4 Week 1 Storylines to Watch: Adrian Peterson’s Return

Will Chip Kelly’s Offseason Moves Pan Out?

No NFL team had a more interesting offseason than the Philadelphia Eagles. First, Chip Kelly kicked things off by trading his star running back LeSean McCoy to the Buffalo Bills for a promising young linebacker in Kiko Alonso.

Next, he shipped away starting quarterback Nick Foles for the oft-injured Sam Bradford.

Then he signed DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews to replace McCoy.

He also allowed Jeremy Maclin (among others) to walk in free agency and traded away Brandon Boykin.

Oh yeah, and there was that whole Tim Tebow signing, but we’ve already gotten a resolution on that with his recent release.

Confused yet? Good. Because I don’t know who wouldn’t be.

The Bradford and McCoy trades had Eagles fans most confused and infuriated, although Kelly being able to sign Murray was a nice pacifier. But Eagles fans would be justified in worrying if Bradford is durable enough to withstand an NFL season. Also if he’s really any good.

His career numbers suggest he might not be. Looking at this question via numberFire’s primary production over expectation metric, Net Expected Points (NEP), Bradford has posted an awful -0.05 Passing NEP per drop back. That means that every 20 times he’s dropped back to pass he lost his team a point. That’s not very good at all.

But Chip Kelly has been able to revitalize quarterbacks before. Just take a look at current backup, Mark Sanchez, who came to the Eagles in 2014 with a career Passing NEP per drop back of -0.06 yet posted a 0.15 Passing NEP per drop back in 2014, good for 11th best in the league among quarterbacks with over 300 drop backs.

And to his credit, Bradford has looked really good so far in the preseason. But Week 1 against the Falcons will be the first test to determine if Chip Kelly roster overhaul has what it takes to bring the Eagles over the hump of being a 10-win team to a Super Bowl contender.