I remember when Media Day at the Super Bowl used to be three or four interview tables covered by one TV network, a few newspaper reporters and maybe two local radio stations. Now it has turned into a monstrosity. It's bigger than an Olympic Village..well, almost! Telemundo, Japanese TV, Al Jazeera…they're all there.
Katherine Webb (Miss Alabama and A.J. McCarron's girlfriend) stole the show at Media Day as she did interviews for Inside Edition. Her best question of the day to punter Sam Koch: if you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?
Far from the madding crowd, Chip Kelly's accountants were busy setting up his revised portfolio.
Kelly, the former coach at Oregon, comes with a hefty price tag. He received a five-year deal worth $32.5 million from the Eagles, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. $9 million of that is guaranteed up-front money for 2013.
The deal makes Kelly the sixth or seventh-highest paid NFL head coach. If you average out his contract over the complete 5-year term, it comes to $6.5 million per year. Only Bill Belichick ($7.5 million), Mike Shanahan ($7 million), Jeff Fisher ($7 million), Pete Carroll ($7 million) and Tom Coughlin ($6.7 million) make more per season.
Sean Payton also recently received a new deal but terms are still unknown. Andy Reid made $5.5 million to coach the Eagles in 2012. Reid was hired by the Chiefs earlier this month. The financial details of his contract were not disclosed.
In comparison to Kelly's large haul, Greg Schiano received a five-year, $15 million deal when he bolted Rutgers for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year. Kelly came close to taking that job before deciding at the last second to return to Oregon.
Kelly made a $3.5 million base salary last season at Oregon. That doesn't however include incentives plus any Nike/Phil Knight-related bonuses. It's believed that Kelly's compensation package was set to increase when he originally elected to remain with the Ducks, before changing his mind and coming to Philadelphia.
There was never any doubt the Eagles had to pay in order to lure Kelly to the NFL. The Browns and Bills were also interested in his services. More suitors always means more money.
And there was no way Kelly was going to take a pay cut. So apparently to pull him to the NFL the magic number was $6.5 million per. That's probably around market value for a college coach with Kelly's credentials considering Carroll is getting paid $7 million. Carroll made the similar jump in 2010, albeit after an even more successful run at USC and significant pro head coaching experience.
Kelly's deal with the Eagles puts him ahead of some pretty successful head coaches, some (Mike Tomlin and Mike McCarthy) who have won Super Bowls. The way the Eagles constructed the deal likely protects them financially if Kelly decides to leave (a la Nick Saban, Bobby Petrino or Steve Spurrier) before the conclusion of his deal.
"We constructed the contract exactly the way we wanted to construct it as an organization," owner Jeffrey Lurie said. "Chip was willing to go along with how we wanted the contract to be."
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No matter how much they're paying Chip it still comes down to his making tough decisons on player personnel.
Kelly’s offensive style at Oregon was well-documented — a fast-paced, spread-style attack — but the direction his Eagles take is still to be determined, because Kelly has yet to complete a thorough evaluation of their personnel.
“It’s just trying to figure out what your team does well,” Kelly said. “That was a strength of ours at Oregon. Is it going to be a strength of ours at Philadelphia? I don’t know our personnel well enough to say that. But we don’t play until September, so I hope between now and then I’ve got enough prep time to figure that out.”
“To me, it’s all personnel driven,” he said. “I can say we want to be like this, but if we don’t have that player, we can’t be like that. Even if this is what I think what it takes to win the division.”
One thing Kelly is sure of, though, is that his famed fast-paced practices will have to be adjusted, simply because NFL rosters don’t have the same numbers as in college.
“The Philadelphia Eagles are a football team, not a cross-country team,” Kelly said. “So if we go at the pace we practiced at, at Oregon, then we’d have a really good cross-country team, but we’re not playing in Valley Forge Park, we’re playing at the ‘Linc.’ ”
Speaking of personnel evaluation, I eavesdropped on a skull session between two venerable posters at the PE.com Wall-Dome, the irascible "Woody" (J. Woods) and the uncontainable "Snorpus Blart" (Brozer). After taking notes, I realized these two guys had formulated a personnel theory worthy of discussion: The Woods-Blart Trickle Down Theory…
Here's the Cliff's Notes version of their theory as developed by their use of the Socratic method:
Woody: "Celek and DJax are examples of 2 decent NFL players,but not elite at their position over the course of an entire season. We need better players to push our 'good' players to get better, don't we?"
"A better TE improves the OL. An improved OL makes the QB better and the RBs better. Celek plus Harbor is a B-minus and a C-minus. I like Celek. He had played some awesome games in his career. I think he plays better when pushed."
Snorpus Blart: "Woodux……..I agree on your T.E.T.D.T. (Tight End Trickle Down Theory).
In fax, I'll go one step further (or backwards in this case)…
The fullback.
Makes the halfback better.
A good halfback, will make the coach call more running plays.
More running plays, makes the O-line happier.
When the O-line is happier, it plays better.
When the O-line plays better, the QB plays better.
When the QB plays better, the offense scores more, and controls the ball more.
When that happens, the defense is more rested, and gets to play with the lead.
When that happens, the teams wins more and more games.
And when THAT happens, YOU WIN THE SUPERBOWL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First Round Pick….ZACH LINE…FULLBACK…..SOUFFERN MISS !!!!!!!!!
SuperBowl Baby !!!! Whooozewiffme and Woodux ?!?!?!?!?!?!?! "
There you have it. By extension of the Woods-Blart Trickle Down Theory, we are only one or two excellent new players away from the Promised Land…
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