Three years ago, former Oregon coach Chip Kelly became the belle of the ball, with the Browns and Eagles chasing him and Kelly deciding to stay before suddenly deciding to leave college football for Philly.
Now, Kelly has become a full-fledged member of the FFCA, another retreaded reject looking for a job instead of having the job look for him. So it’s no surprise that Kelly reportedly has reached out to the 49ers. He’ll likely reach out on every job that’s available.
But the 49ers could make sense, as PFT pointed out last week when listing potential destinations for Kelly. If the 49ers hope to salvage the career of quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Kelly could be the perfect coach to do it.
There’s another factor that helps Kelly to San Fran make even more sense. Tom Gamble, after being fired from the Eagles’ front office a year ago as part of the power struggle that Kelly ultimately won, returned to San Francisco. As one league source explained it to PFT, Gamble and Kelly were indeed “very close.”
Of course, that may not matter if G.M. Trent Baalke isn’t comfortable with having Kelly there. Even though Kelly has said he doesn’t want to run the show, history suggests that, if he has success, he’ll try to run the show. Which could create even more of the kind of dysfunction that percolated throughout Jim Harbaugh’s tenure with the team.
Besides, with the 49ers dumping Jim Tomsula after one year due in large part to the importance of regaining the faith of the fan base, they may need to aim higher than hiring Kelly. Of course, the bigger the profile of the coach, the greater the chance that he’ll try to take over, either as he’s walking through the door or after he has success.
And therein lies the fundamental philosophical challenge for Baalke and CEO Jed York. After a year in purgatory with a toothless Jim Tomsula, are they willing to try to coexist with someone who would command more authority at the outset of his time with the time, or who would try to commandeer it after turning the team around?
If they truly want to improve the fate of the franchise, Baalke and York will explore their own role in the Harbaugh debacle and ask themselves whether having a coach who may be hard to get along with a times is part of the price to be paid for having a coach who can help the team consistently contend. And then they’ll consider whether Kelly has learned from his own misadventures. And maybe both sides will realize that a little more flexibility could help everyone thrive this time around.