Dave Fipp, the Eagles’ special teams coach under Chip Kelly and Doug Pederson, has joined Dan Campbell’s Detroit Lions staff, the Lions announced Tuesday evening.
Fipp and Campbell coached together with the Dolphins under Tony Sparano (and interim Todd Bowles) in 2011 and under Joe Philbin in 2012, Campbell as tight ends coach and Fipp as assistant special teams coach.
Fipp is one of nine assistants that Doug Pederson kept on his staff when he replaced Kelly in 2016.
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Although the Eagles were subpar on special teams this past year, they were overall very good in Fipp’s eight years here.
According to long-time NFL writer Rick Gosselin’s annual special teams rankings, which encompasses every phase of special teams, the Eagles ranked 17th in the league this year, their lowest since they were 19th in 2013, Fipp’s first year.
They ranked 1st in 2014, 5th in 2015 and 1st in 2016 before starting a gradual decline -- 13th in 2017, 14th in 2018, 15th in 2019 and 17th this past year.
Last week, the Eagles blocked Fipp from meeting with the Lions, according to Birkett. But that was before the Eagles named Nick Sirianni as head coach and there was still a chance the Eagles’ new coach would have wanted to keep Fipp, who is under contract for 2021.
NFL
Had the Eagles hired Duce Staley, for example, Staley may have wanted to keep Fipp, who he’s worked with the last eight years.
Once Sirianni was hired, the Eagles no longer blocked Fipp to look for a job elsewhere.
Sirianni hasn’t named a special teams coach yet, but it looks like Staley and Fipp will be working together anyway. Campbell hired Staley as assistant head coach and running backs coach on Monday.
Hank Fraley, the Eagles’ starting center on the 2004 Super Bowl team, is the Lions’ offensive line coach.
Before entering the NFL on Mike Nolan's 49ers staff in 2008, Fipp was a defensive coach in college at Cal Poly, Nevada and San Jose State.
The Eagles did have an assistant special teams coach this past year, Luke Thompson, who coached with Fipp at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass., in 1999.
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