Chip Dips: Eagles part ways with head coach

Wow.

Like seriously, wow.

In a move that caught the entire world by surprise, Eagles’ owner Jeffrey Lurie releases Chip Kelly after going 6-9 on the season. Pat Shurmer will serve as the interim head coach for the season finale against the Giants.

The language the team used to announce the move is very interesting. The team didn’t “fire” Chip Kelly, he was “released”. This wording may imply some mutuality in the release, but as of right now it seems as though this decision was Lurie’s alone.

I don’t agree with this move at all. It sets the team back and makes the past three seasons look like a total waste. Chip Kelly was a fourth quarter collapse away from winning the NFC East in consecutive years, but has one losing season and is shown the door.

I understand the reasoning for firing Chip. Once he finally had all the power, his finished product was pretty unsightly. He tried to make the team a little too college, but I don’t think that calls for the guy’s job.

Chip deserved a second chance to rebuild this team after two 10-6 campaigns, but instead he’ll get that opportunity with a new organization.

Some of the blame has to be put on Jeffrey Lurie. He has signed the checks on two huge offseason that marked the deaths of Andy Reid and Chip Kelly’s Philadelphia coaching career. He is the one constant that has remained from both regimes and allowed both to die of the similar causes. His ability to not learn from past mistakes has severely hurt this team.

This offseason stood as a huge question mark to me because I wasn’t sure how Chip was going to fix his mistakes. But now, I have no idea where this team is going.

What sucks even more is that Howie Roseman may get his old job back. So while there may be some major changes going on, crappy drafts are here to stay.

As of right now, my favorite coaching option may be David Fipp, but that’s making the huge assumption that he could be the next John Harbaugh. Instead I expect Lurie to go after a much bigger name, someone like Sean Peyton or Les Miles. If the Browns cut ties with Mike Pettine, he’d be another name I’d be interested in.

This release is the most immediate, knee jerk decision Jeffrey Lurie could of possibly made after one losing season. He’ll look pretty bad if Chip can find success with another team. All we can do now is sit back and watch as Chip Kelly turns Marcus Mariota into a perennial MVP candidate.

I don’t have a good feeling about this move. The only person who should be happy with this move is Howie Roseman. I fear that we may be sinking into a dark period of Philadelphia Eagles’ football. This city’s only somewhat respectable sports team now has no sense of direction.

GOD. HATES. THIS. CITY.