For the first time since being released by the Eagles, Broncos guard Evan Mathis offered critical thoughts on Chip Kelly's philosophies as a head coach and gave specific details about his release.
In an email exchange with Denver reporter Mike Klis, Mathis ripped into Kelly's offense and his handling of the Eagles' locker room.
“There were many things that Chip had done that showed me he wasn’t building a championship team,” Mathis wrote to Klis. “Two of the main issues that concerned me were: 1. A never-evolving, vanilla offense that forced our own defense to play higher than normal play counts. 2. His impatience with certain personality types even when they were blue-chip talents. The Broncos team I was on would have eaten Chip alive. I don’t think he could have handled the plethora of large personalities.”
Mathis echoes two of the main criticisms of Kelly during his tenure as the Eagles' coach: His inability, or refusal, to adapt his offense, and his treatment of big egos in the locker room.
Players like DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy were both "blue-chip" talents, but their personalities and selfish attitudes rubbed Kelly the wrong way. Jackson was released by the team before the 2014 season, and McCoy was traded to the Buffalo Bills in exchange for Kiko Alonso.
While there may have been on-the-field reasons for their departures, it's clear that their personalities played a significant part.
In regards to Kelly's offense, there were numerous times over the last two seasons where opposing defenders admitted that they could predict the Eagles' plays. After the Eagles' blowout loss to the Arizona Cardinals this past season, Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson said the following:
"Well, you know with Philly, whatever they run in the first 15 plays, they are kind of going to keep running those same plays," Peterson said, via Bleeding Green Nation. "So you have get a good picture of what those first 15 plays are like. They are a tempo team. Out of those first 15 plays, when the game actually settles down, then we can scan and look at the formation and we knew what they were going to do."
Despite this happening numerous times, Kelly insisted that the problem wasn't his offense, but the players' execution.
Mathis also discussed the events leading up to his release from the Eagles. According to Mathis, he and general manager Howie Roseman had been negotiating a new contract prior to the 2014 season, but Mathis' agent, Drew Rosenhaus, decided it was best to curb negotiations until after the season concluded.
As we all know, Kelly overthrew Roseman as the team's GM. So when Mathis and Rosenhaus decided to continue negotiations, Kelly insisted that he knew nothing about the prior talks with Roseman. It was then that Mathis knew he wanted out.
“Since I wasn’t going to be paid what I was offered and I wouldn’t simply be given better incentives to play for a coach who wasn’t building a winning team, I decided I wanted out of Philadelphia,” Mathis wrote to Klis.
Mathis even went as far as too provide Klis with a timeline of events leading up to his release.
March 23: A report surfaces that the Eagles would release Mathis if they couldn't trade him.
March 25: In true Mathis fashion, he sends this fitting YouTube video to Kelly via text:
June 11: Kelly calls Mathis to tell him that the team is releasing him so he can try to find what he wants.
The Eagles went into the 2015 season with two inexperienced guards. Ultimately, the offensive line took a major step back and was one of the many contributors to the Eagles' 7-9 record and Kelly's firing. Mathis, on the other hand, elected to take less money to sign with the Broncos. Six months later, he's a Super Bowl Champion.
While Mathis didn't have many nice things to say about Kelly, he does hope that he learns from his mistakes and makes himself a better head coach in San Francisco.
“I hope Chip learns from his experiences in Philadelphia and grows as a coach. Maybe he’ll find some constructive criticism from this.’’
