When the Wall Street Journal asked the Eagles for comment regarding the possible conflict between coach Chip Kelly’s up-tempo offense and the more deliberate pace NFL officials employ, the Eagles had nothing to say. Which served only to create the impression that the Eagles realize it could be a problem.
Now, however, the Eagles are talking. And they’re saying it won’t be a problem.
“I think the Patriots set a record for plays last year,” G.M. Howie Roseman said, via John Gonzalez of CSNPhilly.com. “That’s pretty impressive, the amount of plays they got in. It didn’t seem like they were hindered too much by it. We understand the rules. Coach understands the rules. The officials have been great when they came here. I don’t see it as much of an issue at all.”
As Gonzalez points out, the Patriots didn’t set the record last year. They came within eight of the all-time mark, at 1,191 plays.
Still, the question is whether Eagles coach Chip Kelly will be able to get the ball snapped as quickly as he’d like to get it snapped, on a play-in and play-out basis. And the best comparison isn’t what the Patriots did last year, but what the Eagles would like to do this year, based on the things Kelly did in past years.