Brandon Boykin clarified his comments in regard to Chip Kelly. It seems that Chip is no longer racist. He is now just “cold”. Apparently Boykin wanted more of a relationship with his former coach and felt nothing was there.

“When you’re a player, you want to be able to relate to your coach off the field,” Boykin told reporters at St. Vincent College, site of Steelers training camp. “There were times he just didn’t talk to people. You would walk down the hallway, he wouldn’t say anything to you. I’m not saying he’s a racist in any way.”

Okay, that is easy enough to understand.

“I felt a lot of guys in that locker room feel the same way,” Boykin said. “Of course, when you’re in the organization, you’re not going to voice your opinion. For me, I’ve always been a guy of honesty. Not trying to put anybody out in any way, but if you’re honest with me, I’ll be honest with you, and I felt like that honesty wasn’t there all the time.”

Huh?

How does being ignored in the hallway equal dishonest? I’m lost on that one. Boykin has not expressed himself well. Instead of pointing out a problem that can be addressed, he’s got me all kinds of confused.

Let’s try to understand Boykin for a minute. He comes from a close-knit family. His dad pushed him into sports at a young age and then pushed him to get a degree while at Georgia instead of just trying to get by and focus on football. While at Georgia, Boykin played for Mark Richt, a player-friendly type of coach. Richt’s wife is active with the team and there is somewhat of a family atmosphere down there. Boykin came to the NFL and was coached by Andy Reid, who at that point was a father figure to many of his players.

In comes Chip Kelly who is no one’s idea of a father figure. I’m sure there was a big culture shock with Boykin. He was used to a certain relationship with coaches and he didn’t have that with Kelly.

I think personality is a big part of this situation. Look at these comments from Jason Kelce back in May of 2013 on talking to Chip Kelly vs Big Red.

“With Andy it was more of… especially with me coming in later in his career after he’d built up such a reputation in Philly amongst the players in the locker room, it was kind of like there was an aura around him. You never wanted to be yourself around him. You always had to have this front up and you always had to be ‘Yes sir & yes maam” always on your Ps and Qs. He was a hard man to talk to and be loose around. It was always an uptight conversation whenever I had with him. Whereas with Chip, he’s much more, at this point at least, like one of the guys. He’s still the head coach and you still have respect for him, but he converses with everyone, strikes up conversations and is much more of a loose guy to be around than Andy was.”

Interesting. Kelce felt right at home with him. Who did Kelce play for in college? He spent 2 years with Brian Kelly and 2 with Butch Jones, a pair of intense, aggressive coaches. They’re screamers. Compared to them, Chip probably seemed like Mr. Rogers to Kelce.

Boykin would have preferred a coach who walked the hallways saying “Hey fella” or “What’s up buddy” to his players. Apparently that’s not Kelly’s style.

With race taken out of the equation, Boykin’s comments become largely irrelevant to me. If Chip is walking down the hallway focused on a new wrinkle for a run play instead of who he’s passing, that is just fine with me. Jeff Lurie hired him to run a football team, not be a greeter at Wal-Mart.

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Let’s talk about Boykin the player. He will go to the Steelers and compete for a starting job. They have a very banged-up secondary right now. If Boykin doesn’t play outside, he’ll move back in to Nickelback.

Boykin started on the outside vs the Chargers in Week 2 of 2013. That’s the only game of his Eagles career that I remember him playing as an outside starter. Roc Carmichael started a couple of games at midseason that year. Nolan Carroll started in place of Bradley Fletcher late last year.

Boykin was up and down in the Chargers game. He broke up a pass and stripped a ball from Antonio Gates, but did give up a few catches. He showed promise, but wasn’t so good that you felt he absolutely deserved to be starting. Overall he had a pretty good game, but you have to factor in that he wasn’t going against top receivers (Malcolm Floyd, Eddie Royal, Vincent Brown, Keenan Allen).

I think Boykin has a shot to be an effective starting CB, but it is far from a sure thing. Playing in the slot is very different than playing outside. Think about Dallas. In the slot, you cover Cole Beasley. On the outside, you get Dez Bryant or Terrance Williams. That’s a pretty drastic difference.

There are some really tough slot receivers. Boykin had some tough battles with Victor Cruz over the years. They each won some battles and lost some battles. It won’t be like Boykin will be overwhelmed by outside receivers. Still, there is a big adjustment.

The Steelers are going to incorporate more Cover 2 this year and that’s perfect for Boykin. Plenty of 5-9 corners have had success in that scheme. Guys with good hands and ball skills can thrive, no matter how big they are. In the Eagles scheme, 5-9 CBs aren’t a good fit.

Some people like to point out that Boykin has a good vertical leap. He absolutely does. But that can’t help you all the time. A 6-2 corner with long arms affects a play with his size by just being in the right spot. That length doesn’t change. In order to use leaping ability to affect a play, the CB would need to gather his feet under him and then go up. You can’t always do that when on the run or coming out of a hard cut. Size is constant. Leaping ability isn’t.

I’ll write more about the Eagles love of big CBs, but understand they aren’t being illogical. You and I might disagree with their line of thinking, but there is good reasoning behind why they want what they want.

It will be interesting to see how he does on another team and in another scheme.

I was a Brandon Boykin fan when he was at Georgia. I was thrilled when the Eagles got him in the 4th round. I hope he does well for the Steelers. If he’s on the field more than 60 percent of the snaps, the Eagles get a 4th round pick in return for him.

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