Oregon Coach Chip Kelly’s offense won’t work in the NFL

If you missed Monday’s Google+ Hangout, “NFL Slam with Mark and Sam”, you missed a good one. Mark Thompson and Sam Farmer tackle a host of topics, one of the more intriguing ones being whether Oregon Coach Chip Kelly’s up-tempo offense can work in the NFL.

Farmer told Thompson that he has his doubts. With the following questions to be answere:

How do you protect the quarterback? The quarterback is much more exposed in Kelly’s type of system, particularly when he’s carrying the ball. Lots of big hits.

How are you going to work with these players? It typically takes at least a couple of years for a coach to overhaul a roster. That means Kelly would need to work with a team’s current players, at least in the short term. If he’s hired, the real test of genius is how he transforms a 330-pound offensive lineman into a marathoner who can stay on the field for 100 offensive snaps a game.

Can your defense handle the workload? Say the offense takes a year or two to get rolling, and maybe leads the league in three-and-outs in the interim. That defense is going to be on the field a lot. It would get old fast for a defense if it’s skulking back on the field after its offensive counterpart had three quick snaps and a punt.

How do you deal with NFL defensive fronts? Oregon’s offensive linemen spread out a bit more, and those wide splits don’t hurt the Ducks. Can’t do that in the pros, though.

That was just one of many topics covered by Mark and Sam. You can watch a replay of the show above. “NFL Slam with Mark and Sam” is held every Monday and Friday at 11:30 a.m. on Sports Now.

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