Brian Baldinger talks about the Eagles and Coach Kelly’s gamble on injured players. Photo by Andy Lewis / contrastphotography.com

There is an old saying amongst the NFL scouting circles that says, “old players stay old, fat players stay fat, and injured players stay injured.”

Eagle fans together with the national media are alarmed by the number of new players that have been brought in this off-season by Chip Kelly who have been recently injured in 2014.

In fact six of the seven players that are new and expected to contribute immediately have had injuries from a year ago and in many cases severe injuries.

The irony is that the only player not injured in 2014 that is new to the Eagle roster is the NFL’s leading rusher, DeMarco Murray.

Murray was haunted by the tag that he was injury-prone prior to the remarkable campaign that brought him his first rushing title.
In defense of Chip in his house-cleaning, he should be allowed to fuel his roster with “Chip” type players.

After all, he replaced Andy Reid who had a long 14-year run and had his ideas about how to build a roster in his way.

Chip should be allowed to carve his own personality into the roster that he selects. He is also correct in stating that their is a 100 percent injury rate in football players. Everyone gets hurt. Even the league’s best in guys like Tom Brady was knocked out of a season before the first half of his first game one season.

But Brady bounced back and hasn’t been injured since. That is the prevailing question in Chip’s off season decision’s thus far.
Will all of these players rebound to prior form. He seems to be rolling the dice in that all most of the seven players brought in are expected to play at a high high level.

Lets pretend since as I write this we are 29 days away from draft night in Chicago, that all seven players: Murray, Bradford, Maxwell, Thurmond, Alonzo, Austin, and Brad Jones all line up and play all 16 games in 2015.
What then are the challenges facing this newly constructed team?

Many coaches and general managers can select players.

They can cherry pick some of the best if you are clever enough to clear 50 million dollars of cap space and go on a free agent spending spree like the Eagles did in a short span of a few days in mid March. But when exactly does the team building begin?

That is the challenge that faces Kelly and his staff at the moment. I think Chip believes that the conventional wisdom of NFL teams are that you have to operate from keeping a nucleus together for a period of time to create a core from which the team takes its leadership from. Maybe this isn’t true in Kelly’s belief system.

Let’s examine the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots.
While Tom Brady and Vince Wilfork are key components to championships – the list doesn’t extend much further than that.

In fact, the Patriots rebuilt their secondary with one year rentals in Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner.

They traded away their best offensive lineman, Logan Mankins, days prior
to the start of the season. They traded for a reserve tight end, Tim Wright, the opening week of the season and he managed to catch six touchdown passes. Their best running back was picked up off their waver wire midway through the season.

I could go on about the Patriots, but does any of the above sound familiar to what Chip is doing? Naturally the Patriots get a pass on their decisions because Brady and the Hoodie may be the best tandem of quarterback/coach EVER! That may include Starr/Lombardi and Montana/Walsh.

But should Chip be allowed to do the same thing or even if its a little different even though he hasn’t yet won anything?

Perhaps in this day of mega free agency that has been meshed with fantasy football their are NO hard fast rules. Maybe everyone is on one year contracts and its up to THE coach to build unity, brotherhood, fellowship and all of those other code words that meant the team had bled together and had gradually climbed the mountain top of NFL prowess and will have earned a championships the way the Steel Curtain did under Chuck Knoll in the 70’s.

Staying with the theme that all of the newly signed veterans return to health and are ready to play at previous high levels the Eagles are still going to have to strike GOLD in this year’s draft.

Go and track any championship team and I will show you contributions from the rookie class.

The biggest moment in the Super Bowl was turned in by rookie Malcolm Butler from little known West Alabama.

How about the 200 yard rushing effort from Jonas Grey during the season. Or rookie center, Bryan Stork. Where would the Patriots vaunted and creative rushing attack have been without third tackle, Cameron Flemming their 3rd round selection from Stanford?

The Eagles have got to find a starting safety in this year’s draft. The last time the Eagle’s found a good starting safety in the draft was in 2002 when they used a second round pick to take Michael Lewis from Colorado.

He had a nice nine year career and started the Eagles Super Bowl vs. the Patriots. Right now they look like they have one safety that CAN play and that’s Malcolm Jenkins. Most teams play three safeties during sub packages now so they need impact help at that position.

This draft is also as deep at wide receiver as it was a year ago. Every body type is available in almost every round. They need a dynamic playmaker at that position.

I am not down on Chip Kelly the GM. I am also not confused by Chip Kelly the GM.

I understand his thought process most of the time and I believe he should be given the authority and the support to do it his way. I also hope that my opening statement doesn’t come true.

I hope that his injured players don’t stay injured.