Chip Kelly’s September 15 Press Conference

Q. Evan Mathis said he had planned to attend minicamp this week. He seemed very surprised about his release.  Does that square with your perception?

CHIP KELLY:  We were asked by his agent for a release on multiple occasions, so we weren’t going to come to a conclusion in terms of a contract extension.  We weren’t going to extend any contract or adjust any contract, so we granted him what his agent asked for.

 
Q.  Why not just ask Mathis to honor his contract?

CHIP KELLY:  That conversation had gone on for a long time. It wasn’t addressed to us that that was going to happen. So, that’s what we did moving forward.

 
Q.  So you don’t think he would have played a season under that contract?

CHIP KELLY:  I don’t know.  I mean, we went ‑‑ they obviously wanted a new contract and we weren’t going to give them a new contract.  They asked for the release, so we released him.
 

Q.  I know during the draft you said that you hadn’t received any offers in two years for Mathis.  Was there any thought given towards holding him through August when maybe another team would suffer an injury on the offensive line and Mathis could then be an asset?

CHIP KELLY:  Maybe, but we discussed everything.  We felt that if he didn’t want to be here, I wanted Evan to get everything he could get, and I hope it works out for him.  He was great for us in the two years we had him.  I like Evan a lot and if he wants to get released to see if he can get better, then we released him.
 

Q.  What changed between this year and last year?  Mathis asked for a trade last offseason, as well, so what is different now?

CHIP KELLY:  They didn’t ask for a release [last year] or anything to that standpoint.  They were asking for a release [this year].
 

Q.  When did they ask for the release? Initially Mathis said he was planning on reporting to minicamp.

CHIP KELLY:  They asked for a release on multiple occasions since free agency started, to be honest with you.

Q.  So it was that cut and dry, it was either renegotiate or release him?

CHIP KELLY:  According to his agent, they wanted a release.  We released him.
 

Q.  Any concern about precedent for other players who may not be happy?

CHIP KELLY:  No, we deal with every contract on an individual basis.
 

Q.  You don’t think other players might see what Mathis did and try to ‑‑

CHIP KELLY:  Or other players could say they’re going to hold out and get more money, too.  There’s a catch-22 to both sides of it.
 

Q.  How does not having Mathis around impact the depth on the offensive line?

CHIP KELLY:  We obviously are down a good football player, but we’re confident in the guys we have, and that’s why we made the decision we made.
 

Q.  What have you seen out of the Allen Barbre’s and the Matt Tobin’s that gave you more confidence that you can move forward without Mathis?

CHIP KELLY:  I think [G/T] Allen Barbre is an outstanding football player.  He just got hurt at the beginning of the year last year, and whenever he’s had to play for us, he’s played extremely well for us, and I know we’re excited about moving forward with him, and then we’ll see what happens at the other position.
 

Q.  Depth was an issue for you guys on the offensive line last year.

CHIP KELLY:  I think depth is an issue for everybody in this league. That’s just part of the deal.
 

Q.  Why did you choose to release Mathis when you did?

CHIP KELLY:  Because we weren’t coming to a conclusion in terms of him being here.
 

Q.  And why not wait until after the mandatory minicamp to see if —

CHIP KELLY:  Hopefully I was seeing if he could catch on with somebody for the minicamp so he could make a team.  I’m not going to hold guys out.  I mean, that’s just not the deal.  If he didn’t want to be here and he wants a release, we granted him his release.  We moved on, they moved on.  I hope things really work out for Evan.
 

Q.  Was there any discussion of releasing him before free agency started?

CHIP KELLY:  No, because we were trying to see if we had draft options ‑‑ I mean, trade options. Going through the draft and knowing what conversations would happen then, went through the league meetings, didn’t have any conversations or no one had any conversations with us about offering us anything, so we felt we waited as long as we possibly could to see if we could trade him.
 

Q.  Were you concerned that he might hold out for training camp?

CHIP KELLY:  No, that wasn’t a concern at all.
 
Q.  How would you assess his play last year on the field?

CHIP KELLY:  I think he played well except he missed eight games. In the eight games he was here, he played well.
 

Q.  Do you feel like you’re as athletic at guard now as you were last year with Todd Herremans and Mathis?

CHIP KELLY:  Yes, we do.  We really do.
 

Q.  So you can do everything that you want to do?

CHIP KELLY:  We haven’t changed any play schemes or how we approach things in terms of what we run for plays, so no.
 
Q.  How about OL Jared Wheeler?  What does Wheeler bring? Why sign him?

CHIP KELLY:  We needed a 16th body in here, so we have 16 offensive linemen. That’s a number we have in our 90, and we’ve been down a body because Evan hasn’t been here, but he was still counted in the 90, so it was just adding another guy out there to add some depth to the guys that we have and see how he fits into the mix.
 
Q.  G/T Matt Tobin last year played some games and then wasn’t in there at the end.  What does he need to work on to make that jump?

CHIP KELLY:  Just consistency.  At times, I think Matt has played really well for us, but I think he needs to be more consistent and not just flash at times, and I think he understands that, but I think we’ve got some good competition going there with him and [T/G] Andrew Gardner and [G/T] Dennis Kelly and  [T] Kevin Graf and the other guys that are at that position.
 
Q.  How much did his ankle sprain that he suffered in the preseason last year affect him starting off the year, and when he did get in there, was it still ‑‑

CHIP KELLY:  Who’s that, Matt?
 

Q.  Yeah, Matt Tobin.

CHIP KELLY:  Yeah, he was behind.  It was a significant injury.  He actually came back a lot faster than we actually thought he was going to come back, but I think it speaks to his toughness.
 

Q.  There was a quote from former Eagles assistant Tra Thomas, I believe, who said Mathis and T Jason Peters weren’t really a good fit working together on the left side.

CHIP KELLY:  I don’t think, that’s ‑‑ no.  No.  I mean ‑‑ no.
 

Q.  The fact that Barbre has played left guard throughout the spring, does that prepare him for the possibility of Mathis not being here?

CHIP KELLY:  No, he hasn’t played left guard throughout the spring.
 

Q.  In the practices that we have been out here for, Barbre has been with the first-team at left guard.

CHIP KELLY:  Coincidence.  You guys look at it and we can go, ‘Who’s starting at corner today, who’s playing left guard today and who’s playing right guard today?’  I’ll say this, and I know I say it over and over again, but maybe I can get this point across: it’s June. Whoever lines up anywhere today is not an indication that they’re going to be a starter where they line up when we play in September.
 

Q.  Barbre has said that he is more comfortable on the left side.  Do you notice that?  Does that seem to be his stronger point?

CHIP KELLY:  No, I mean he played well for us last year, I thought, when he played right tackle for Lane [T Lane Johnson]. So he played all right tackle all last year during preseason and then in the first game, and then obviously he broke his ankle in that first game. I think he’s comfortable playing both sides. He may be a little bit more comfortable playing left. That’s a conversation you can have with him, but I think he’s comfortable playing both sides.
 

Q.  Tobin played some tackle last year, too, right?

CHIP KELLY:  Tobin has played some tackle.  All those guys have. Tobin has versatility. We like guys like that, but you have to have that.  If you’re not a starter, and when we dress seven guys on game day, someone has to be a center‑guard and someone has to be a guard‑tackle because that’s all we’re dressing. If you’re not in the top five, you need to have versatility in terms of your ability to play.  If you’re only a one‑position guy and you’re not the starter, it’s difficult to make that game-day roster just because we’re going to take the guy who has more versatility over you because you don’t know what’s going to go down on game day.
 
Q.  Is everyone here today?

CHIP KELLY:  Everyone is here today, yeah.
 

Q.  With cohesion being so important for the offensive line, at what point would you like to decide who those starters are going to be at right and left guard in order to build that cohesion going into the season?

CHIP KELLY:  We’ll see how it plays itself out, but I think our system lends itself to that. It’s a pretty cohesive group to begin with.  Sometime during training camp we’d like to kind of narrow that down.
 

Q.  What do you think about former Eagles CB Cary Williams’ comments that he made last week on the radio?

CHIP KELLY:  I didn’t really pay attention to Cary’s comments last week.  I heard he made some, but I didn’t listen to them or read them.
 

Q.  He basically was saying that he thought the team was kind of burnt out. He was kind of revisiting the comments he made last year. 

CHIP KELLY:  I mean, I talked to the rest of the players on our team. [S] Malcolm Jenkins said he felt the best in his entire career after playing the most snaps.  That’s a minority opinion. The majority of our players would tell you that they felt great at the end of the season.
 

Q.  Does it worry you that there’s even one player that thinks that way?

CHIP KELLY:  Yeah, but I also know that you have to make your decisions based on the whole group, not just one player, because if I did it on one player, then the other guys would feel bad.
 

Q.  Did you guys change at all after he made those comments?

CHIP KELLY:  No.
 

Q.  Did you make any practice changes? Williams insinuated at that time that you backed off in practices a little bit.

CHIP KELLY:  No, we do the same thing every year in terms of what we do in volume.  It’s all based on science.
 

Q.  If he felt that way, then it was more his perception than the reality?

CHIP KELLY:  I don’t know, you’d have to ask him.
 

Q.  Do you think the players that are currently here would feel comfortable telling you if they thought ‑‑

CHIP KELLY:  Yeah, we talk every day.  They fill out a questionnaire every day.  It’s something that we do on a daily basis.
 
           
Q.  Is there a timeline for QB Sam Bradford to throw in an 11-on-11 setting or is that a training camp decision?
           
CHIP KELLY:  Is there a timeline?  No, we haven’t set any timelines.
 
           
Q.  What will Bradford do during this minicamp that he didn’t do during OTAs?
           
CHIP KELLY:  He’s on the same type of schedule.
 
           
Q.  So he will still kind of mix in with the seven‑on‑sevens and the team drills?
           
CHIP KELLY:  Yeah.
 

Q.  So no 11-on-11 at this point?
           
CHIP KELLY:  No 11-on-11, no.
 
           
Q.  What’s the difference between this three-day minicamp and the OTAs?
           
CHIP KELLY:  In terms of the training on the field, no.  We just have afternoon sessions.  We have a walk‑through and meetings in the afternoon. The only difference is in the first part of OSPs you have four hours, during OTAs you have six hours, and during minicamp you have eight hours, but your time on the field doesn’t change.
 
           
Q.  Are you interested in adding veteran depth somewhere on the offensive line?
           
CHIP KELLY:  We’re very comfortable in the 90 guys we have here right now.
 
           
Q.  You have talked about the need to reduce the X-plays defensively. What were the problems that led to those last season?
           
CHIP KELLY:  There’s a million.  I mean, sometimes it’s just individual coverage, sometimes it’s the pass rush not getting home, sometimes it’s a miscommunication. There wasn’t one specific thing that you can say, ‘It’s this and if we correct that, we’ll be better at it.’

          
Q.  Do you think Bradford will be ready for 11-on-11 in training camp?
           
CHIP KELLY:  God, we hope so.