Chip Kelly paints. Photo courtesy of Matt Lombardo
Eagles Head Coach Chip Kelly spent some time this afternoon at Prince Hall school in North Philadelphia as part of the Eagles annual playground build. This was Kelly's first real time in public since the release of DeSean Jackson. Also present was Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie. Would they speak?
Our friend Matt Lombardo of 97.5 the Fanatic and NJ.com grabbed some quotes from both given the situation:
Kelly says that Jackson's release was purely a football decision. Organization decided to move in a different direction at WR. #Eagles
— Matt Lombardo (@MattLombardo975) April 28, 2014
But – couldn't the Eagles get something of value in return for him? Kelly didn't think so:
Kelly: I'm not surprised we didn't get any trade offers for DeSean. #Eagles #EaglesTalk
— Matt Lombardo (@MattLombardo975) April 28, 2014
What about Jeffrey Lurie? Would his perspective be any different?
Lurie: It became clear at end of the year we were going to make a change at WR, also clear there wouldn't be any trade offers so we released
— Matt Lombardo (@MattLombardo975) April 28, 2014
Lurie: DeSean just wasn't a good fit for Chip's offense.
— Matt Lombardo (@MattLombardo975) April 28, 2014
Kelly now faces the task of finding a suitable replacement for Jackson at the wide receiver position. Kelly did address that, too, somewhat:
Kelly: I'm not going to tell you what we're looking for as far as the WR position goes when we're still looking in draft.
— Matt Lombardo (@MattLombardo975) April 28, 2014
Kelly would of course be foolish to publicly give his draft strategy now.
As we get closer and closer to the draft, we are unlikely to get any extra information out of Kelly or the Eagles prior to their selection. As for the DeSean Jackson release, we only will be able to fully judge it when we get to see how the roster shapes up as a whole when camp breaks.
