Phil Sheridan, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Chip Kelly's guidelines have a downside

PHILADELPHIA -- In 2008, the Philadelphia Eagles used a second-round draft choice on a 5-foot-10 (or less), 185-pound (soaking wet) wide receiver named DeSean Jackson.

Over the next six seasons, Jackson provided some of the most exciting moments for an otherwise fairly unaccomplished team. The Eagles never won a playoff game after his rookie season (a correction from the original version), but Jackson produced unforgettable highlights: the Miracle of the (new) Meadowlands, his 91-yard touchdown catch to beat the Cowboys in Dallas in 2010, his 72-yard punt return for another touchdown at the Meadowlands, and so on.

None of that ever happens if Chip Kelly had been the Eagles coach.

That's the conclusion to reach after listening to Kelly and his top personnel man, Ed Marynowitz, lately. Kelly has a set of specs at every position -- size, speed, athletic traits -- and it would take a rare talent indeed to get him to make exceptions. It seems unlikely that Kelly would have ever drafted Jackson, who was typically the smallest player on the field in most NFL games.

"I think size/speed wins," Marynowitz said Thursday. "[Kelly] brought up the line -- Nick Saban used the same line -- 'Big people beat up little people.' There's a reason why heavyweights don't fight the lightweights. This is a big man's game.

"For what we do offensively, especially at the receiver position and their involvement in the run game in terms of blocking for us, I think size matters in that aspect as well. Overall, you don't want to sacrifice athletic ability and speed, but if you can get size and speed at any position, you're looking to get that and acquire those players."

Marynowitz worked for Saban at the University of Alabama. Saban also had an established set of criteria for players at each position and tried to stick to it. His results haven't invited much criticism. Neither have Kelly's, for the most part.

But that approach seems to minimize the chances of an undersized player like Jackson sneaking through the selection process and excelling on the field. That's a chance that Kelly and Saban are willing to take.

"Big picture-wise,” Marynowitz said, "you want to play with the odds, not against the odds. And the odds are telling you that the majority of these guys that are under this certain prototype do not play at a starting level in the NFL. If you have seven draft picks, do you really want to waste one, especially in the top three rounds, on a guy that history is telling you, typically, these guys with these types of measurables don't produce at this level?"

It was big news last year when Kelly unceremoniously released Jackson after one season. It didn't matter that Jackson caught 82 passes for 1,332 yards and nine touchdowns. He was never going to be as good a blocker as Riley Cooper.

That's a pretty dramatic example of Kelly's commitment to his guidelines, ending Jackson's Eagles career. But it's worth noting that, if Kelly had been the Eagles coach in 2008, Jackson wouldn't have had an Eagles career at all.

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