Chip Kelly: No tackling at Eagles camp
By Mike Dyce
New Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly is no stranger to change things up. He already ended a 70 year tradition of the Eagles going away for training camp. Now he is saying they cannot tackle.
“We have four preseason games for that,” Kelly said, via Geoff Mosher of CSNPhilly.com. “They’re hitting pretty good when they get an opportunity.”
Considering how many season-ending injuries we’ve already seen in training camp, it’s not that bad of an idea. The Eagles have already had two players suffer injuries: Jeremy Maclin tore his ACL and is out for the season and Jason Phillips.
“When you get guys on the ground, it is not really the two guys that get tackled, it’s what’s chasing it,” he said. “Most of the time it’s not the tackle or the tackler, it’s the rest of the guys coming through.
“You have a lot of big bodies moving. There’s a fine line [in] what we have to get done from a work standpoint. We also know we have to get our guys to the game, too. It’s a dance everybody’s got to dance, but you want to make sure you get enough physicality in practice.”
The players are in agreement with their coach.
“It actually could be a better thing because you don’t have guys flying around, leaving their feet to make tackles and have guys rolling up on each other,” safety Nate Allen said. “You’re practicing the fundamentals of tackling — bringing your feet, wrapping up and staying up — instead of bringing guys down and having guys blow out knees and all that stuff.”