I don’t think anybody is ever going to say Chad Kelly lacks for confidence. The Ole Miss quarterback was the subject of a lengthy MMQB feature that published today and is well worth a read. Emily Kaplan spoke with Kelly, his uncle Jim Kelly, and numerous coaches and teammates to provide a better sense of the young QB. I imagine whatever your opinion of Kelly, this won’t change minds all that much, but it is still interesting.
The feature comes not long after Kelly got in trouble for running on the field during one of his younger brother’s high school football games. Kelly’s brother took a late hit out of bounds, and some fighting started. Kelly ran down from the stands into the mix of it. I am not seeing a ton more details, but it is one more thing that will be added to the list of questions general managers and coaches will be asking Kelly next spring at the Combine, as well as in one-on-one interviews and workouts.
The part of the article that jumps out at a lot of people is Kelly’s comments about why a team should draft him. Kaplan asked Kelly to pretend they were in a mock interview, and tell her why she should draft him.
“I have it all. I might not have the same mojo as your basic quarterback, but I feel like I bring a different type of swag to the team and the players around me. I have friends all across that field. When I go out there on the field, I play with a different attitude that you usually don’t see in a quarterback. I play with a swag they’ve never seen before.”
Indeed, he’s got that “swag” and thinks teams should want that. The article includes numerous anonymous scout comments that talk about a guy with a ton of talent who can do almost anything you want on the field. They describe a primary on-field drawbacks of being more of a gunslinger than teams want, and Kelly talks about how much he enjoys that mentality.
But the off-field issues are what will likely result in any draft slip. Kaplan asked him about that, and if he could be trusted. Naturally, he said he did think he could be trusted. He talked about how the poor decisions involved him, “thinking of other people and just trying to help other people before I thought of myself.” He acknowledged making the choices, but talked about it being looking out for other people.
The article is a good one, even if you are not a fan of Kelly. His uncle is Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly, and there is a lot of discussion with Jim in the article. Give it a read.