PHILADELPHIA — The Eagles are loving the post-Chip Kelly life.
Even with a roster and quarterback situation bordering on disarray, it still is tough to find a player in the Philadelphia locker room pining for the former coach — who was supposed to revolutionize the sport but ended up alienating the building instead.
And just try convincing them Doug Pederson is the unqualified, out-of-left-field hire to replace Kelly that the rest of the NFL thinks he is.
“I definitely feel it’s been a change for the better,” offensive tackle Lane Johnson told The Post last week during a break in the Eagles’ minicamp. “As far as relatability, it’s a lot better.”
The fact those words came from Johnson is even more revealing, when you consider the Oklahoma product was Kelly’s first draft pick with the Eagles after leaving Oregon in 2013 and became one of his few successful personnel decisions in Philly.
Not all of Kelly’s legacy with the Birds has been erased since owner Jeff Lurie abruptly fired him with one game left last season — paving the way for the 49ers to hire him shortly after — and the franchise headed for a second consecutive non-playoff finish.
Though the rapid-fire spread offense has been replaced by a slower, more conventional attack under Pederson, the Eagles still use some of Kelly’s unorthodox (at least for the NFL) training methods and embrace his emphasis on sports science.
But Kelly also was notoriously introverted, even with his own players, and replacing him with the affable Pederson has been welcomed warmly, no matter how much headscratching the move prompted around the league.
Just listen to Sam Bradford praise the former journeyman quarterback, whose only other head-coaching experience before the Eagles was at Calvary Baptist Academy in West Virginia.
“Just knowing that Coach Pederson has my back as well and knowing that he’s a resource for me and someone that I can go up there into his office and talk with him — knowing that he has experience and knowing that he can give me firsthand advice — I’m not sure there’s really anyone else that could do that for me,” Bradford said last month.
Bradford, of course, is a big reason for the uncertainty surrounding the Eagles. The former No. 1 overall pick’s up-and-down performance and pedestrian numbers after being acquired by Kelly in the spring of 2015 factored heavily into the Eagles’ 7-9 finish.
Bradford’s unreliability (especially when it comes to his health) was also the driving force behind the Eagles’ stunning decision — just weeks after giving him $22 million in guaranteed money — to mortgage their future by trading up for North Dakota State passer Carson Wentz with the No. 2-overall pick.
As a result, the Birds now head into the fall with a roster seriously thinned by consecutive offseasons of dramatic personnel overhauls, major uncertainty at quarterback and receiver, the NFL’s third-worst defense and a contract standoff with arguably their best player in defensive tackle Fletcher Cox.
It is a shocking turnabout for a franchise that spent the first decade of this century as a model of stability.
The Eagles weren’t exactly dominant, losing their only Super Bowl trip in that span, but those Andy Reid-coached teams won the NFC East six times between 2000-10 and usually were a tough out in the playoffs.
That suddenly feels like a long time ago.
But to hear the Eagles tell it, getting rid of Kelly and replacing him with Pederson — Reid’s offensive coordinator with the Chiefs the past three seasons — was the first step in getting back to their early 2000s heyday.
“Doug’s fun and he’s a lot of energy,” Johnson told The Post last week. “Chip was the same way, but when you don’t keep progressing and don’t make the playoffs, people’s jobs go.
“Doug’s a coach that, if you have any questions, you can always go up to him,” Johnson added. “He’s more open than Chip was. Doug’s played in the league and knows what the NFL is all about. It’s been great.”