It has been a quiet week at Eagles headquarters. No disgruntled running back dramas. No insider reports that Chip Kelly is staying or leaving. No hangups on conference calls or threats to drop the mic during a press conference.
Kelly needs quiet as much, if not more, than he needs wins. The Eagles' upset victory over the Patriots on Dec. 6, followed by an upsetting week of intrigue, caused Kelly's regime as much harm as good. If star players like DeMarco Murray weren't with the program just hours after the biggest win of the season, when would they be with the program?
"I think what you've got to look at is we won a football game the other night against a really fine opponent. … There should be some joy in that at least for a few hours until we get back to Philly," offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur put it last week, after a barrage of questions about Murray's complaints about his role in the offense to owner Jeffrey Lurie on the flight back from Foxborough.
Alleluia. But this week has been more joyous. During his weekly check-in with the press, Shurmur got to talk about game plans and schemes—before fielding a few warmed-over Murray questions. ("OK, we're on the backs again," he said, sounding a little resigned.)
Kelly reported on minor injuries and delivered ordinary press-conference mutterings, in stark contrast with last week, when Kelly fielded he-said/he-said questions about Murray and LeSean McCoy until he threatened to turn the podium over to the reporters so we could interview ourselves.
Kelly's job is now probably safe, but not just because of the wins. A 6-7 record and a tie for first place in a division that does not deserve first place won't appease Lurie or anyone else. The wins are merely evidence that Kelly still has the faith and support of his players. The quiet is a sign that, moving forward, Kelly will do a better job addressing locker room problems before they become problems.
Handshake Disagreement
Kelly's Eagles, like onions and ogres, have layers. There's the personnel layer (wholesale offseason changes), the schematic layer (all shotgun, no huddle), the sports-science layer and the elusive, mysterious cultural layer that is supposed to glue everything together but nearly tore everything apart.
Kelly's shortcomings as a personnel guru go beyond Murray's autumn of discontent and Sam Bradford's proof that the previous five seasons of injury-riddled ordinariness were no fluke.
The Eagles' top three contributors this season, according to their Pro Football Focus ratings, are Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham and Vinny Curry: three holdovers from the Andy Reid era. Jason Peters and Cedric Thornton, two other Reid players, are also among the top 10. Three seasons into his regime, after a host of trades and free-agent signings, Kelly depends heavily on Reid holdovers.
On the other hand, Kelly cleared the roster of Nick Foles (benched by the Rams) and Cary Williams (cut by the Seahawks). The money saved by letting Jeremy Maclin sign with the Chiefs was used on Walter Thurmond and Byron Maxwell, half of an upgraded secondary, and on extensions for players like Graham. Many of Kelly's transactions backfired, but the underlying principles made sense.
Strategically, Kelly runs an offense with option trappings but no options. Despite the fact Murray appears more comfortable when taking handoffs from an under-center quarterback, Kelly's quarterbacks have been in shotgun for all but 66 offensive plays this season: 55 runs and 11 passes, according to the Football Outsiders internal database (and yes, that run-pass ratio is wacky).
On the other hand, the under-center plays Eagles fans are clamoring for have averaged just 3.1 yards per rush, with two interceptions and three sacks sprinkled among big plays. The no-huddle will always be a criticism magnet for football purists. There are plenty of teams with conventional offenses that haven't remained in playoff contention, even in weak divisions, for three straight seasons.
But what about the culture?
McCoy claimed to ESPN.com's Mike Rodak that Kelly got rid of all the "good black players" after he was traded. Veteran cornerback Brandon Boykin made similar comments after he was traded. Murray just wants the damn ball, and he let the owner know it, then made sure through channels that we knew that he let the owner know it.
The days after the Patriots win were an inquest on the Kelly culture, an indication that, racial implications aside (Evan Mathis wasn't chairing any Kelly fan clubs when the Eagles released him, either), Kelly doesn't build the best relationships with many of his important players.
McCoy spent last week's conference call with reporters stepping to the ledge of attacking his former coach and then backpedaling. He reiterated several times that he would not shake Kelly's hand before the Bills game (he did not, though he flat-out cuddled Lurie) but insisted he had nothing personal against his former coach.
The back-and-forth grew contentious enough for McCoy to cut the call short. But at one point, he grudgingly added Kelly to a list of fond Eagles memories that included Lurie, Reid, teammates and fans. "Even Chip," he said. "Chip showed me a lot. He's really smart. He taught me a lot of different things." In other words, it's complicated.
Maybe if Kelly talked to McCoy before finalizing the trade, there would have been no allegations. Maybe Kelly could have sat Murray down for 10 minutes before Murray sat next to Lurie. Maybe Kelly gets so wrapped up in game film and scientific journals about biomechanics that he forgets the human side of the coaching equation, that grown men expect to know they are on the trading block or are about to get demoted.
And maybe the quiet at Eagles headquarters is a sign that Kelly has learned how to listen.
Setting the Tone
Malcolm Jenkins told a story this week of how Kelly brought the Eagles back from the brink of despair.
"After Thanksgiving, coming back, Chip really set the tone as far as our attitude moving forward," Jenkins said in a radio appearance on 97.5 The Fanatic on Tuesday. "He basically came in and talked about, he believed that we were a good team. … He basically re-emphasized the fact that sometimes he feels like he believes in us maybe more than we believe in ourselves."
That's a story we should have heard last week, right after it happened. But there was too much noise. We were busy asking Eagles players if they had ever sat next to a team owner on a flight and trying to figure out who would shake whose hand.
Kelly also reiterated his regrets about the abrupt manner in which he handled the McCoy trade late last week.
"How he was traded wasn't handled right," Kelly said. "I did not get an opportunity to talk to him, and it's a lesson that we should never do."
Interpersonal communication: the final scientific frontier for Kelly to conquer. Honest conversations and old-school pep talks can help Kelly and the Eagles more now than all the spreadsheets and hydration tests in the world. Kelly's program still has a lot to offer, but that won't matter if he cannot keep his players invested in the program.
Kelly's boss has seen seasons like this before. Lurie gave Andy Reid additional time to turn his program around at the end of his tenure—perhaps too much additional time—because Reid retained "the love of his players and their respect" and was held in high esteem by the rest of the NFL.
Lurie can swallow an offseason of personnel blunders (see the 2011 "dream team"). He'll stick with a scheme that runs hot and cold. But Lurie listens to his players, even when they don't have him cornered in first class. He knows how much their respect and trust in their coach matters in the win-loss column.
Kelly will keep his job as long as he keeps things quiet in Philly this year. He'll then have to do a little more talking. He needs to set a tone, let players know he believes in them, maybe do a little ego management now and then.
There are roster-management and strategic adjustments to be made, as well (plus a quarterback situation for a whole different column). None of those will matter, though, unless Kelly builds on what he did this week and separates his signal from all the noise.
Mike Tanier covers the NFL for Bleacher Report.