5 Mistakes Philadelphia Eagles Can't Repeat in 2015 Offseason

After watching the conference championship games, it's clear the Philadelphia Eagles have some serious work to do this offseason. The team was good in Chip Kelly's second year, winning 10 games again and setting a franchise record with 474 points scored. But this didn't even result in so much as a playoff berth, and the quarterback situation is still largely an unknown.

The organization's offseason power switch—"promoting" general manager Howie Roseman to executive vice president of football operations yet simultaneously stripping him of his general manager duties—leaves Kelly essentially in complete control of the 53-man roster.

Kelly will have his work cut out for him this offseason. The offense was good but could be more efficient in the red zone and in committing fewer turnovers. The defense had a promising front seven, but the secondary was exposed far too often. This all contributed to the team missing the postseason, now giving Kelly two years without a playoff victory.

The talent is there on the team, but Kelly can’t make some of the mistakes he made last offseason, namely the following five.

Spending 1st-Round Pick on a 'Project' Player

Michael Perez/Associated Press

It’s well-known at this point that the Philadelphia Eagles targeted six players in the first round of the 2014 NFL draft, couldn’t get any of them and thus had to settle for Louisville outside linebacker Marcus Smith, a long-term prospect with “lots of potential.”

Smith didn’t play as a rookie, contributing nothing to an Eagles team that really could have used his help. He had no tackles, no impact plays and appeared in just 74 snaps, per Pro Football Focus. How bad is that? Even Dee Ford appeared in more (122 snaps). Smith couldn’t even get on the field in a 53-20 blowout loss to the Green Bay Packers in midseason.

The Eagles seem to have soured on Smith to a certain extent, judging by these comments.

"

Chip: Marcus Smith needs to beat out the guys in front of him. Nothing is handed to you here. #Eagles

— Matt Lombardo (@MattLombardo975) December 29, 2014"

Defensive coordinator Billy Davis doesn’t know where he will play Smith, whether it be inside or outside linebacker, per NJ.com's Mark Eckel.

That’s not good news for Eagles fans, who saw Ha Ha Clinton-Dix record two interceptions in the NFC Championship Game and Deone Bucannon play regularly as a hybrid safety/linebacker for the Arizona Cardinals. To get Clinton-Dix, Philadelphia would have had to trade up one spot; to get Bucannon, it could have stayed put.

Chip Kelly can’t possibly make this kind of a mistake again. The Eagles need production out of their first-round pick, and they need it in Year 1.

Paying Big Money to Mediocre Player

Jeff Haynes/Associated Press

The 2013 Philadelphia Eagles got solid production out of Riley Cooper. As an impending free agent, he broke out as a deep threat, hauling in eight touchdowns and averaging 17.8 yards per reception (third best in the NFL among receivers with at least 30 catches).

After the season, the team signed Cooper to a five-year, $22.5 million contract, assuming he could be a solid outside receiving option even after DeSean Jackson was released. The problem was that Cooper failed to get any separation this year, finishing with just three touchdowns and a paltry 10.4 yards per catch. Pro Football Focus rated him as the NFL’s worst wide receiver out of 110 qualifiers.

The Eagles can’t release Cooper just yet; per Spotrac.com, his contract is set to pay him $4.8 million in 2015, but there would be $6.2 million in dead money if the team released him. So he’s on the roster for at least one more year, but now the Eagles do know that they can’t count on him as anything more than a fourth wide receiver.

There are no obvious candidates to receive Cooper money this offseason, although perhaps the sleeper to get an extension would be oft-burned cornerback Bradley Fletcher. Fletcher was downright awful in 2014, allowing over 1,000 yards and nine touchdowns in pass coverage, yet remarkably, per Eckel, the organization has expressed interest in having him back.

If that happens and Kelly feels obligated to play Fletcher regularly in 2015 regardless of his performance, it will assuredly cost the Eagles some wins.

Making Halfhearted Attempts to Fix Secondary

Bill Kostroun/Associated Press

Remember the days of Brian Dawkins, Sheldon Brown, Lito Sheppard, Troy Vincent, Michael Lewis, Asante Samuel and Quintin Mikell? That was a long time ago, and the current Philadelphia Eagles secondary is in no way reminiscent of that group.

The Eagles have swung and missed many times with the safety position, although they found a decent stopgap in veteran Malcolm Jenkins, formerly a first-round pick of the New Orleans Saints. Cornerback Cary Williams, a free-agent addition from two offseasons ago, has been adequate, but he’s not a long-term solution.

The other safety spot could do worse than Nate Allen, but it could also do a lot better. The Eagles haven’t spent a top draft pick on a cornerback since 2011 third-rounder Curtis Marsh, and that was a colossal failure of a selection. It’s time for Chip Kelly to spend a first-round pick on a cornerback and maybe even a second-round pick on a safety.

Other alternatives include signing a quality cornerback in free agency like the Houston Texans' Kareem Jackson or Seattle Seahawks' Byron Maxwell, and opening up the checkbook for an All-Pro safety like Devin McCourty would do wonders for the defense.

Releasing Star Player to Make a Point

Michael Perez/Associated Press

We’ll probably never know the exact reason the Philadelphia Eagles jettisoned three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver DeSean Jackson in the prime of his career, whether it was for "gang-related issues," a smaller frame (5'10", 178 lbs) in an offense made for bigger players or the simple fact that Chip Kelly didn’t get along with him.

Jackson went on to have a solid season with the Washington Redskins, putting up another 1,100-yard season. Jeremy Maclin filled in admirably for Jackson, essentially duplicating all of his numbers without providing the breakaway speed Jackson offered.

Without Jackson though, the rest of the offense suffered: LeSean McCoy saw a dip in his yards-per-carry average; Nick Foles threw substantially more interceptions; and Riley Cooper couldn’t get open. Most importantly, the Eagles missed the playoffs.

This year’s obvious candidate is star running back LeSean McCoy, who is in a similar situation as Jackson: He’s around the same age (26), just made his third Pro Bowl and is the best all-purpose threat on the offense. Like Jackson would have last year, McCoy brings a high cap hit to the 2015 Eagles, as he’s set to make $11.9 million.

As noted by NJ.com's Eliot Shorr-Parks, McCoy has said he's aware he may not be back. But Kelly maintained he would like McCoy back next year when speaking on 94.1 WIP (h/t the Philadelphia Inquirer's Zach Berman), although, as Shorr-Parks notes, he wouldn’t officially commit to him.

This move backfired last year, and doing almost the same thing with an even more talented player would be ludicrous.

Overloading on Oregon Players

Matt Rourke/Associated Press

If Chip Kelly wants to load up on Pac-12 and Oregon players, he’s certainly allowed to do so. The problem results when these players, particularly rookie draft picks, fail to produce as expected.

Take third-round receiver Josh Huff for example.

Per Pro-Football-Reference.com, the average rookie third-round receiver over the last 10 years contributes 223 receiving yards to his team. Huff had just 98. He dropped four of his 17 targets. Compare that to Jeremy Maclin, who dropped one of 140. Huff also fumbled once and committed a penalty. Save for a 107-yard kick return score, he was downright awful, and this was in the unofficial year of the rookie receiver.

Fifth-round defensive end Taylor Hart couldn’t get on the field all year. He lost playing time to Brandon Bair, a 30-year-old former undrafted free agent who had never actually played in the NFL.

Hart will be given every opportunity to make the roster next year, but it’s only because he was handpicked by the coach; in fact, Chip Kelly wanted to pick Hart in the third round but had to be talked out of it by Howie Roseman.

If this is an Oregon bias, it’s not giving the Eagles any competitive advantage simply because these players haven’t contributed. If the players performed, no one would care where they went to college, but because they have underwhelmed, it’s easy to assume Kelly is going after his own guys.