As the 2015 Eagles season spiraled toward its conclusion last December, safety Malcolm Jenkins said that one of the areas where the team didn’t “do a good job is really holding guys accountable” for their mistakes on the field.
With coach Chip Kelly and defensive coordinator Bill Davis no longer in the organization, there’s a new way of doing things around the Eagles. It will be some months before we know how those changes impact the team in the standings, but Jenkins has already seen a difference when it comes to the way coaches handle the moments when players have to correct mistakes.
“The coaching style is a lot different,” Jenkins said, via NJ.com. “Bill Davis and Chip Kelly, they were not big on being negative or yelling, or putting guys out in front of the team, and they had their reasons for it. But the personality on the defensive side of the ball is much more of a tough love. That is just Jim Schwartz personality. He’ll put it out in front of your peers. ... People who have made the same mistake multiple times, you hear about it. You get held accountable.”
NFL teams frequently see major stylistic shifts when they make coaching changes, so it’s not too surprising that the Eagles went 180 degrees from where they were with Kelly running the show. Now they’ll hope for the same kind of shift when it comes to the team’s record.