A big-time Southern California real-eastate transaction between sports figures as Mookie Betts buys Chip Kelly’s house.
Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts has made another big grab, and he didn’t have to use his glove.
The 2020 playoffs and World Series hero has purchased a home in Encino, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles.
The price for the home was $7.6 million, and the seller is well known, too. According to records, the house is being sold to the outfielder by current UCLA coach Chip Kelly and his wife, Jill Cohen.
Kelly and Cohen bought the residence two years ago for $7 million. A rare win for the Bruins coach, who has seen the program struggle since taking it over.
The estate sits on a prime Encino street just a few doors down from the $6.5 million home of Tristan Thompson, and is naturally walled and gated for privacy. Guests will be impressed by the large motorcourt and the two front-facing garages, which flank a double-door entryway.
Because the .57-acre lot is quite long and narrow, the mansion itself is likewise notably long and narrow, stretching way back to swallow 9 bedrooms and 10 baths within its nearly 9,300 square feet of living space. Though described in dated listing materials as a “Cape Cod,” the house visually cleaves more toward the ever-popular modern farmhouse style, with white oak hardwood floors, whitewashed walls, and plenty of natural light filtering in through oversized windows.
Jordan Genmark Heath has found his next stop for after he earns his degree at Notre Dame this November.
As the 2020 football season started it was thought that Notre Dame linebacker Jordan Genmark Heath would be in the running for a starting spot but that did not end up being the case by the end of fall camp.
As a result, Genmark Heath decided that he wouldn’t play at Notre Dame this fall and instead finish his degree this November before finishing his collegiate football career elsewhere.
We now know where that elsewhere is and Genmark Heath will again be wearing blue and gold.
UCLA football coach Chip Kelly battled COVID-19 in March, according to a Los Angeles Times report.
A day after it was revealed eight UCLA players had tested positive for COVID-19, the Los Angeles Times is reporting Bruins head coach Chip Kelly battled the coronavirus in March. He has recovered, per the article.
The UCLA football coach tested positive for the novel coronavirus in late March after campus was shut down, according to multiple people close to the football team who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss a private health issue.
Kelly does not know how he contracted the virus, the people close to the team said. He was tested after experiencing mild symptoms and having followed all public health recommendations, including physical distancing, wearing a mask outside his home and not socializing or going anywhere except to obtain essentials such as groceries. His wife, Jill, also tested positive and recovered at home.
Notre Dame was in Devin Kirkwood’s “final five” that was released just over a week ago but wound up missing out to a Pac-12 school Thursday.
After getting tough but expected news about running back Will Shipley last week, Notre Dame quickly bounced back getting a pair of commitments by weeks end from defensive back Philip Riley and defensive end Jason Onye.
They had also been mentioned by four-star defensive back Devin Kirkwood as making his top five but the Gardena (Junipera Serra), California product chose elsewhere Thursday, making a commitment to UCLA.
Notre Dame’s list of commitments instead stays at ten as of May 14 with a pair of defensive backs included in that with Riley and Justin Walters of Bolingbrook, Illinois. Notre Dame will continue to look near and far for more secondary help in the class.
Kirkwood becomes just the third commitment for UCLA who now ranks 71st overall in the 247Sports team rankings for 2021.
Roseman will indeed target wide receivers with his eight picks, but the questions and concerns center around who and when.
Roseman is known for being an active participant on draft night and his perfection with the salary cap is second to none. It’s Roseman’s player analysis and penchant for missing on players that have some Eagles fans nervous.
The Eagles have drafted eight wide receivers since Roseman became the Eagles general manager in 2010. Only Riley Cooper and Nelson Agholor can be deemed anything close to being successful.
With the Eagles not guaranteed a shot at the big four of Jeudy, Lamb, Ruggs, and Jefferson, it’ll be even more pertinent for Roseman to make the correct decision on wide receivers in the draft.
With Roseman set to be on the clock, here’s a list of the previous wide receivers drafted under Howie as GM.
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2010.
Riley Cooper, Florida, Round-5, Pick 159 overall
Most known for his comments at a Kenny Chesney concert, the former Florida Gators star was the first wideout drafted under Roseman.
Cooper spent six seasons with the Eagles, catching 169 balls in 88 total games, for 2,418 yards, and 18 career touchdowns.
His best season came in 2013 when Cooper caught 47 balls for 837 yards and 8 touchdowns.
In all, Roseman has conducted 26 draft-day trades over the previous nine years, not including the 2015 draft when coach Chip Kelly snatched control of personnel.
With the Eagles looking to make moves, we’ve broken down and examined all of Roseman’s draft-day trades since taking the reigns on two separate occasions.
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Sep 10, 2017; Landover, MD, USA; Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham (55) lines up against the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
1. 2010
His first draft as general manager, Roseman came out the gate swinging, turning the Eagles’ 2010 second-round selection into six picks over two drafts.
Roseman first traded away two third-rounders to move up for defensive end Brandon Graham in the first round, he then made four more trades over the course of four rounds.
Roseman traded a 1st round draft pick (New England flipped the pick to Dallas who selected WR Dez Bryant) and two 3rd round draft picks to Denver for a 1st round draft choice that would become Brandon Graham.
Roseman then traded a 2nd round draft pick (LB Sean Lee) to Dallas for a 2nd round draft pick that he traded to the Browns for 4th round draft pick.
Roseman then traded a 6th round draft pick in 2011 to Detroit for a 7th round draft pick.
Roseman then traded a 5th round draft pick to San Diego for a 5th round draft choice and a 5th round draft choice in 2011.
Roseman then traded a 3rd round draft choice to Green Bay for a 3rd round draft choice and a 4th round draft choice.
Roseman then traded a 2nd round draft choice to Cleveland for a 3rd round draft choice (later traded to Green Bay) and two 5th round draft choices, one of which was traded to San Diego.
Roseman flipped those picks into Daniel Te’o-Neshiem, Mike Kafka, Clay Harbor, Ricky Sapp, and Riley Cooper while missing out on linebacker Sean Lee.
LeSean McCoy says he would love to return to the Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles currently have two running backs on the roster and the franchise’s all-time leading rusher would like to add his name to the mix. While chatting with Ian Rapoport on WestwoodOne Radio, McCoy opened up about his exit from Philadelphia and his yearning desire to finish with the team that drafted him out of Pitt.
“It’s not a secret. Everybody knows it was a special place for me there when I was playing for the Eagles. I started there, they kind of changed my life for the better. I was 20 years old, you know? Coach Reid brought me up.”
“A lot of my best friends I played with, we’re still good friends. I just talked to Fletcher Cox, what, yesterday, just texting him and messing around. A lot of my good friends are still there.”
“So it would mean a lot for me to play back there when I’m done – to finish, I should say, my career out there.”
McCoy is coming off a healthy scratch in the Chiefs Super Bowl win over the 49ers and the market for him looks dry at this time.
With Howie Roseman and the Eagles proclaiming a youth movement, McCoy simply may not fit in the plans at this time.
McCoy is the leading rusher in Eagles history, with 6,792 yards and could choose to retire as an Eagle is he can’t find any free-agent suitors.
Eagles would have made the playoffs twice under Chip Kelly in a newly proposed playoff system
Doug Pederson is the coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and a Super Bowl champion but history might have turned out differently had Chip Kelly been credited with two playoff appearances instead of just one.
Kelly and the Eagles made the playoffs in his inaugural season in Philadelphia, leading the Birds to a 10-6 record.
The following season, the 2014 Eagles went 10-6 yet missed the playoffs because of the Cowboys 12-4 record. Philadelphia ended up on the outside looking in after the Carolina Panthers won the NFC South with a 7-8-1 record.
On Wednesday, Adam Schefter broke the news that the NFL was set to propose adding a seventh playoff team to each conference while reducing the number of first-round byes to just one team in a new proposal to the upcoming CBA.
If the new proposal had been current for the past five or six years going back, Kelly would have been credited with getting the Eagles to the postseason in his first two-years.
The rest is history, as Kelly’s Eagles teams would go 6-9 and 2-14 in his final two seasons in Philadelphia.
With the new proposal, the yearly crisis of a 10 win team getting excluded from the playoffs could become a concern of the past. Over the past decade, five 10-win teams, nine 9-win teams, and six 8-win teams would have qualified for the postseason.
The Steelers would have benefited the most, gaining four extra playoff births over the past decade and having the bragging rights for making the playoffs every year of the decade.
The new proposal will make for some exciting and interesting football with the NFL season likely hinging on the final week of the season going forward.
The trade at the time was viewed as a win for the Eagles, but Kelly has gone to flourish as a versatile lineman for the Titans, while Green-Beckham was out of the league shortly after the trade.
On Sunday, Kelly shined bright once again, securing this big-man touchdown catch from Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill.
Dennis Kelly who Andy Reid drafted in 2012 catches TD for Titans to put Reid’s Chiefs down 10 @6abc pic.twitter.com/RTBNTjrjOJ
During his time with the Eagles logged 453 snaps in 2015, the sixth-highest total of any Eagles lineman, but only started just two of the 15 games he played in Philadelphia during his final season with the Birds.
In football, schematic innovation tends to trickle up. All of the new-age concepts you’ve seen infiltrate the NFL over the past few years were developed by coaches in high school and college. So, the premise of this list is a bit flawed.
The NFL has always been on a bit of an island. While lower-level coaches have never been afraid to experiment with new strategies, the pro coaches have been reluctant to adopt some of the things their peers are doing on Fridays and Saturdays.
It only takes one, though.
If one NFL coach has success with a certain concept, it’s not long before the entire league gets on board. Those guys may not have invented the strategy but they do deserve credit for bringing it to the NFL. All great coaches are receptive to new ideas.
Thanks to a handful of innovative coaches, the NFL game has changed dramatically over the past decade. Which coaches are most repsonsibile for those changes? Let’s figure that out…
1. Bill Belichick
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
This seems like an obvious answer but I don’t know how many football fans truly appreciate the influence a young Belichick had on modern defense. While in Cleveland, he and his defensive coordinator — some dude named Nick Saban — first developed the idea of pattern matching coverage. Everyone knows what man and zone coverage is, but Belichick and Saban created a hybrid of the two.
You’re probably wondering what a concept developed in the 1990s has to do with this decade. Well, Saban brought those coverages to the college level, and a few national championships later, almost every college defense in the country was playing some form of pattern match coverage. This was like 15 years ago. But that wasn’t really the case in the pros. Of course, there were teams that started utilizing those coverages at the turn of the century, but, even when Belichick was building his dynasty in New England, traditional, spot-dropping zone coverages were still the top option for most defensive coordinators.
That has started to change over the last decade, though. As passing games have grown more varied and complex, defensive coaches have had to adjust in order to keep up. Thanks to Belichick (and Saban), they have options outside of zone or man coverage.
(Obviously, Belichick’s influence extends beyond this one concept. I could have gone in a bunch of different directions with this one.)
2. Pete Carroll
Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports
Single-high coverages were popular well before Pete Carroll got to Seattle, but there’s no denying that the success he found with the Legion of Boom transformed the defensive landscape of the NFL for nearly the entire decade.
In retrospect, Carroll’s influence may not have been a good one for the rest of the league. Teams tried to replicate his Cover-3 and Cover-1 heavy scheme and didn’t have nearly as much success, which I wrote about my in my offseason series on the evolution of NFL defense. It turns out that running that scheme doesn’t work as well without Earl Thomas patrolling the deep middle, Richard Sherman eliminating one side of the field and Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright and Kam Chancellor lurking underneath. Personnel matters!
Even still, Carroll laid the blueprint for how defense would be played in a post-Tampa 2 world. The NFL remains a single-high coverage league.
3. Chip Kelly
Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Stop laughing.
Are you done?
OK, I get that Kelly was ultimately a failure as an NFL coach, but there’s no denying that he greatly impacted the league in the short time he was a part of it. I think his schematic influence is a bit overstated, but some of the concepts he popularized during his time in Philadelphia have become NFL staples.
Kelly’s use of tempo has probably had the most profound impact on NFL strategy during the last decade. And that goes back to his time at Oregon when Belichick was picking his brain and had the Patriots running a no-huddle attack before the rest of the league caught onto the value of going fast.
Kelly’s biggest impact may have come off the field. His use of sports science was seen as revolutionary at the turn of the decade. Now it’s commonplace. And his streamlined approach to practice gave teams a model to copy after the 2011 CBA cut down on practice time, something NFL coaches are constantly complaining about.
Reid has been a brilliant offensive coach for a long time, but I don’t know if he would have made this list if I wrote it a few seasons ago. In the past few years, though, Reid has evolved what was once a classic West Coast offense into something new.
He’s made the long-time NFL staple his own by blending it with concepts we were used to seeing on Saturdays but had never been the foundation for a consistently successful pro offense. Along with college staples like option run plays and RPO’s, Reid borrowed Air Raid passing concepts to help make Patrick Mahomes’ transition to the NFL easier.
Having a quarterback like Mahomes obviously makes schematic innovation easier, but Reid was having no problem getting top production out of Alex Smith using similar concepts. And as coaches from Reid’s tree have moved on to head coaching gigs of their own, his influence has only grown. It won’t be long before most NFL offenses resemble the scheme he’s crafted in Kansas City.
5. Kyle Shanahan
Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
I suppose the elder Shanahan also deserves a ton of credit for influencing the league, but Kyle has taken the concepts popularized by his old man and dressed them up with mind-boggling pre-snap motions that leave defenses dazed and confused.
Shanahan has a distinct offensive philosophy — outside zone running plays meshed perfectly with a deadly play-action pass game — but he’s done a masterful job of adapting it based on his personnel. The best example being the 2012 season when he remade his offense to suit Robert Griffin III;s strength, and, in doing so, established the zone read as a concept that could work in the pros.
In his presser today, Kyle Shanahan was asked if he felt defenses had figured out the zone read. His answer was fantastic pic.twitter.com/dSa9FfGGHn
In Atlanta, he turned Matt Ryan into an MVP with an offense built around two versatile running backs and Julio Jones. Now, in San Francisco, he has the 49ers offense humming with a tight end (George Kittle) and an H-back (Kyle Jusychyck) as the focal points. Shanahan always gets the best out of his personnel.
Last year, Sean McVay was being hailed as the NFL’s newest genius, but his style was birthed by Shanahan. And Shanahan has been doing this offensive genius thing for a while now.
