Did Kelly take shot at Bradford with 'good QB play' talk?
Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly on Thursday spoke at length about how competent play from the quarterback position is integral when it comes to fielding a competitive football team and having a chance to win on a consistent basis.
Given that the Eagles stand at 3-4 heading into a showdown Sunday with the Dallas Cowboys, could Kelly’s comments be interpreted as a veiled potshot at his own handpicked quarterback, Sam Bradford?
“You can say that every year this league has been in existence or the game of football has been in existence. It’s the focal point of what you are doing … your quarterback spot,” Kelly said after practice, via NJ.com. “That’s the guy that has the ball on every play. How he distributes it, whether it’s to the right guys or the wrong guys. Is he moving your team down the field, managing the game the way you want it managed? Very rarely is a team successful that doesn’t have good quarterback play. There have been some exceptions, where it was a defense for the ages, and the offense was just kind of … winning games 7-0, or 6-3. But most of the time the percentages are, if you get good quarterback play you’ll probably have a good football team.”
Kelly has been reluctant to say the least to publicly criticize Bradford, who has had an underwhelming season thus far at best and a horrible one at worst. In fact, Kelly seems to almost go out of his way to avoid saying anything negative about Bradford while expressing the team has “full confidence” in Bradford.
But Kelly talking about “good quarterback play” certainly did not occur in a vacuum, so even if it wasn’t intended, it can be inferred that even Kelly possibly recognizes the team is not getting what it needs out of their quarterback, the one the so-called mad football scientist brought in to replace Nick Foles.
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