Eagles Feel Scars as Legend Trashes Hated Coach originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
It’s been a decade since Chip Kelly was head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Since his removal, the Eagles have been to three Super Bowls and have won two of them.
They have reached a success level that had never been seen before in team history.
So… appreciation for Kelly will not be happening for the fanbase.
And…
Even some of the biggest Eagles legends can’t forgive the head coach for what he did to the dynamic roster he had handed to him.
One of the top players who has trashed the former head coach is Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson. Before Kelly released him in 2014, Jackson was on pace to be one of the greatest wideouts in team history.
He was an All-Pro and a Pro Bowl deep threat in the league.
Kelly didn’t care for Jackson’s antics, though. He released the receiver after spreading false reports that the Cal product had gang ties in the city – and to emphasize, that was later proven incorrect.
Ever since, Jackson has held a special kind of hatred for Kelly.
“I don’t respect Chip Kelly,” Jackson said via Sportskeeda. “That’s just what it comes down to. I don’t like giving him clickbait or whatever they want to call this (expletive), but I’m a real one, and I just speak on it, bro.
“What he did, bro, you can talk to anybody who was ever a Philadelphia Eagles fan, bro. They’ll tell you the same thing. He dismantled that team, bro.”
Kelly won 10 games in his first two years coaching the Eagles. After a 10-6 season in 2014, though, the “offensive genius” got rid of the team’s top players, including Nick Foles, LeSean McCoy, Jeremy Maclin and Jackson.
His replacements combined to go an abysmal 7-9 the following year, and Kelly was fired a week before the 2015 season ended.
Philadelphia has been just fine without Kelly. But it’s clear that fans and their former players feel the scars from his tenure.
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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 16, 2025, where it first appeared.