PHOENIX – Chip Kelly is quickly approaching the first practice of his NFL coaching career and the first chance to see his team on the football field instead of the TV screen.

The first-year Eagles head coach has watched film of all of his players, but rules from the Collective Bargaining Agreement prohibit all NFL coaches from working with their players or even discussing football until Phase 1 of the offseason begins April 1.

Most coaches can’t conduct their first minicamp until after the NFL draft, which runs from April 25-27, but the CBA permits new head coaches to conduct a three-day veteran camp before the April 25 draft.

Kelly’s first camp will take place during the third week of April. Until then, there isn’t much he and his staff can do playbook-wise to prepare for the season.

“We haven’t had the draft yet. We also haven’t had the chance to fully evaluate our players, because all I’ve ever done is seen them on film,” Kelly said Wednesday morning during a breakfast with media at the owners meetings.

“We can’t get them on the field and say, ‘Hey, Antonio Dixon’s a pretty good player.’ He only got X amount of snaps last year, so you don’t have a ton of films to evaluate on. But now when you get a chance to work him out on the field, he actually can be an answer. Or some of those others guys. Ced Thornton, what can he do? That’s what this whole process is all about.”

Coaches are allowed to talk football with players in classrooms and supervise weight room sessions during Phase 1. It’s a safe assumption that the Eagles will learn more about Kelly’s vision and his expectations during this two-week period before they get out on the field for Phase 2.

Kelly is expecting to have Pro Bowl left tackle Jason Peters ready to go at the first camp. Peters missed the entire 2012 season after tearing his right Achilles twice last offseason and undergoing separate surgeries.

He wasn’t as certain about the status two other starting offensive linemen who had their 2012 seasons cut short – right tackle Todd Herremans and center Jason Kelce – but said he’s seen each one working out frequently at the NovCare Complex and seemed encouraged that each would be able to practice in April.

“Those guys aren’t walking around on wheelchairs, I can tell you that,” he said.

Along with getting his first glimpse of the team, including the handful of newcomers acquired through free agency or trade, Kelly ‘s first camp will sow the seeds of job competition, especially at quarterback.

Michael Vick and Nick Foles are expected to battle for the No. 1 spot, with Dennis Dixon and Trent Edwards also trying to showcase their abilities. The playbooks at the first camp is likely to be a basic, extremely watered-down version of his regular-season ones.

“We have an idea. I mean, we’re not just going to have 11 guys standing around and just doing whatever you want to do,” he said. “We’re going to line them up. But you also got to evaluate what their skill set is, and then your job is to put them in the best positions to make plays [to] where you say, ‘Hey, we really think that these guys will be great in this front. This is how we have to do it.’

“Where we have to be more one gap than two gap. Or more of a slant and angle team. Or we have to be more of an outside pressure team because we’re not going to get a great inside push, because we don’t have guys who can have an inside push.”

Just as Kelly is awaiting the first glimpses of his team, the players will get their first feel for him. Much has been made about his unorthodox practices at Oregon, his lack of experience coaching in the NFL and whether veterans will buy what he’s selling from the start.

“I would think people are going to have questions, guys on the team, just because I haven’t coached at this level yet,” he said. “I’m aware that’s out there.”

But Kelly said he confronted a similar transition in 2007, when he jumped from head coach of Division I-AA New Hampshire, where his offenses had shattered records, to Oregon’s offensive coordinator.

In his first year at Oregon, the Ducks averaged a Pac-10 best 38 points per game and led the conference in total offense.

“I approach everything the same way. It’s still 11 on 11, whether you’re at New Hampshire, whether you’re at Oregon, whether you’re at Johns Hopkins University, or whether you’re at the Philadelphia Eagles,” he said. “It’s still football. The only difference is more people watch it. That’s the adjustment. But the game itself is still the game itself.”