Some people doubt that new Eagles coach Chip Kelly can succeed in the NFL with the same kind of offense he ran at Oregon. But 49ers running back LaMichael James, who played for Kelly at Oregon, has news for those doubters: James says Kelly’s offense is already working in the NFL.
According to James, the offense that the 49ers have been running since Colin Kaepernick became their starting quarterback employs the same concepts that made Oregon’s spread offense work.
“Once Kaepernick got in there, we went to a lot of spread stuff so it is a lot of the same stuff I have been doing,” James said at Super Bowl Media Day. “It is pretty much similar. You are in the gun and is pretty much a zone read offense. It has been doing a great job helping me out being a young player and doing some stuff I am familiar with.”
Asked if a read-option offense can succeed over the long term in the NFL, even after defenses have had a lot of film to study and a lot of time to prepare for it, James said, “I believe so. Anytime you have a quarterback like Colin Kaepernick you can pretty much do anything.”
James also said he’s confident that Kelly is going to win with the Eagles.
“I think he is going to do a great job,” James said of Kelly. “He gets the best out of his players and he is going to be a phenomenal coach out there.”
With Kelly taking over the Eagles and Kaepernick taking the 49ers to the Super Bowl, we may be seeing a major offensive shift in the NFL.