The Chip Wagon

Brandin Cooks to the Eagles?- Yes Please

Earlier in the week rumors were abuzz that the New Orleans Saints have put their young explosive Wide Receiver, Brandin Cooks on the trade block. Given the huge need the Eagles have at the Wide Receiver position, naturally they are said to be in the mix. The Eagles were rumored to have interest in Cooks in the 2014 draft before the Saints leapfrogged them and selected Cooks. Jeff McLane has found sources that said the Eagles actually tried to trade for Cooks before the trade deadline last year. Despite the rumors, should the Eagles be interested?

In short, Absolutely, but the reasoning goes far beyond filling a massive hole on the team. Brandin Cooks is a legitimate playmaker and looks like an idea fit in Doug Pederson's scheme. Let's have a look. 

Where Did it All Go Wrong? The Rise and Fall of Chip Kelly

I apologize for what was a very quiet 2015 NFL season at the Chipwagon this past year. There are a couple reasons for that. 1) I started a new job in September and it has been pretty demanding of my time and balancing that with the family life didn't leave a lot of time left to put blog posts together. 2) Watching the 2015 season was one of the worst and most frustrating seasons I can recall watching. I realize that this was far from one of the worst seasons in Eagles history, but from beginning to end it was just so frustrating and aggravating to watch. We had lapses in execution all season long and Chip's offense that I loved so much in 2013 and 2014 just went completely stale.  The truth is, there is no one reason why things didn't work out in Philadelphia. Certainly, Chip the GM, Chip's personality, the power struggle with Howie Roseman and his apparent fractured relationship with Jeff Lurie will lead the way in the headlines. Our old friend @sheilkapadia was spot on this assessment which really nicely summarized the downfall of the Kelly regime. However, to look at it from another angle, one really needs to understand that Lurie's decision was not exclusively a non-footbal decision. To put it bluntly, the Chip Kelly we fell in love with just stopped showing up on the chalkboard in 2015. The offense we saw in 2015 was a stripped down version of what we saw in 2013 and 2014 and lacked any imagination, creativity or evolution as defenses around the league continued to adjust and catch up. Furthermore, it seemed in 3 years Chip Kelly's offense lacked some of the fundamental concepts and philosophies that need to be considered and applied in the pro game. Here is my post-mortem and likely final chapter on Chip Kelly's offense.

The Philosophy and Evolution of the Eagles Run Game Part 11- Foles vs. Bradford; Same Old Scheme, Same Old Compromises

I’ve been looking forward to getting to this post as I think it really brings us full circle in this series when talking about the philosophy and evolution of the Eagles run game. We started this series by talking about why the Eagles run so much out of the shotgun formation. The reason is arithmetic by nature. By running from Shotgun, the offensive line can leave a backside edge defender unblocked thus gaining a blocker on the playside. Furthermore, because the QB is in shotgun he can “read” that unblocked defender and make a decision that always makes the defender wrong. If he collapses down on running back, the QB keeps and runs through the spot the edge defender vacates. If he stays put to protect the backside he hands off and the Eagles getting a blocking advantage on the playside. Of course this advantage and philosophy only goes so far when you have a QB who isn’t really a major threat to run.

#4- Meshing with the Competition

At #4 I wanted to highlight Chip Kelly's ability to adapt, adjust, and evolve concepts through the 2013 season. I think this is one of the most important aspects of a successful NFL head coach. You can have all the greatest ideas in the world, but the other 31 coaching staffs have smart people too and they catch onto new concepts fast. 

As I've highlighted since the birth of this blog and more specificially through the course of the Top 25 plays of 2013, Chip Kelly is not inventing anything new in football. Virtually every concept he has used as been combined with and applied to different ideas that were created and implemented by the football forefathers. 

In #13 of the Top 25 we talked about the use of mesh concepts on shallow drag routes underneath. The idea here is to create traffic and confusion leading to a free receiver coming outside. Chip and the Eagles ran this concept with high success all over the field and at the goalline often combining an underneath mesh concept with a wheel route out of the backfield. 

The Emory and Henry Philly Phlashback

Credit goes out to commenter MIT who reminded me in the comments section the other day that this wasn't the first time the Eagles have run the Emory and Henry formation. Turns out Andy Reid rolled it out back in 2009 when Kevin Kolb made his first career start in place of an injured Donovan McNabb. 

For those of you who have access to NFL Game Pass or Rewind, this game is still in the archives and I recommend checking out at least the first half for entertainment purposes. Heading into that game as a big underdog, we saw one of the more creative game plans from Andy Reid utilizing the wildcat formation several times and yes, even the Emory and Henry Formation. Recognize this?

There is it is. The same  3 x 3 x 3 formation we spoke about when highlighting play #8 on the ChipWagon Top 25.