Chip Kelly has his hands full with offensive line injuries. Photo by Andy Lewis/contrastphotography.com

Eagles Head Coach Chip Kelly Press Conference
9.8.14

Q. What do you have on Evan Mathis and Allen Barbre?
COACH KELLY: I don’t meet with those [medical] guys until after this meeting. I know Evan and Allen went to an MRI this morning but I haven’t met with Chris Peduzzi or Dr. DeLuca since yesterday immediately after the game. So until we get that stuff back, I don’t have any information to elaborate that they are out right now.

Q. Do you have any on Matt Tobin and how he is doing?

COACH KELLY: Yeah, Matt’s progressed. I don’t know exactly where he is. Those guys were in — he was in for treatment today because he’s on the treatment list. But I don’t know exactly when he’s due back. Hopefully shortly.

Q. In general, how tough of a predicament are you facing with only six healthy offensive linemen?

COACH KELLY: We’ll figure it out when we get there. To sit here and say it’s this and this, I don’t know who is in and who is out. We’ll meet later on this afternoon and we’ll get together and put the group out there.

Q. On reports about Mathis injury

COACH KELLY: He went for an MRI this morning. I have not met with Chris Peduzzi and Dr. DeLuca. I’ll meet with them after this. I don’t have confirmation on either guy’s injury right now.

Q. You mentioned Molk as a possibility to step in at guard if he needs to. After you looked at the film how do you think he did?

COACH KELLY: Yeah, I thought he did a real good job. His first extensive action. He had never played in a game but he really held his own in there. He’s a tough, physical player, and to get thrown into that, we have used him and practiced and really on a limited basis from a practice standpoint [at guard].
But both him and Gardner did a nice job and they were in there for the entire second half in terms of fitting in where he probably had not been practicing. Gardner had been more of a left tackle and — jumped in at right tackle and had taken reps there before, and both those guys considering the circumstances I thought did pretty well.

Q. With Herremans, you did not want to move a back over to tackle last season — is that a consideration now?

COACH KELLY: That was never a conversation last season about moving Todd —

Q. No, no, when Jason Peters got hurt and we asked why you put Allen Barbre in there.

COACH KELLY: Because Allen was the backup.

Q. So I’m saying, would you move Todd over —

COACH KELLY: I don’t know. I don’t know anything about the offensive line. When I get all the information, then we’ll deal with it. There’s no reason for me to speculate on who is moving where. We haven’t had a discussion on our side of the ball offensively to say who is doing what or anything so we have not had that discussion yet.

Q. What did Dennis Kelly show in the preseason?

COACH KELLY: Dennis played really, really well in the preseason. I think he’s a year removed from his injury and one of the guys showed a real steady improvement as the preseason went along. Felt he really solidified himself as a guard and in what we do schematically he is a guard and we were really happy with him. One of the reasons we kept him is he earned a spot on this team as an offensive lineman. Obviously today you are happy that you have a guy like Dennis around.

Q. What do you think of the performance of special teams and Chris Maragos’s performance?

COACH KELLY: I thought our special teams was obviously a little bit, you know, improved from what it was a year ago. You had five touchbacks and the two kickoffs that were taken out, one from the 13 and one was taken from the 14. We excelled I think in the punt return.
Obviously adding Darren back there but I thought not only adding Darren back there, we blocked it better. I thought our punt return team did a really, really good job. I think we had five punts down inside the 20-yard line. Obviously we did some good work there. We need a little work on kickoff return. That needs to improve. But I thought Chris was a really good addition here in the off-season, really takes a lot of pride in being a special teams player, and stood out for us from that standpoint.

Q. Did Dennis Kelly practice mostly at right guard in camp? Is that fair to say?

COACH KELLY: Yes.

Q. Did he take any left side snaps?

COACH KELLY: Yes, they all take them every once in awhile but basically our second unit we’re playing Dennis, Molk, Gardner was on the left side with Tobin. That’s usually for the predominant amount, that’s the way it looked but those guys have bounced around, whether a training session or whatever. The guys that are fighting for backup spots we had to play them in a couple different positions so if they got some snaps in there, but extensively his snaps were on the right side.

Q. Is it a hard transition?

COACH KELLY: I think tackle is harder going right-to-left and than guard is going right-to-left.

Q. You said this morning on the radio about Nick’s performance about watching tape that you want to talk to him about what was he thinking in the pocket in terms of guys being open. Knowing that, how many times do you think that there were opportunities for him to throw the ball down the field?

COACH KELLY: I think there were a few opportunities in there, but it’s all part of, let’s get with our guys. That’s part of this whole process. We watch the film and we evaluate it. It’s easy when you’re looking at it from this angle and that angle than what it’s like when you’re in there.
We’ve always been this way, sit down what did you see. Bill does a great grab would what’s your mind-set, how were you here, how were you going in your progressions. There were a few opportunities we had to make plays and unfortunately we didn’t make them in the first half but fortunately we made them in the second half.

Q. On Nick’s first fumble, it initially looked like he was going to Riley — could you tell, was that throw open?

COACH KELLY: It looked, it was close. There was pretty good coverage. It was close.

Q. What was your overall impression of the game after watching the film? And your situation at half-time, was it as dire as it looked? Was it just breaking down the execution?

COACH KELLY: It really was and that’s why half-time wasn’t a major, hey, we have to overhaul this whole thing in terms of we took the wrong approach coming into this. They are doing what we didn’t expect them to do. Really they played right to the schedule in terms of what they were doing. They played a lot more zone than they played man.
Most people had played us in more man than zone but they stuck to their script in terms of what they do and we knew their front four was a good front four. I talked about that last week. I thought that was a strength of their team and that they would generate a rush with their front four and we had to be real sharp with that up front.
When you went into half-time it was a matter of, hey, we have to take a deep breath, we have to settle down and this is what we’re going to feature when we come out in the second half. A lot of it was just we felt were a play off, a guy off, a step here, give the quarterback a little more time or make sure we get through the progressions a little bit quicker and let’s go see if we can get back in it.
But I didn’t think offer feel, I think in the game, that we were like, God, we are getting our tails blown off here and don’t have a shot at this thing. Let’s just settle down and do what we can do and let’s get back into this. Really wanted to play it one possession at a time. You’re not going to score 17 points in one play. Let’s put something together and obviously that run on fourth and one was a big spark for us to say, hey, let’s get it jump started and get back in this thing.

Q. What was Nick staying about what he was seeing?

COACH KELLY: He was pretty straight on in terms of what was your decision here and where were you going with the ball. I felt like the linebacker was taking away the in and as I got to my next progression, got moved a little bit in the pocket. He was giving you the information. It wasn’t anything where you were really confused with what he was saying. I think he was on point with what he was saying.

Q. Do you think because of the tempo you practice at and fitness, you have the ability to wear people down late in games?

COACH KELLY: I think that’s a by-product of it and a lot of times, not in preseason, but early in the season it’s going to especially had you especially when it’s hotter out, but that’s one of the byproducts of how we train and what we feel like we should be the best conditioned teams out there. That’s part of what we do and kind of what we take some pride in.

Q. In regards to subbing on defense, specifically Carroll and Wolff, is it wanting to give the defense offensive looks — are you comfortable playing those guys?

COACH KELLY: We felt comfortable playing those guys in those spots. I think we talked about obviously Fletch and Cary played a ton of snaps last year, we talked about it if we could get some more talk in the secondary, we rotate our defensive line and we’ve talked about that if we have players that we have the ability to rotate; Brandon Graham and Trent are prime examples of that. They did it last year and did it again I think successfully yesterday. Just keeps your other guys fresh and gives those guys a chance to play.
The fact that we have Nolan to give us a guy that can give us a chance outside and give us depth and Earl obviously as he continues to come along. It’s not an indication of who is out there to begin with. We think that if have you got 46 guys active but you’re going to play all 46 guys if you can, and that’s why they are active so you can put them in the game. Doesn’t help if we can’t get them into a game but a lot of it is just situation dictates it in terms of how we are going to get to it.

Q. On Marcus Smith II dressing but not playing.

COACH KELLY: We felt [Brandon Graham] right there was going to go in on both sides and that’s what he did. He played behind, give Connor a little bit of a blow and Trent a little bit of a blow.

Q. Jason Peters gave up one of the sack fumbles, looked like Clemens got by him — how did he grade out overall.

COACH KELLY: Jason did a nice job grading out overall. Obviously we held on to the ball a little bit too long. He’s supposed to set a little bit quicker so we can get the ball off and we just held on to the football a little bit too long on that one side.

Q. What did they do to kind of take McCoy out of the game and what do you do —

COACH KELLY: They didn’t do anything that they had not done before. They played an eight-man front like they normally do and LeSean had 21 carries. We rushed for I think 145 overall.
But they obviously if you’re going to put guys that close to the line of scrimmage, you have to be able to throw the ball and we had a lot of guys open deep over the top. You have to be able to defend it all but there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary and wasn’t anything that — we have seen a lot of other stranger things from other teams, last year in terms of trying to defend us, but that was really kind of a vanilla look defense they played against us.

Q. Is Sproles a guy you can see getting 10-12 carries —

COACH KELLY: Sproles as a running back? That’s a crazy concept.

Q. Looking at his career, he has not had a lot of carries

COACH KELLY: No, and I’ve said since day one, I don’t know why. I think he’s an outstanding running back. He proved it yesterday and it’s nothing that he has not proved from the first two or three days we saw him in the off-season program is that he’s really, really talented and you have to find ways to get the football in his hands.

Q. You had Sproles and LeSean on the field for a handful of snaps; what kind of dynamic do you think having the two of them out there brings?

COACH KELLY: Depends on how people defend you. They only ran two defensive groups. When we were in 11 personnel they were in nickel and when we were in two tight ends, they were in base. Really didn’t elicit much from them and they were not playing a ton of man. I think that’s what you get some match up situations that could be an issue for you. But they have not been a big man operation and that’s just Gus’s M.O and they do a really good job in what they do from a zone standpoint. That wasn’t the game where you’re going to get a lot of crazy matchups because we didn’t see a lot of man coverage and I think they were in zone coverage both times those guys within on the field.

Q. How is LeSean health-wise?

COACH KELLY: LeSean’s fine —

Q. How did Brandon Boykin play in limited reps

COACH KELLY: He was in at nickel. They played a lot of 21 personnel and a lot of 12 personnel, so a lot of what Billy’s calls on defense dictate, what their playing and I think they tried to — I think a lot of it had to do, they only had four healthy receivers for the game and started two rookies out there and were trying to take pressure off of them, so they were in a lot more big personnel than I think they had shown even last year. I think they were a little bit more wide open last year and a little bit tighter this year.
It’s probably an issue they were dealing with just from the receivers being hurt with Shorts going out just before our game and he got hurt sometime during the week and was on the [inactive list]. Sometimes games play out that way.

Q. Fact that you guys were in base an awful lot because of their personnel, would you have liked to have seen — of course you would have liked to see more pressure but were you satisfied with the amount of pressure you were able to get since you were in base?

COACH KELLY: Yeah, I thought we did a real good job of getting pressure on their quarterback, how many times we moved him off his spot, how many times we hit him. We got to his throwing arm. We always talk about getting to the throwing arm. Nate Allen did a nice job coming off the edge and obviously the play Trent made. I thought we did a real good job of getting pressure yesterday.

Q. Would you consider finding ways to get Brandon Boykin on the field more even if a team is not going three-wide, maybe give him a series outside like you do with other guys?

COACH KELLY: It really is how we practice and he practices as our nickel corner. It’s a very vital position for us. Billy said that that’s the starting position for us, I say that’s a starting position for us, that’s kind of where it is. Our third corner outside right now is Nolan.

Q. How did Fletcher Cox play?

COACH KELLY: Fletcher played really well, real productive game out of him. Obviously was a real big problem for them in the run game. I thought he did a great job, especially when they ran the ball away from a pursuing two-gap and cutting plays off. Was a very, very active player all day long and finished with the fumble recovery that probably should have hook slide and just finish a game out. But really, really productive day out of Fletch and really happy for him.

Q. Opportunities for Maclin downfield the first half, when you finally hit on it, Nick was out of the pocket; are you talking about the little kind of changes you can make to a play?

COACH KELLY: Nick wasn’t out of the pocket by design. Their defensive end just hit a big stunt hard inside that wasn’t a roll out or anything.

Q. That wasn’t on purpose?

COACH KELLY: No.

Q. As a follow up on Mathis, you said on the radio this morning that it doesn’t seem like a season ender —

COACH KELLY: That’s what they told me yesterday but I haven’t got any MRI reports. I’ll get that after this meeting.

Q. But was the news relatively encouraging?

COACH KELLY: They just said they didn’t think it was his ACL and that would be a season ender. That’s all I was told was they thought it was an MCL and they were going to send him for an MRI.

Q. Can you talk about the importance of continuity on the offensive line and the challenges that come up when there is change?

COACH KELLY: I think any time you get the same guys playing next to each other, no matter if it’s any position, quarterback and receiver. If it’s always the same quarterback, always the same receiver, I think that’s just a general philosophy that everybody kind of adheres to just because they are on the same page. They have spent a lot of time together and trained together and got a feel for each other and they have got a real good understanding of what this guy is going to do when this happens because we’ve seen it 17 times and it’s not the first time that they saw it.
So any time you can have continuity, I think that’s a bonus but obviously the injuries are part of the game and if you don’t have it, the next guy has got to go in and I thought [OL Andrew] Gardner and [OL David] Molk did a good job when they went in there.

Q. What do you think of Gardner in the preseason?

COACH KELLY: We obviously liked his versatility. He is a guard-tackle combination guy. He’s got great flexibility, really smart player. So his ability to pick up what we did, I know [offensive line coach Jeff] Stoutland mentioned that a couple days into it, this guy has got a real good feel for the game and real smart, intelligent football player.
So we didn’t think he was going to be pressed into action in game one but we are happy we got him.

Q. Are you aware of the ongoing potential change in the drug policy that might impact T Lane Johnson being able to get on the field?

COACH KELLY: I haven’t. People have written about that. From where we are standing, we have not heard there’s going to be any changes in what’s currently happened but I don’t know, I really don’t.

Q. So the NFL hasn’t gotten back to you in regards to the situation?

COACH KELLY: They tell us. When the rules change, they tell us. But again, it doesn’t help me at all to sit there and say, ‘Hey, I heard this is going to happen so let’s not worry about the Colts, let’s wait about and listen to this.’

Q. I guess Lane’s in Texas — that’s where he’s working out right now?

COACH KELLY: Yeah.

Q. Are you still able to maintain communication with him?

COACH KELLY: No, we haven’t had any communication since he left.

Q. So is it on him then, if there is going to be a change that could get him on the field —

COACH KELLY: I think you’re reaching into something that we’ve never had a conversation about.

Q. TE Zach Ertz played in more snaps than he did in any game last year. Is that more a product of his development or more of what you thought you could do against the Jaguars?

COACH KELLY: Both and I’ve said it since day one. What are they going to do when we put this personnel back page in? If we can get them in base more and throw the ball a little bit more, you get a chance to get a DB out of the game. It’s also a combination, like I said, it’s both because Ertz has the ability to play a couple different positions.
At this time last year, he was really thinking about being either the front-side tight end or the back-side tight end. Now if you saw him, he played out wide, he played in the slot and lined up at tight end so I think it’s a product of him knowing and understanding a lot more about what we are doing and then also what getting him in the game elicits from the defensive responsibility.

Q. He played wide at Stanford and you talked about earlier — why not as much last year, because you didn’t want to put so much on his plate in terms of having to learn multiple things?

COACH KELLY: You have to learn one position first. It doesn’t help to say, all right, now we’ve got you here. Let’s move you here and get you comfortable. He’s a tight end and he doesn’t — I don’t think he played out wide very often [at Stanford]. They split them out occasionally at Stanford and he was successful there but that wasn’t his main deal. He was a tight end and a very good tight end obviously. That’s why we took him in the second round.

Q. RB Chris Polk practiced all of last week but was inactive on game day. Was it just a hamstring?

COACH KELLY: Yeah, it’s his hamstring and he wasn’t ready to go full. We worked him out again on Saturday and that’s why I get the question on Friday, like where are you from a schedule — don’t really know. Didn’t really know until on sin day morning, get a chance to get him on the field and see exactly how he feels. But if he’s up, he’s going to play. It’s not one of those, we just didn’t feel comfortable [saying] let’s go up and see if he can do something, because again, your roster is so limited on game day. If he went out and played two snaps and is out, then we can’t go change him out at that point in time. We just felt after talking to him in pregame that he couldn’t go full and for that reason we were going to sit him and then we had [TE] Trey [Burton] in there.