Eagles head coach Chip Kelly. Photo by Pete Lerro/contrastphotography.com

Head Coach Chip Kelly Press Conference
11.6.13

Q. How is Mike Vick’s progress coming along?
CHIP KELLY: He was limited yesterday. He’s working with our trainers and strength and conditioning staff, and we’ll see how he is when he comes out today.

Q. Is Nick Foles starting Sunday?
CHIP KELLY: Nick is starting in practice today. We’ll be consistent for the whole year. I want consistency out of my team, so you’ve got to have consistency out of me.

Q. Last week you said right away that ‑‑
CHIP KELLY: I can’t see with that camera in your face.

Q. Last week you said right away that Nick was the guy for the week?
CHIP KELLY: No, I didn’t, I said Tuesday we had to see him. You’ve got to look at your days. Tuesday we didn’t know where he was coming back, had to see him on the field first.

Q. How many similarities do you see between Don Capers’ defense and Bill Davis’ defense? He was a mentor of his.
CHIP KELLY: How many, like a specific number, or are there similarities? There are similarities, yeah.

Q. Is the base defense the same essentially?
CHIP KELLY: I mean, everything you do in this game is based on your personnel. You know, it just depends on what he has. I mean, they have a base defense where they play three down linemen, two outside linebackers. They’re not playing it a lot just because a lot of people aren’t in heavy sets against them, they’re more spread out against them. So they do carry ‑‑ they’re similar to us, but I think really what people are doing against them kind of dictates what you’re seeing on film. They seem like they’re in a lot more nickel and dime than they are in base right now, but I think it’s because of what they’re defending.

Q. When you first interviewed Billy, did he talk about how those early days with the Steelers with Don Capers?
CHIP KELLY: No, when we interview coaches we’re talking football. It’s not ‑‑ Billy is not that guy, so name dropping doesn’t ‑‑ I don’t care where you learned it, it’s did you learn it. And that’s not part of it in terms of, hey, he’s from this tree or he’s from that tree. It’s what did he learn when he was in those organizations and what can he carry and how does he transport his knowledge to the individual players, and that’s what came across when I interviewed Billy is that not only did he have a great grasp of it but he’s a great communicator, and if he could teach us then obviously he can teach a player.

Q. What’s the plan with the returning situation on both kickoffs and punt returns?
CHIP KELLY: We’re going to keep – DeSean [Jackson] has always been a guy that we’re going to throw in there, so you’re going to see the same thing of that, and then we’ll just see, Damaris [Johnson] where he is this week in practice. I feel confident in the return situation because you do have Brandon [Boykin] that can return kickoffs, and you also have DeSean with punts and we feel like we’ve got a little bit of depth there. A little of that is dependent on where Damaris is. He came along last week a lot faster than I think anybody anticipated at the beginning of the week. We weren’t sure if he was going to even be ready to go. We’ll continue to monitor that. It’s one of those situations where he could feel really good today but then tomorrow when he wakes up it’s a little bit sore. So we’ll just kind of monitor as we get going.

Q. It looked like it was more effective with DeSean and Brandon. Did you grade it out that way?
CHIP KELLY: There was obviously ‑‑ DeSean had one long return there and Brandon hit one up in there, so those were positives for us. But we’re not ready to make a wholesale change at anything. It’s just a matter of making sure, I think one of the things we learned is that we do have some depth at that situation. And right now with you getting into week 10 of an NFL season, as many healthy bodies as you can get running around out there will just make you a better team.

Q. How concerned are you with LeSean McCoy’s production?
CHIP KELLY: We look at it overall. Thank goodness we’re not in a fantasy league as coaches. It’s how productive is the offense and are we moving the ball. I’ve said it since day one, we’re an equal opportunity deal. If you want to let us throw it, then we’re going to throw it. If you want to let us run it, then we’re going to run it. If for some reason the running game is not working but we’re throwing the heck out of the ball, then we’ll continue to do that. But I also think he adds a ton of value in the passing game, caught a touchdown pass for us. I think he can be a mismatch problem and some of those things. I thought he played a really good game. They were blitzing a few times. He was good in pass pro again and pickups and things like that.
We never look at one guy from an individual statistic standpoint and say, hey, we’re not getting this out of him, it’s are we moving the ball. We were in a pretty good rhythm on Sunday and we did move the football. Whether it’s through the air or on the ground it really doesn’t matter how we’re doing is it as long as we’re moving it.

Q. You used a lot of 12 personnel against them because of their package. Is that always match‑up driven, or if you see your quarterback doing well with that kind of personnel, would you be prone to keep them on the field regardless?
CHIP KELLY: Yeah, I don’t know if you can put both together like that, like Nick is good because we have two tight ends in the game. It’s usually you’re trying to look at what the defense is trying to do to you and match that in terms of that standpoint. But if you had a real hot guy ‑‑ if all of a sudden we had 12 personnel in the game and the tight ends had 18 catches, now you’re saying, hey, there’s something to that. But we don’t look at it and say, hey, Nick is a little bit more of a rhythm because 12 is in the game as opposed to 11 is in the game.

Q. Green Bay has had a lot of success running the ball so far. What have you seen from them?
CHIP KELLY: Yeah, well, I think it’s both of them. I think it’s [James] Starks and [Eddie] Lacy. They’re two really big backs, and they’re downhill runners and they’re physical, and it’s going to take a lot of guys to get them down. Very, very rarely is one guy getting to them. They’re running through arm tackles. I think you’ve got to get 11 guys to the ball. But they made a concerted effort even before Aaron [Rodgers] got hurt to run the ball, and they had been running the ball pretty effectively before Aaron got hurt. So I think it’s a real concern of ours because they’re two big backs, they’re two physical backs. It’s a tough task when you have physical guys like that because you may have one non‑blocked guy at the point of attack but you may need to have two or three. It’s about getting 11 guys running to the football and gang tackling.

Q. How do you assess Lane Johnson’s progress so far? Are you pleased with how he’s done?
CHIP KELLY: Yeah, I think Lane has really come along. He probably played his best game to date against Oakland, and I think with all rookies, it’s the experience factor. The one thing ‑‑ I’ve said this about Lane before, [is] usually he very rarely makes the same mistake twice, and that’s the mark of a really good football player. But the issue is you can’t show him everything just because of his lack of experience. I’ve seen a steady progress as the season has gone along. I think he’s got a great group of older guys to learn from with Todd [Herremans] and [Jason] Kelce and Evan [Mathis] and Jason [Peters]. They’ve really kind of taken him under their wings and kind of fostered that. But the one thing we know is he’s a great athlete and he’s a great effort player, and that’s the one thing: If you want to play here, you’ve got to be a great effort player, and I think Lane understands that. He’s always played with great effort, and as he gets through more experience, as he sees more diverse looks, he’s just going to continue to grow. But his best game to date was against Oakland.

Q. Do you think a light came on for him or is it just steady improvement?
CHIP KELLY: I don’t think there’s a magic switch or whatnot, but I just think it ‑‑ you’ve got a bunch of guys, him, I think Zach [Ertz] is in that situation, Earl [Wolff] is in that situation; We’re all a by product of our experiences, so they start to kind of get an understanding and a feel for how everything is going and what it is, and there’s not a newness to it. And the one thing that I think you always kind of caution is do they kind of just lack something when that happens [and say], hey, I’ve seen this before, or do they take the same approach. And I think so far they’ve taken the same approach of they’re real students of the game, and I think it comes because they love playing the game. They love playing football.
I see them growing each week. I see all those guys growing each week, and that’s a positive. I see improvement, and that’s what we want as the season goes along, do we continue to see improvement.

Q. The fact that both Pat Shurmur and Billy Davis have been on teams with Packers QB Seneca Wallace, how much does that help in scheming against him?

CHIP KELLY: I mean, it’s Mike McCarthy’s offense, so I think you have a familiarity. It’s no different than if we played the Giants and they had Cullen Jenkins. We had guys that coached Cullen and know Cullen, but how the Giants deployed him is different than how he was deployed here, and how Mike is going to deploy Seneca is different than what Pat did. They have an understanding of what he can do. They can kind of give us a physical background of, hey, he’s pretty good at this or he can do that, but that’s probably the extent of it.

Q. You had said back in June that the ones that bought in the most are the ones that had the most to gain and lose. How important was that in terms of getting the younger guys to follow on, and what have you found from the vets nine games in? You’re still obviously in the playoff picture. Do you find a commitment there?

CHIP KELLY: Yeah, I really do. I think those guys are intelligent, and they understand. We talk about we’re going to do it our way, and the only reason we’re going to do it our way is because if there was a better way we’d do it that way. We’re always going to try to constantly find what’s the best way for us to be successful, and I think they trust us in that. From day one when we walked in here, I told those guys no matter where you are it’s the same thing as ‑‑ respect is given, it’s that way on day one, but trust is earned, and the longer you’re around someone, the longer you can kind of learn how to trust them. I don’t think people throw out trust easily because it’s something that’s built up over time, and I think over time we’ve been consistent as a staff, but the same thing with them; they’ve been consistent in their approach when they come here every day. And that’s why I’m excited on where this football team is headed just because of what their approach has been every day.
Now, we’ve had our ups and we’ve had our downs, but that’s life. But you can’t change, and I think the same group of guys that were enthusiastic and excited about what we were done in June are enthusiastic and excited about what we’re doing on a Wednesday in November, and that’s a positive thing.

Q. How much do you have to balance LeSean McCoy’s carries? He’s on pace for a career high of 300 carries this season.

CHIP KELLY: Yeah, and [running backs coach] Duce [Staley] I think does a good job of that during the game. But a lot of that is also what is the defense giving us, and there’s going to be some games where it’s not a consistent thing where he’s going to get ‘X’ amount of carries each game because we do the same exact thing offensively each game. Some games are going to be relied upon in the run game a little bit more, other times they’re going to pass it a little bit more. So I think with the ability to have Bryce [Brown] and to have Chris Polk and to be able to work those guys in, that’s something that we’re really trying to monitor on a game-by-game basis.

Q. Have you made a conscious effort the last couple games with that? Is it the game flow?

CHIP KELLY: It’s the way the game flows. I would like in the ideal world to have a one‑play drive for a touchdown like we had when we went out there and threw the pass to Riley [Cooper] over the top, but I can’t predict that. Shorter drives, more points, yeah, we love it. But if we’ve got to grind it out, we’ve got to grind it out, and that’s part of the deal.