"Culture wins football. Culture will beat scheme every day."
Chip Kelly's words were caught on tape by NFL Films moments before the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New York Giants handily 27-0 back in October of last year. In the euphoria of the blowout win over a division rival, this revelation from Kelly was hailed as a sign of his genius. The mad scientist was able to convince millionaires to buy into his unorthodox ways of smoothies, sleep monitors and fast pace practices, which created a culture destined for multiple Lombardy Trophies and parades down Broad Street.
When the Eagles missed the playoffs, however, his critics derided this statement. Look at this college coach who thinks culture trumps all. Sorry, Chip, this ain't Eugene; you need DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy more than sports science.
Funny how that works.
I bring this up on the heels of the latest accusation from a former Philadelphia Eagle that Kelly prefers white players and bad black players over good black players.
McCoy's statement was not only wrong, but was an indirect swipe at his former black teammates still on the roster and a sign of why he is no longer on the team.
In the three years that Chip Kelly has been here, there is no credible evidence that he is a racist — unless you consider as credible the words of scorned former players and coaches, or a T.V. blowhard who is relevant only because he says the asinine.
No, contrary to McCoy's claims, Kelly is not looking to turn the Eagles into the 1986 Boston Celtics.
Instead, what we notice from taking a holistic view of Kelly's methods, and in particular, his draft and free agent additions, is that Chip Kelly wants a certain type of player.
Chip Kelly wants a guy that will kick your ass on the field as much as he does in the classroom. But that guy won't brag about it, he'll keep his head down and work even harder so he can do it even better next time. And there will be a next time.
Look at his roster. It is littered with guys that are extremely athletic, versatile, hard working and have college degrees. He believes that if he acquires enough of these "types" of players that are willing to buy in completely to his system, he will greatly improve his chance of success in the NFL.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the key to Kelly's "culture." And if it doesn't get you excited, you either don't have a pulse or you're a Cowboys fan.
College Degree
Let's start with Kelly's obsession with obtaining guys that have college degrees. The Wall Street Journal wrote an article about this last year, and it's definitely worth a read.
While Kelly was at Oregon, he learned from Tony Dungy that statistics showed players with college degrees had a greater likelihood of staying in the NFL for a second contract.
When Kelly came to Philadelphia, he hooked up with Howie Roseman, who noticed the same trend. Studies proved that the teams who targeted guys with college degrees were consistently the best teams in the league: the Patriots, Colts, Broncos and Seahawks consistently ranked towards the tops in number of college graduates on their rosters.
The team with the fewest? The Jacksonville Jaguars.
So the Eagles set out to draft college graduates. Of the 13 players the Eagles drafted in the last two years, 11 of them had college degrees. Eric Rowe graduated in 2014 and made the Pac-12 All-Academic second team. Jordan Hicks graduated in December 2013 and is working towards his master's degree in advertising. Nelson Agholor does not have a degree, but came up only a semester short (more on him in a moment).
The 15 undrafted free agents are equally impressive. Guard Brett Boyko was a four-time Academic All-Mountain West and member of UNLV's Dean's Honor List. He graduated with a degree in psychology and is currently pursuing a second degree in public administration. Tight End Andrew Gleichert earned his bachelor's degrees in bio-freaking-chemistry and molecular biology. Guard Cole Manhart was a three-time Academic Honor Roll recipient….
You get the point.
As he is prone to do, however, Kelly took it a step further. He focused not just on an athlete's degree and g.p.a., but also how he learned. Prior to the Eagles drafting Beau Allen in the seventh round of the draft, Kelly peppered him with questions about his educational background: what classes he liked, why he chose his major, and, how he learned best. Allen said he was the type of guy that had to write things down to really take it in. But when he came to the Eagles, each player was handed an iPad with the playbook added to it. Allen was slightly panicked until he realized the Eagles gave him a pen and notepad too. Kelly remembered, and gave Allen everything he needed to be at his best.
Athleticism
But make no mistake, Chip Kelly is not just looking for book worms. He wants intelligence married with incredible athleticism.
We all know Kelly has specific height, weight, and speed requirements for each position. At times, I have criticized these requirements as too rigid, especially if it meant jettisoning proven NFL players like Mychal Kendricks or Brandon Boykin because they are too short.
But historical data supports the idea that certain baseline measurements are almost a prerequisite to success at the NFL level. As the Eagles' vice president of player personnel, Ed Marynowitz, recently said:
"Saban’s philosophy, he had been in the NFL for quite some time, and our philosophy there was a very similar philosophy to what we have here. It was a very height/weight/speed specific operation. This is a size/speed league. We believed the SEC was a size/speed league. There’s enough statistical data that will support that in terms of players that are playing at a high level. There’s a certain prototype…Big picture wise, you want to play with the odds, not against the odds. And the odds are telling you that the majority of these guys that are under this certain prototype do not play at a starting level in the NFL. If you have seven draft picks, do you really want to waste one, especially in the top three rounds, on a guy that history is telling you… typically these guys with these types of measurables don’t produce at this level?"
I've written before about Nike's SPARQ system; it is a cutting-edge tool that measures key traits of explosiveness for draft prospects. Or, as the name suggests, it measures a prospects Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction and Quickness.
The Seattle Seahawks have used a similar measurement system to excel in the later rounds of the draft — nabbing players like Kam Chancellor, Richard Sherman and new Eagle Byron Maxwell — by focusing on players with elite athletic ability.
Nike's formula for SPARQ is not released to the general public. But thanks to some reverse engineering done by the folks over at 3sigmaathlete, we can see that the Eagles have followed suit, targeting players with high SPARQ scores in most positions, especially along the offensive and defensive lines and in the secondary.
Jordan Hicks was the fifth rated linebacker and ranks in the top 87% of active NFL linebackers. Seventh round pick Brian Mihalik also ranked well (2nd for DE), as did undrafted rookies Raheem Mostert (3rd), and BJ Mcbryde (4th).
Most impressive was Eric Rowe, who ranked third overall in his position and scored in the top 94.4% of all active NFL cornerbacks. When the Eagles drafted Rowe, Kelly cited his athleticism as one of the primary reasons: "He ran 4.45 in the 40, he was 3.94 in short shuttle, he had one of the best three cones at the combine. Thirty-nine inches in the vertical jump, 20 reps in the bench press. When you look at it from a height-weight-speed factor, he was in the top 25 percent of all the defensive backs that were out there and I think in most cases the top 10 percent. You can see that [on tape]. It’s evident he’s got that skill set.”
You can see up close and personal what Kelly was talking about here:
Work Ethic: Never Being Satisfied
Which makes Nelson Agholor an interesting case study. Agholor didn't graduate college (although he came thisclose), and he did not measure off the charts in SPARQ scores either, ranking 65th in his position. Agholor's presence should give you hope that Kelly & Co. are not blindly adhering to 40 times and college degrees.
(Side note: perhaps the Eagles just do not rate receiver as a position which requires elite athleticism. Jordan Matthews ranked 30th, while Josh Huff ranked 35th. Not elite numbers, but still very impressive).
Agholor is here because he is a good football player, of course. But he is also here because he is never satisfied, and he has the inner drive to work harder to make sure he succeeds. Here's what Kelly said after the Eagles drafted Agholor:
"He's just dialed in as a football player. He's in the Jordan Matthews category in terms of his approach to the game. Always striving to get better. I think the great thing about Nelson is he has a growth mindset and not a fixed mindset."
"He's one of those guys that's really a student of the game. I think you get excited when you're around guys like that. He's just trying to soak up everything that you can spit out in terms of being able to give him coaching points. He's always trying to get better, whether it's from a physical standpoint, improving himself physically, or a route-running standpoint, or just a mind standpoint in terms of how to run routes, how to do things and how he fits into the [offensive] scheme.
"He's exactly what we're looking for in a football player.''
You probably missed the most important part of this paragraph: Agholor has a growth mindset, not a fixed mindset. Paul Domowitch wrote about this philosophy last week. It's a phrase coined by renowned Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck regarding a person's inclination towards self-improvement.
As her website explains: "In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort. They’re wrong.
In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. Virtually all great people have had these qualities."
Chip Kelly targets players with this growth mindset. He wants players that are constantly seeking to improve and not rest on their laurels.
Agholor said he got this from his high school coach, Dominick Ciao, at Tampa Berkley Prep: "[Ciao] talked about that maintaining is almost a form of regression," Agholor said. "As long as you try to get better every day, you'll be fine."
Kelly had similar things to say about Eric Rowe: “He’s outstanding, really strong from a mental standpoint. He’s got a very good football IQ. I think those are some of the things that stood out with him. His ability to recall what they did at Utah when you put the tape on, tell you the coverage, explain it, but not only explain it from the safety position but explain it from the corner position … a lot of times they’re a byproduct of their experience so they don’t know what it’s like when you move them outside, but he can do that but he’s actually done it in games."
In other words, Kelly wants a player that is never happy. Who never lets success get to his head. Who throws for four touchdowns in one game, but fixates afterwards on the one pass that got away. Agholor and Rowe, like Jordan Matthews, work incredibly hard at their craft. They are, in Kelly's own words, "exactly what we're looking for in a football player."
Versatility
Kelly has spoken often about the need for versatility given the roster size restraints:
"When you only have 46 guys active on gameday, you have to have versatility in your non-starters because there’s not just enough numbers. If you’re two-deep at every position, that’s 44, excluding specialists. At some positions you’re going to carry a third – you’re going to carry a third running back, so where does that spot come from? It has to come from somewhere. When you’re talking about making the 46-man (active gameday) roster, that versatility part is huge for guys who aren’t the starters. … When you talk about backup guys, they have to have versatility."
It is the oft-cited trait for almost every position, save for a few (quarterback, kicker and punter, to be exact). Look at some of his most recent draft picks: Eric Rowe and Jaylen Watkins played both safety and cornerback in college. Nelson Agholor and Jordan Matthews can play inside and outside. Agholor and Josh Huff can contribute on special teams too.
Ditto his veteran acquisitions. Darren Sproles is Mr. Versatile. Conor Barwin lines up all over the field. And if the Eagles ever wanted, they could split Zach Ertz in the slot and create a matchup nightmare for defenses.
Kelly knows that his players' versatility will come in handy when the Eagles are operating their fast break offense. It reduces the need for substitutions while allowing the Eagles to operate out of multiple formations. One play Darren Sproles can be lined up in the backfield. 14 seconds after that play is over, he's lined up in the slot. It's just another way to create confusion for the defense, and in the process, create a potential mismatch to exploit.
Total Buy-In
By now a clearer picture should be starting to emerge. Kelly could care less about the color of someone's skin. He wants humble, team first players who will buy in to his system, and that are intelligent self-starters who will take what he teaches them and run with it.
Consider this quote from Todd McShay:
"For Chip, it's about getting the right guys in place. Every time I talk to Chip, the phrase he always uses is 'guys that buy in.' He brings it up every single time I've talked to him. He wants to make sure he has a roster full of guys that are buying in. Whether it's the sleeping regimen or the nutrition or the mental aspect of it, he feels like now, more than ever as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, he has players in place that buy into what they want to do there and that, moving forward, are on the same page.''
That humility. That team first attitude. That total buy-in. It's why Conor Barwin, Jason Peters, and Brandon Graham received contract extensions. It's also why DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy are no longer here. Jackson routinely butted heads with coaches and was late for meetings. McCoy admitted he did not buy in at first and became too focused on stats — claiming he wanted to eclipse 2,000 yards rushing — and not focused enough on the team's success.
Can you blame Kelly for getting rid of them? Put it this way: if Chip Kelly couldn't get his best wide receiver and running back to totally buy into what he was selling, what message would that send to the backup center or practice squad wide receiver? He values total buy in. Anyone who doesn't commit — regardless of their talent or skin color — can go elsewhere. Even if it means losing a few stars in the process.
Patrick Causey is a writer at Eagledelphia.com and can be followed on Twitter @PhillySportsJD
