How did Jason Kelce answer when Hugh asked him what went wrong with the Birds last year?

Now that Jason Kelce is retired, he’s likely to be more open on things – and even told Joe Douglas and Hugh Douglas he had no problem criticizing the Eagles if warranted in his new role on the ESPN Monday Night Football panel.

But what did Kelce say Friday when Hugh asked him the big question we all want to know about the Birds: What happened the last seven games of the season that the team fell apart the way it did?

“I think that the locker room is always a condition of wins and losses; good leadership and tight locker rooms can hold things longer, but once you lose seven games, people get into self-preservation mode, and that's not just a locker room, that's the entire organization,” Jason said. “Everybody starts to know there's going to be decisions made, and people, whether they're out front with it or behind the scenes with it, start to try and justify either their performances or what they think is causing the collapse. I think that arised on every team I’ve ever been on that loses games.”

Every unit can always place blame on the other unit, or their fellow players or coaches, so Kelce doesn’t think anything that happened last year was unique in the situation the Birds were in – but, there’s kind of a twist to it.

“We had such high expectations; when you have the amount of talent that we had, it’s something that’s naturally going to happen,” Kelce said.

So does he see the Birds bouncing back well from that tough end?

“I think it's always good to end the year on a high note, but I look at it more like the the years that we did really well as an organization were years where we had a healthy amount of…I don’t like saying fear, but the feeling when you know that you didn't end well or you know that last year wasn't what you wanted. Everybody just has a little bit different dynamic in the building,” Kelce said. “The coaches are different, the front office is different, the players are different and I think what you're seeing in the building right now is a very hungry team. The coaching staff knows they got to put up or shut up, and it’s a year that everyone has to rebound with. I think that although it ended terribly last year, I think we've made two coordinating hires that are going to be able to bring fresh perspectives and outstanding histories of success in the game, so I'm looking forward to an optimistic season for the Eagles.”