Doug Pederson did a miraculous job taking the train wreck left behind by Chip Kelly after the 2015 season and turned it into a Super Bowl champion just two years later.
One person who agrees that Pederson did a tremendous job? Chip Kelly.
Kelly, who frequently drew the ire of Eagles fans with his refusal to adapt depending on the situation, lavished heavy praise on Pederson for his ability to do just that.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer, Kelly praised Pederson for his adaptability and his knack for shaping the Eagles' offense to the personnel he had available.
"I think when you have good coaches, they don't try to put a box of what they do," Kelly told Breer.
"They say, ‘How do we adapt to what we have?' And I thought what Doug did last year at Philly was as phenomenal a coaching job as I've seen in that way."
The Eagles averaged an NFL-best 31 points per game and 390 yards per game – third-most in the NFL – the first 13 weeks of last year, with Carson Wentz the starting quarterback.
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Under Foles, they averaged 29 points and 377 yards per game, figures that don't include the meaningless season-ending game against the Cowboys when Nate Sudfeld played most of the game.
So the dropoff from Wentz to Foles was two points and 13 yards per game.
"He adapted from Carson to Nick," Kelly said. "What a great coach does is he puts guys in position to make plays, and that's what he did with those guys."
Kelly went 26-21 in three years as head coach of the Eagles but never won a playoff game. Kelly and Pederson both won 20 regular-season games in their first two years with the Eagles, but Pederson led the Eagles to their first Super Bowl championship in his second year.
Kelly went 2-14 in his one year as head coach of the 49ers and spent last year as a football analyst with ESPN. He's now set to begin his first year as head coach at UCLA.
