Sunday evening, the Philadelphia Eagles signed Tim Tebow as a quarterback. Or more appropriately, Chip Kelly signed Tebow as a quarterback.
I would say that I’m surprised by this move, but after what’s already transpired this offseason in the City of Brotherly Love, it’s kind of hard not to be surprised. LeSean McCoy was traded to Buffalo. Nick Foles was traded to St. Louis for Sam Bradford. He signed former Cowboys players Miles Austin and DeMarco Murray.
So when I heard the news about the Eagles signing Tebow, I wasn’t really that shocked about the move.
And you know what, I’m kind of curious to see what happens with this signing, and I’m also willing to see how this crazed approach will work for Kelly, as should everyone else for the time being.
For some reason I picture Kelly as this mad scientist currently sitting in his lab tinkering with different liquids and chemicals trying to find the right combination for him and his team, and at some point he’ll emerge from the lab before the season with what he thinks is the perfect solution.
I don’t think that’s too far off from what he’s actually doing. Obviously what he tried last year didn’t work and some things had to change. (While we’re on the topic of mad, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time.) And now that he’s going into his third year in the NFL, he has some sort of an idea of what it’s going to take to win at this level.
So obviously players are going to get moved and brought in and a lot of the moves aren’t going to make a lot of sense. Which is fine because at the moment, the only one who really needs to know why these moves are being made is Kelly himself. The rest of us can complain, or celebrate, the results of the moves once the season begins in September.
And that’s sort of the key right now. I don’t think anyone can for sure say that these moves will severely hurt the team or will Super Bowl winning transactions. I mean, yes, some of them have been big head scratchers, but sometimes it’s the obscure, not popular moves that yield the best results. I’m sure Kelly has been calculating each and every move so far.
Of course, if this all backfires and the Eagles struggle and miss the postseason again, this will all fall back on him. That’s the assumed risk of being a head coach in the NFL — getting all of the blame when you lose and the credit when you win. And it wouldn’t surprise me to see him looking for a coaching job again next offseason if things don’t work out this season.
But for the time being Kelly deserves the benefit of the doubt. He’s building the team he wants and that he thinks he can succeed with. Every move he makes will be scrutinized ad nauseam once we get to September. Let’s at least take a break from that until then.