New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has earned the right to speak his mind as one of the most successful coaches in the league.
On Thursday he broke down the Chip Kelly situation, after the coach was fired from the Philadelphia Eagles. Here's what he had to say, via NFL.com.
"I mean Chip Kelly to me is a really good football coach," Belichick said. "I think he does a great job. I think he's done a good job with that team. It's disappointing to see. Or Josh [McDaniels] in Denver — there are a lot of examples, but pretty much everybody is on a one-year contract in this league. I don't know how you build a program in one year.
"Chip is a great coach. He'll end up somewhere and he'll do a great job there. I'd say a lot of the players that were on the Eagles that are no longer on the Eagles aren't really doing too much for anybody else, either."
Kelly had control of the program for three years, won games with players leftover from Andy Reid's tenure and tore down the roster.
It's fair to point out that the players Kelly moved on from didn't see much success elsewhere, as DeSean Jackson, LeSean McCoy, Evan Mathis and Nick Foles have all struggled, been injured or both.
The players that he replaced them with, though, didn't fare much better. The Sam Bradford experiment really hasn't worked out. The defense has been relatively dreadful. The DeMarco Murray acquisition was doomed from Day 1.
Moving on from Jeremy Maclin has looked like a huge mistake, not only because he's been so successful in Kansas City, but because the Philadelphia receiving corps was so dreadful for a good chunk of the season.
Kelly will likely be a fine coach wherever he lands next, but Belichick clearly missed the point here that the Eagles coach truly dropped the ball in Philly.
