Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kecle seems pretty fed up with his teammates ripping former coach Chip Kelly. With many players on the roster happily rolling the bus over Kelly as he left Philly—getting a cue from owner Jeffrey Lurie on that—Kelce sees things a bit differently, calling out fellow lineman Lane Johnson on the 94WIP Players’ Lounge Show in the process.
“I mean, I love Lane Johnson to death. But he’s only played for one head coach. How does he know the way other teams practice? His only mindset is on what other guys say … I mean who knows? I can tell you this. When we had Andy Reid, training camp was a lot harder than when we had Chip Kelly.”
Kelce: 'When we had Andy Reid, training camp was a lot harder than when we had Chip Kelly.' | https://t.co/Upo5RetFUj
— Andrew Porter (@And_Porter) January 5, 2016
Kelce explained to WIP that Kelly’s practices were tailored to the players, and while they were longer, they weren’t always in pads or going at full strength.
“We had a number of practice that were scaled back in time. We had a number of practices where we put no pads on in the middle of the season — they tried to give us like bye weeks almost. We were still out there at practice, but we weren’t banging. I couldn’t be further on the opposite spectrum of this.
Kelce dug a little deeper into his feelings on the rest of the roster, saying he thought those complaining about Kelly’s practice format sound pampered.
“This is like one of the most pampered practice schedules I’ve been a part of to tell you truth,” Kelce said. “If I’m being honest, I think that we have massages, we have all these things put in place — we have smoothies. We have daily questionnaires. ‘How are you feeling today?’ Well dude, you’re gonna go out there and practice. So I think, quite honestly, some of these guys are a little pampered. I don’t want to get started on this, it really bugs me.”
There have been some Eagles players defending Kelly, though admittedly their comments have been overshadowed by those happy the former college savant is gone after three years in the NFL. Kelce is one of the most vocal leaders on the team, and publicly denouncing the comments of another teammate—especially a younger player who has struggled at times with health and effectiveness and has a ways to go in proving himself as a star—may set a tone for the rest of the team to leave the Kelly era behind and focus on whoever comes next.
