Chip Kelly - PHI

Here's another view point from SI's Don Banks http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/news/20130605/chip-kelly-philadelphia-eagles/?xid=si_nfl

notables:

"There's a leap of faith underway around here, and it's being taken at a breathtaking pace. To describe Kelly's preferred style of practice as "up-tempo" is a sizable understatement. Frenetic is more like it."

"I didn't see a single huddle all day long on offense, and it looked like Eagles quarterbacks will do very little work under center this season."

"Kelly is bringing to the Eagles being new, both on offense and on a defense that is transforming into a hybrid formation that has elements of both a 3-4 and a 4-3"

"Vick and Foles continue to basically split first-team reps"
"You can see what this offense could become,'' Avant said. "Our defense is doing pretty good, but we're always a man or a half a man ahead of them most of the time. Toward the end of practice we start completing more passes against them, and that's just a sign of us being to the ball, being in shape and playing at just a different level of tempo and conditioning. I think this offense will work in the NFL, if the quarterback can do it. I think we're in the position to win, and I like it. As long as the quarterback puts us in the right position, I think we'll be fine.''

Ok, so QB is still unsettled and the team will go as far their QB takes them, but the most noteworthy quote is 'very little work under center'. So shotgun for QB, gives them that extra second to find the open guy and D's will likely be more frustrated w/nearly no opportunity for a sack.

TC is only a month away.....

Jaws says Chip Kelly O will not work in NFL

Here's the interview, http://www.975thefanatic.com/teams/eagles/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10546753

Quite bluntly, Jaws said he doesn't think Kelly's offense will work in the league.

"I've had a number of conversations with Chip, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for what he's done at the collegiate level," Jaworski said. "It's going to be interesting to see if this style of offense projects to the NFL. I'm going to say no. But again, I hope I'm wrong, because I want Chip and the Eagles to be successful. But when Chip was hired, I went back and looked at some Oregon offense. I studied five or six of their games. Last week, I looked at two more games.

"I just don't see NFL passing concepts in this offense. It's a movement offense by the quarterback off the run-action, off the read-action, a lot of short, quick passes, dart routes, bubble screens, very few plays down the field with NFL passing concepts. It's easy to say, 'Yeah, it worked in college.' Then I looked at a game like Stanford, a good defensive football team shut them down.

"Again, I hope it works, I like the innovation, but I think it's going to be difficult. The NFL is a different league with fast players that have all week to prepare for you. At the collegiate level, you have 20 hours to prepare for that Oregon offense. Take out three hours of game time, you've got 17 hours in the course of a week to practice and prepare for that style of offense. It kills you in college, but in the NFL, these guys work 17 hours a day getting ready. There are no secrets."

Jaws also expressed skepticism that Kelly's high-tempo practices would work with a smaller roster and so many injured players.

ARI is hoping for the Arian effect

As everyone knows, Bruce Arians in now the head coach for ARI, so I thought to take a look at this years schedule and his record at his prior stops in recent years. A short breakdown can be found at the bottom of this post.

What jumps out is that this will be the third consecutive year that Arians will face opponents from the AFC South and this appears to be in his favor. He's 7-3 over the past two years, losing twice @HOU and once at home to JAC.

I also noticed that he has won the majority of division games (4-2 IND) (4-2 PIT)

Another noticeable record is with "Peer" games. These teams ended their prior season in a similar standing withing their division. Arians is 4-0

This year he is in a tough division with both SF and SEA having formidable teams and STL not too shabby either, thus it's unlikely they'll have a winning division record, it's more likely he'll end up 3-3 or 2-4 (I'm thinking either SF or SEA will win twice)

Facing the NFC South could be troublesome, ATL is in it's Superbowl window, NO could prove to be back on the upswing this year. I'm more concerned with TB as they have now a formidable secondary and a decent front 7 that combined with their run game @home could prove to be too much for ARI to overcome for a week 4 game. CAR will be coming off a bye week and will be likely hungry with a 1-2 record, but since I still don't have faith in their O and they will be on the road, I think they'll lose to ARI.

Versus the AFC South, ARI will face HOU and IND at home and JAC and TEN on the road, which from my view shows they've been blessed by the scheduling gods for their out of conference games and again should produce a winning record or at least a respectable 2-2 record.

As far as winning peer games, you'd expect a winning record from Arians and company, but I'm unsure. DET has talent, but they've yet to put together a consistent winning streak. Arians did upset DET last year, so DET will likely be up for their game. PHI will also have a new HC, without an NFL track record and since the game is on week 13 @PHI, and ARI will be traveling in December to an outdoor stadium, I don't believe they'll win this game. Who know what will be the situation that late in the season? If either team is in the hunt for the playoffs, then you'd need to favor that team, if both, favor home team, if neither, unknown.

If Arians guides his team into the playoffs, well... I'd expect them to lose as he's lost that first playoff game in each of the past two seasons.

Right now, prior to the draft, I'm hopeful that Arians & Co., will achieve an 7-9 record.



ARI 2013 SEASON
Opponents: NFC W, NFC S, AFC S, DET @PHI

Results: ?

IND 2012 SEASON
Opponents: AFC S, AFC E, NFC N, CLE, @KC, Playoffs @BAL

vs AFC S
LOST 17-22 VS JAC WK03 *UPSET*
WON 19-13 @TEN WK08 *UPSET*
WON 27-10 @JAC WK10
WON 27-23 VS TEN LOST ATS WK14
LOST 17-29 @HOU WK15
WON 28-16 VS HOU WK17 *UPSET*

vs AFC E
LOST 35-9 @NYJ WK06
WON 23-20 VS MIA WK09 *UPSET*
LOST 24-59 @NE WK11
WON 20-13 VS BUF WK12

vs NFC N
LOST 21-41 @CHI WK01
WON 23-20 VS MIN WK02 *UPSET*
WON 30-27 VS GB WK05 *UPSET*
WON 35-33 @DET WK13 *UPSET*

vs Peers
WON 17-13 VS CLE WK07
WON 20-13 @KC WK16

Playoffs
LOST 9-24 @BAL

PIT 2011 SEASON
Opponents: AFC N, AFC S, NFC W, NE, @KC, Playoffs @DEN

vs AFC N
LOST 7-35 @BAL WK01
LOST 20-23 VS BAL WK09 *UPSET*
WON 24-17 @CIN WK10
WON 35-7 VS CIN WK13
WON 14-3 VS CLE LOST ATS WK14
WON 13-9 @CLE LOST ATS WK17

vs AFC S
WON 23-20 @IND LOST ATS WK03
LOST 10-17 @HOU WK04
WON 38-17 VS TEN WK05
WON 17-13 VS JAC LOST ATS WK06

vs NFC W
WON 24-0 VS SEA WK02
WON 32-20 @ARI WK07
LOST 3-23 @SF WK15
WON 27-0 VS STL WK16

vs Peers
WON 25-17 VS NE WK 08 *UPSET*
WON 13-9 @KC LOST ATS WK012

Playoffs
LOST 23-29 @DEN *UPSET*

new officiating rules

http://nflcommunications.com/2013/04/01/officiating-video-for-media-10/

something to review for the upcoming season....