Patrick Causey, on Twitter @PhillySportsJD
It was no secret last year that former Philadelphia Eagle Cary Williams was not a fan of some of Chip Kelly's methods. In particular, Williams called out Kelly for overworking his players in practice. According to Williams, this left the Eagles gassed, especially down the stretch of the season.
Williams was released by the Eagles this offseason for a less than stellar performance on the field, and presumably because some of the aforementioned off-field comments rubbed the coaching staff the wrong way.
Now that Williams is with the Seattle Seahawks, he does not have to hold back. He was interviewed by 710 am, ESPN Radio in Seattle, and again criticized Kelly's practice methods and emphasis on conditioning:
"We was talking about the fact that our conditioning and things like was going to kick in because we worked harder than everybody in the National Football League with the Chip Kelly thing. We got out there, we got our teeth kicked in. So all that conditioning didn't necessarily work."
Williams also questioned the coaching staffs' ability and the players preparation for its game against Seattle: "Preparation wasn't necessarily the greatest neither that week. When you're going up against teams that prepare well, practice well, coach well, it's difficult in games like that. I think towards the end of the year we were exhausted and we got outcoached the majority of the games."
Williams claimed the Seahawks dominated the Eagles because they were the fresher and more physical team: "One, they were fresher. Two, they were more physical. And I think in the National Football League, physicality is huge and you need that physicality in order to win games. Coaching is a part of it, too."
While Williams called Kelly a "great coach," he still strongly disagreed with his approach, suggesting it was not the right way to build a championship contender.
"I enjoyed my teammates, I enjoyed some of the coaches but ultimately we didn't get the job done, and there was reasoning for that. Whatever that is they're creating, I didn't believe it. We went to one playoff game, we had a home playoff game and we lost that. And it was his first year, I understand that. I think he's a great coach, a tremendous coach. I just think that what's going on there isn't necessarily the right way of doing things, of winning games. He's won games, but when you're going against elite talent, elite players, elite teams, elite schemes, we weren't able to get the job done."
You can get the full audio of the interview here.
Williams is the latest in a cast of ex-players and coaches to take a shot at Kelly. McCoy insinuated that Kelly's offseason roster moves were motivated by race. Tra Thomas (a former coach), echoed those sentiments. And Trent Cole suggested that he had lost respect for the Eagles after he was released.
To Williams credit, he made the same criticisms of Kelly's approach while he was with the Eagles. So this isn't the case of an ex-player taking a cheap shot at his former team while enjoying the protection of playing on a new team.
And the Eagles defense has been on the field longer than any other team in the NFL (by far) in each of Kelly's two seasons. So it is reasonable to assume the added minutes had a negative impact on the team's play down the stretch.
And some of the current Eagles players have openly criticized the Eagles former secondary coach, John Lovett. Others, including safety Malcolm Jenkins, have suggested that the new secondary coach Corey Undlin was the best addition to the Eagles this offseason. So Williams criticisms of the coaching staff might not be entirely off-base, either.
But on the other hand, Williams played poorly as an Eagle. He was cut and lost the opportunity to make close to $8.5 million in a season. So this could easily be a case of sour grapes.
Only time will tell who is right. But if you are asking me to put my money on a player who has more bark than bite, or a coach like Chip Kelly, my money is on Kelly every day and twice on Sunday (see what I did there?).
