With appearances in back-to-back Super Bowls and a young roster on the verge of a dynasty, Pete Carroll is sitting on top of the football coaching world alongside Bill Belichick.
Having succeeded in Seattle after back-to-back four- and five-win seasons by Mike Holmgren and Jim Mora, Carroll knows what it takes to turn an organization's fortunes around.
He believes polarizing Eagles coach Chip Kelly is doing exactly that in Philadelphia.
"I think the people in Philadelphia should be very excited about the changes that are coming," Carroll said this week at the NFL Annual Meeting, via CSN Philly. "Maybe they can't see it -- the vision is not clear to them. Chip knows what he's doing. It's going to be interesting to see."
Criticized for trading 2013 rushing leaderLeSean McCoy and taking a gamble onSam Bradford, Kelly has been the most scrutinized NFL operative over the past two weeks.
One of the fascinating dichotomies of professional football is an inherently conservative culture juxtaposed with the most revolutionary of American sports.
Football thrives on constant innovation, but when a radically new voicehits the scene the reaction is too often castigation slowly distilled into acceptance.
Carroll, one of the NFL's most philosophically open and psychologically agile coaches, has already accepted Kelly as a worthy adversary.
"His record and his history has proven that he knows what he's doing and that he has his act together," Carroll continued. "I know he's really excited to have the opportunity to be in the position to mold the team. I wouldn't doubt for a second that he's not on it. He knows what he wants and what he needs. He's proven that."
Between his innovation, gruffness with the media and adherence to a singular football vision, Kelly is actually more reminiscent of a 1990s era Belichick.
Will Kelly's fate be closer to the Belichick run out of Cleveland in 1995 or the one who made NFL history as a living legend in New England?
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