Cleveland did not feel he was completely committed to leaving Oregon.

Shurmur returns to Philadelphia after working as an assistant coach under Andy Reid for nearly a decade, serving as the Eagles’ tight ends coach from 1999 to 2001 and then as quarterbacks coach from 2002 to 2008.

One has to imagine Kelly will be in charge of much of the scheming offensively, as he was responsible for an innovative offense that was constantly near the top of the NCAA in scoring, but Shurmur will likely call plays. It’s a tough role, as Philadelphia scored only 17.5 points per game last year — fourth-worst in the league. The Browns weren’t much better, averaging just 18.9 points per game.

As rumors of Kelly’s possible departure for the NFL began to swirl in recent weeks, multiple media outlets reported that the Ducks had a plan in place to replace their head coach. Oregon would simply promote offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich, the same action the school took with Kelly when former head coach Mike Bellotti retired after the 2008 season.

As it turns out, executing such a plan would likely violate Oregon state law, which says the school must interview at least one qualified minority candidate or make a good-faith attempt to find such a candidate. Helfrich is white, and Hamilton is black.

Smart is one of the most respected assistant coaches in college football. Few would argue that his National Championship-winning Crimson Tide defense wasn’t the best in the land in 2012. They ranked first in the nation in both total defense and points allowed.

Harris started with Oregon in 2007 as a nutritionist and was named chief of staff last season. He’s been called a mentor by a slew of Oregon players, who say that he has helped them adjust to college life and being an adult. It is expected that Harris will help Kelly with personnel decisions, but more so with teaching the players life skills.

Several other Oregon staffers could also join Kelly in Philadelphia. Jerry Azzinaro, who was the assistant head coach in Eugene, will likely be the Eagles’ defensive line coach, while Greg Austin, Matthew Harper and Todd Lyght are all expected to be hired by Philadelphia in some roles.

With the dust starting to settle on Chip Kelly’s move to the Philadelphia Eagles, the next issue is putting together his coaching staff.

In addition to those Oregon assistants coming with Kelly, two names that have come up for the defensive coordinator position are also college coaches, Alabama’s Kirby Smart and Georgia’s Todd Grantham. Alabama finished the 2012 season ranked first in both scoring defense and total defense, and Georgia overcame a slow start to hold opponents under 14 points during a five-game winning streak to end the regular season.

Vick and his athleticism could be a good fit with Kelly’s high-tempo offense, but Vick has a history of injury problems and is due $15.5 million in 2013 with $3 million becoming guaranteed in the near future.

When asked about Vick and the quarterback situation, Kelly said, “I don’t have the answer.“ He went on to compliment Vick’s talent and say that he has been watching him since he was in college, but that was as far as he’d go. Kelly continued:

Though the decision to leave Oregon was difficult, Kelly conceded that Philadelphia is where he wanted to be, noting that the Eagles are an “iconic franchise” with a “passionate owner,” and Philadelphia’s fan base excites him.

Before accepting the job in Philadelphia, Kelly spoke to former Eagles head coaches Dick Vermeil and Andy Reid, both of whom spoke highly of the Philadelphia organization. Kelly also noted the youth and speed on Philadelphia’s roster attracted him to this particular job.

Kelly was the Eagles No. 1 choice and the two sides didn’t remain out of contact long, even after Kelly decided to return to the Ducks. It was only two days before Eagles general manager Howie Roseman and Kelly connected again.

The two sides stayed in contact over the next few days, but the discussions did not began to escalate until the 36 hours leading up to Wednesday’s announcement. The deal was agreed upon late Tuesday night, but nothing was finalized until Wednesday morning.

After flirting with the NFL for the last two offseasons, Chip Kelly finally decided to leave Oregon to become the Philadelphia Eagles’ new head coach. One of his first questions to answer will be what to do about the team’s quarterback situation.

Certainly at this stage of his career, Vick is not worth $15.5 million dollars for one season, but the quarterback situation in Philadelphia just became a lot more interesting and suspenseful with Kelly becoming Philadelphia’s head coach.

There are reasons to criticize the hire. Kelly’s likely getting a daunting level of personnel control, he’s never worked for a NFL franchise and there’s no telling how his systems (on the field and off) will translate to a different league.

But the three reasons Evans chose to use to discredit the hire (he calls it, “one of the worst hires in pro football history,” and says it, “simply won’t work”) have nothing to do with anything.

Per Joe Fortenbaugh, Philadelphia’s odds of winning next year’s Super Bowl moved from 30-1 to 22-1 after hiring Kelly.

Conversely, Oregon’s odds of winning next year’s BCS title took a hit. With Kelly at the helm, Oregon was given 6-1 odds to capture the BCS title. Without Kelly, the Ducks are given 9-1 odds.

The press conference will come roughly 24 hours after Kelly and the Eagles shocked the NFL. After Kelly reportedly turned down the Eagles earlier this month, most had assumed Philadelphia had moved on in its coaching search. The two sides maintained contact but talks didn’t begin to escalate again until recently, according to a report from Jay Glazer of FOX Sports.

Although Thursday’s press conference will be a time for the Eagles to introduce Kelly to their fans, it will also be the first time Kelly will field questions from the Philadelphia media. His winding path to accepting the job will likely be discussed, and there is a good bet his offense will generate a question or two.

Fans over at Bleeding Green Nation, SB Nations Eagles blog, were excited, to say the least.

A sampling of the initial reactions:

Kelly spent four seasons with Oregon, amassing a 46-7 record and four BCS Bowl appearances. He replaces Andy Reid, who was fired after 14 seasons in Philadelphia. Ducks offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich is expected to become the new head coach in Eugene.

Wednesday’s deal is a shocking end to Kelly’s Oregon career and a move few saw coming. NFL interest in Kelly was nothing new, but just 10 days ago he was reportedly headed back to Oregon after turning down multiple NFL opportunities. Kelly’s Oregon career is now over, and he gave the Ducks a wild ride on and off the field. Here’s a timeline of the his final 12 months at Oregon and his path to the NFL.

Kelly appeared destined for the NFL last season, as reports surfaced he had accepted the Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach position. As Oregon scrambled to find a replacement, something changed and Kelly decided to remain at Oregon after all.

Update, 12:22 p.m. ET: This is official, according to PhiladelphiaEagles.com. There’s no article at their site yet.

Chip Kelly will be the next coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, according to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen (and FOX’s Jay Glazer confirms). This comes less than two weeks after Kelly turned down the Eagles to remain at Oregon.

Whatever Bradley said in the locker room at halftime must have been a mighty powerful speech.

Known to be a player’s coach, Bradley just finished his fourth season with Seattle. The Seahawks defense improved immensely in the last two seasons, including this year where they led the NFL in points per game allowed. The Eagles have interviewed a number of coaches with offensive backgrounds, including Brian Billick, Jay Gruden and Ken Whisenhunt, but Bradley is one of the few with a defensive background.