I get the sense that Chip Kelly feels pretty comfortable about his offensive line heading into the next stage of the 2015 preseason. Sure, the prospect of losing the somewhat disgruntled Pro Bowl left guard Evan Mathis (money matters) doesn’t sit well with many fans— but Kelly seems okay with that possibility.
Kelly relies on the evaluation and development of O-Line talent by his assistant coach Jeff Stoutland, who as you know spent two seasons coaching one of the nation’s most dominant offensive lines at the University of Alabama before joining Kelly and the Eagles in 2013.
Very steadily Stoutland has assembled a group of versatile and athletic linemen who can fill in for each other at several positions. The group contains a bunch of names which are not well known outside their hometowns or college campi. These “no-name” guys have been retained and developed over the past few seasons as plug’n’play alternates in Kelly’s offensive system. They are valued as better-than-average backups. They know the playbook. When they fill in for the stars like Jason Peters, Lane Johnson, Jason Kelce or (if he’s still here) Evan Mathis, the alternates and backups have done okay. Yes, there is a drop-off in certain situational performance— I mean, nobody can fully replace the lead blocking of a guy like Peters—but all in all, Kelly and Stoutland are comfortable in running the alternates out there.
In fact, Kelly is testing his comfort level with his backup linemen, as he did not draft a single guard, center or tackle in 2015…or for that matter, 2014.
I believe Kelly is putting his faith in Stoutland’s coach-up ability and basic training techniques. He is in effect building a “farm system”, to use a baseball term, and is intent on developing his own home-grown O-Line talent which buys into the Chip system— and doesn’t foster a “star system” replete with entrenched ego’s.
With the addition of a few UDFA rookie candidates, here’s how the O-Line roster currently shapes up headed into the next phase of OTA workouts:
# NAME POS. HT. WT. AGE EXP. COLLEGE
68 Andrews, Josh G 6-2 311 23 1 Oregon State
76 Barbre, Allen T 6-4 310 30 8 Missouri Southern State
73 Boyko, Brett G 6-7 301 22 R UNLV
74 Bunche, Malcolm G 6-6 320 23 R UCLA
78 Coccia, Mike C 6-3 302 22 R New Hampshire
66 Gardner, Andrew T 6-6 308 29 6 Georgia Tech
77 Graf, Kevin T 6-6 309 23 1 USC
65 Johnson, Lane T 6-6 317 25 3 Oklahoma
62 Kelce, Jason C 6-3 295 27 5 Cincinnati
67 Kelly, Dennis T 6-8 321 25 4 Purdue
79 Manhart, Cole G 6-4 298 22 R Nebraska-Kearney
69 Mathis, Evan G 6-5 298 33 11 Alabama
63 Molk, David C 6-1 290 26 3 Michigan
71 Peters, Jason T 6-4 328 33 12 Arkansas
64 Tobin, Matt T 6-6 290 24 3 Iowa
61 Vandervelde, Julian C 6-2 300 27 4 Iowa
What happened the previous two seasons was injury hardship (and an untimely suspension of Lane Johnson) created an opportunity for a lot of the “unknown” guys on the roster above to get promoted to the varsity— and a chance to prove they could not only play but get better. Some guys were not often activated, but still practiced enough in the Stoutland method that they were ready when called.
Last year alone, when Todd Herremans’ season at RG ended with a torn biceps, the line played with Andrew Gardner at right guard for half of the 2014 season. When Gardner went down with a high ankle sprain, Matt Tobin and Dennis “Hagrid” Kelly filled in at guard. Tobin and Allen Barbre filled in at right tackle when Lane Johnson was out. Gardner and Barbre filled in for Mathis at LG when Evan was out for seven games with a sprained knee. David Molk did a decent job at center in relief of Kelce whenever he was down.
Kelly is restocking his farm system with the UDFA rookies, two of whom may be bona-fide 6th or 7th round talents: New Hampshire’s Mike Coccia and UCLA’s Malcolm Bunche. Keep an EYE on UNLV’s Brett Boyko and Nebraska/Kearney’s Cole Manhart, too.
No doubt Kelly and Stoutland will be watching the waiver wires very closely during training camp as well. Somewhere out there is the next Jason Peters. Finding him and patiently developing him?— it’s what a farm system does.
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