On Monday night in Landover, Md, one of the greatest intrigues of the 2013 NFL season will be unveiled for the first time.
Despite a spring’s worth of practices, a summer training camp and four preseason games giving hints along with dribs and drabs of what Chip Kelly‘s offense will look like in his first season as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, the first real glimpse of what’s to come this year will be seen against the Washington Redskins.
This spring, there was plenty of hurry-up. Very few huddles were organized during training camp, and the preseason was a mixed bag of high octane tendencies and traditional pacing.
Kelly, of course, is on the verge of bringing one of the most unorthodox, new-wave versions of the read-option from his days as head coach at the University of Oregon to the NFL. Count tight end Brent Celek among those anxious to get the regular season rolling.
“I’m not going to explain it all to you, but our game plan’s different,” Celek said at his Novacare Complex locker after practice Friday. “It won’t be a magic show or anything like that, but we’ll ramp it up.”
It appears that only a fraction of what this offense is capable of doing was on display during the preseason. “I think in the preseason you may have seen 50 percent of the offense,” Michael Vick said Friday. According to the quarterback, it isn’t clear whether or not Kelly has yet to install his entire playbook.
“We’re still pretty much doing a lot of things we did in the preseason but spicing it up a little bit”.
The Eagles and Redskins kick off on Monday night at 7:10 p.m. at FedEx Field.
Matt Lombardo is also a sports radio host on 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia. Join the conversation and follow him on Twitter.