Chip Kelly is playing a dangerous game as he continues to declare a starting quarterback. Some level of competition is healthy, especially to push potential starters, but at some point, it’s more important for the team to move forward with a definitive plan.
For the Eagles, that point is exemplified by the difference in style of Michael Vick and Nick Foles.
In their small sample size last night, both Vick and Foles played acceptably well, but they simply didn’t throw the ball around enough to get a solid feel for who was emerging and who might be fading.
“We’re going to pull the trigger before we game plan for the Washington Redskins,” head coach Chip Kelly told reporters following Friday night’s game. “We have to have a quarterback in place when we’re really getting ready and getting into the meat and potatoes of what our game plan is going to be. That quarterback will be named.”
By delaying a decision until the last possible second, it does prevent the Washington Redskins from developing many game plan ideas before the regular season opener, but that’s not really a great disadvantage because Washington already has an offensive identify. The Eagles won’t get their identity until they have a starting quarterback.
After one game, sure, it’s possible that Kelly really doesn’t know who his starting quarterback will be, but one would like to believe that he would know who it is at the conclusion of the Eagles’ third preseason game at the latest. It’s one thing to announce a starting quarterback just before a game, but it’s an entirely different situation to make that decision at the last second. Here’s to hoping that Kelly’s thought process falls in line with the former.
