The 2013 NFL Draft was the first of Philadelphia Eagles’ head coach Chip Kelly’s career. Kelly went with what he knew in his inaugural draft, selecting five players he coached against while at Oregon.
Kelly was at Oregon for six years, with four spent as the head coach. He selected four players from Pac-12 schools and one from LSU who the Ducks faced to start the 2011 season.
Kelly is hoping to take a page out of former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson’s book by employing this strategy.
Johnson rebuilt the Dallas Cowboys with the 1989 and 1990 drafts. He selected future pro-bowlers Troy Aikman, Daryl Johnston, Mark Stepnoski and Emmitt Smith in those two drafts. He also selected future starters Tony Tolbert, Alexander Wright, Jimmy Jones and Kenny Gant during those two years.
Many believe that Johnsons’ familiarity with the college game, having scouted and coached these players helped him quickly rebuild the Cowboys into a Super Bowl champion.
In his five seasons as the Dallas Cowboys head coach, Johnson drafted 18 players he either coached or coached against while at Miami.
Those players helped form the nucleus for three Super Bowl teams. Philadelphia fans have to be hope that Kelly can have a similar success rate with his draft picks.
Kelly selected Zach Ertz from Stanford, Bennie Logan from LSU, Matt Barkley from USC, Joe Kruger from Utah and Jordan Poyer from Oregon State in this draft. Kelly had to have more familiarity with those players than the average NFL head coach since he saw them play live in college.
He knows what those players are capable of and what they bring to the table. It remains to be seen whether this strategy will be as successful for Kelly as it was for Johnson.
Kelly is an offensive coach known for his spread-option offense. He only drafted three offensive players in his first draft, with one of them being Barkley.
There is no way that Barkley can be expected to run the spread-option offense that Kelly used at Oregon. He is a pro-style quarterback who will excel the most in a West Coast scheme.
Kelly emphasized speed over all else while at Oregon. He regularly lined up smaller players at the skill position in order to defeat defenses with speed and quickness, as opposed to brute strength.
The San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks and the Washington Redskins and employed some version of the spread offense during the 2012 NFL season. The Niners used the elusiveness of quarterback Colin Kaepernick in a zone-read scheme to take them all the was to an NFC title.
Jimmy Johnson proved that knowledge was power when he built a Super Bowl champion out of college players he had coached and coached against. Multiple teams in the NFL proved in 2012 that the spread offense could be effective in the NFL. In 2013, Eagles fans will find out if both strategies can be combined to put a successful NFL team on the field.
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