This time last year, Ron Jaworski wasn't buying what Chip Kelly was selling. Breaking down the film of Oregon's high-speed attack, the former pro quarterback and ESPN analyst went public to conclude, "I just don't see NFL passing concepts in this offense."
What Kelly accomplished with the Philadelphia Eagles, though, has made a believer out of Jaws.
"I wasn't sure how this was going to work," Jaworski told WPEN-FM this week, per PhillyMag.com. "I wasn't a big believer in guys coming from the college ranks, leaving that rah-rah college style and bringing a new style to the NFL. Kelly made it happen. He won me over."
An avid tape watcher, Jaworski has come around to conclude that no coach "did a better job at getting receivers open than Chip Kelly." He promised, though, that defenses have spent the offseason unpacking a scheme that led the league with 80 plays of 20-plus yards -- 14 more than Peyton Manning's Broncos.
"I will guarantee you this: every pass that he threw last year was studied and watched by 30 personnel guys with the three teams in this division," Jaworski said. "They studied (quarterback) Nick Foles to every possible nuance: Where is his foot when he is coming out from under center? Does his heel come up a split second before the snap? Does he flick his hand to get into position before the ball is snapped? They will study every nuance of his game on coach's tape, on television to hear his voice inflection, to see where he turns. Is the ball snapped when his head is looking downfield rather than left to right?
"All these things," Jaws said. "They will have broken his game down. Nick has to make that adjustment."
To counter, new Eagles quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave has spent the spring with Foles to improve the pre-snap phase of his game. He's still a young passer, but Foles already has impressed his new tutor with "the way that he can visualize formations, coverages and process what he sees."
I've lobbied quietly for the Eagles to be the 2014 Team of Around The League, largely because Kelly has just gotten started. With plenty left in his bag of tricks, adversaries will need more than last year's data to prepare for what September will bring.
The latest "Around The League Podcast" makes sense of the Andre Johnson situation and pitches ways to fix the "Top 100."