Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia

We all kept waiting for the big name. The slam-dunk. The hire that would wow us all.

Never happened.

Chip Kelly’s first NFL coaching staff, now finally complete, is an odd collection of fired Cleveland Browns assistants, former Boston College and University of Oregon assistants and a few guys that, let’s face it, nobody has heard of (see story).

If you were looking for star power, you didn’t get it.

Instead of Kirby Smart or Ray Horton as defensive coordinator, we got Billy Davis.

Instead of Ben McAdoo or Aaron Kromer as offensive coordinator, we got Pat Shurmur.

And right on down the line.

No bombshells. No grand slams. Just a bunch of names that made all of us repeatedly say in unison … “Okayyyyyy?”

That said, there is one crucial thing to remember here: None of us really has any clue what this staff is capable of.

The Eagles’ success from 2000 through 2008 was due in great part to Andy Reid’s original staff. When those guys gradually began leaving for promotions -- Ron Rivera, Leslie Frazier, John Harbaugh, Brad Childress, Steve Spagnuolo, Shurmur -- on top of the tragic death of Jim Johnson, that’s when the Eagles stopped enjoying the same level of success and gradually turned into a last-place team.

Reid wasn’t able to adequately replace most of those guys, and the inferior coaching staff, on top of poor drafting and some other bizarre decisions crippled the franchise.

Look back at that original staff.

When Reid announced those guys, the names certainly didn’t blow anybody away, and the reaction was much the same as it’s been the last couple weeks, as Kelly’s hires have been revealed one by one.

Shurmur had been an offensive line coach at Stanford. Frazier was head coach at obscure Trinity College, where he started up the program. Spags was coaching in the World League, of all places. Rivera had just returned to the NFL after five years in private business. Harbs was an unknown special teams coach, still 13 years from hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.

Offensive coordinator Rod Dowhower was the ultimate journeyman coach, in his 14th job in 28 years.

Even the legendary Johnson hadn’t had a unit ranked higher than 18th during his two years as an NFL defensive coordinator, 1996 and 1997 with the Colts.

But put it all together, and it worked. That staff had tremendous chemistry, Reid gave them a lot of leeway, they were terrific teachers, and that group of assistant coaches is one of the main reasons the Eagles reached the NFC conference semifinals seven times in a nine-year period and the NFC title game five times in eight years.

Conversely, think about the staff Reid cobbled together the last couple years, after those coaching studs from the early years had all gone.

Howard Mudd, Jim Washburn and Bobby April were all big-time splash names. Mudd was considered one of the NFL’s top offensive line coaches. Washburn was a legendary D-line coach. April was considered one of the best special teams coaches in the biz.

Didn’t go so well, did it? Washburn was a disaster and didn’t even last through the 2012 season. April barely did and probably shouldn't have. And Mudd quietly retired when it was all over, after his offbeat scheme forced the Eagles to cut ties with solid pros like Winston Justice, Mike McGlynn, Austin Howard and Jamaal Jackson.

So Reid’s staff of nobodies averaged more than 10 wins a season from 2000 through 2010. And his big-name guys helped turn the franchise into the laughing stock of the NFL, a 4-12 travesty that ultimately got Jeff Lurie’s “Coach for Life” fired.

If we’ve learned anything over the past decade it’s that big names don’t make a successful coaching staff. It’s all about finding motivators, teachers, communicators. Guys who work well together, guys willing to continually learn their craft and freely share their knowledge with their colleagues.

Kelly has won football games everywhere he’s been. You can’t argue with 46-7 at Oregon. What he’s doing right now might not make a ton of sense to us on the outside, but the last guy around here to fill a new staff with a bunch of unknowns went 113-60 over an 11-year period, got to a Super Bowl and sent six of those unknown guys off to become NFL head coaches. One of them was hoisting the Lombardi Trophy last weekend and was mixing it up with David Letterman on Thursday.

It’s a lot easier to complain than wait a decade to see how it all turns out. But Kelly’s got a tremendous track record. He wins. You don’t win without recognizing talented coaches.

Maybe none of this makes sense right now, but maybe one of these guys will be celebrating with the Lombardi Trophy sometime in the next decade the way John Harbaugh was on Sunday.

Who knows? Maybe all of them will.