Chip Kelly took questions from the media after today’s walk-through, and they first tried three different ways to get him to name a starting quarterback.
Matt Barkley had taken some reps with the ones, and they wanted to know, you know, if he was starting now.
When that didn’t work, reporters had a couple of questions about new arrival Jeff Maehl, acquired on Tuesday from Houston.
Kelly offers a barb, a quip and two evasions, but so far no death stares. They’ll learn. (Excerpt and photo from philly.com.)
Q. What has Jeff [Maehl] seen, and how can he help you?
COACH KELLY: We’re down, losing three receivers. So you’ve got a guy that I know him very well. I coached Jeff for four years, two years as a coordinator, two years as a head coach. He catches the ball very well. He’s extremely tough.
I think he’ll be able to add value to us not only as a receiver, but as a special teams player. I think that’s one of the things that Jeff came to Oregon as a safety and we moved him because of injuries to receiver, he’s got a defensive back mentality. He’s had games where he’s caught a 70-yard touchdown pass, and on the next play on the kickoff, he made the tackle on the 10‑yard line. So that versatility, the ability to help on teams, the ability to play both inside receiver and outside receiver, he’s got some physicality to him and he’s got really good hands.
So hopefully we can get him up to speed pretty quickly. The terminology is slightly different, so it’s just trying to bridge that gap. This is what we called it at Oregon, or it’s a similar concept, that’s what we’re calling it here.
Q. You’re gathering quite a nest of Ducks here.
COACH KELLY: I like that. You’ve been working on that one?
Q. Will Maehl play on Thursday?
COACH KELLY: I don’t know that. He couldn’t participate today. Nate [Menkin] is still going through his physical, so both of those guys have to pass in order for the trade to be finalized. We’re still waiting on that, that’s why he didn’t participate in anything today.
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