Not long ago, the Browns and Eagles appeared to be engaged in a tug-o-war for the services of former Oregon coach Chip Kelly. Indeed, at one point there were reports that a deal between the Browns and Kelly was close.
When a Saturday lunch meeting with the Eagles’ brain trust became a nine-hour marathon, the sense the Kelly would be joining Cleveland subsided. A day later, Kelly said he’d be staying at Oregon.
As it turns out, the Eagles didn’t take “no” for an answer. The Browns did, hiring Rob Chudzinski instead. And now, to little surprise, the Browns are saying nothing about Kelly’s decision to become the Eagles’ head coach.
Per Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Browns have declined to comment on the matter.
There’s really nothing the Browns could say. When the Kelly deal wasn’t concluded, the Browns’ position was that they walked away from Kelly, because the team didn’t believe Kelly was ready to commit to the NFL.
Of course, he eventually was. But that doesn’t mean the Browns would have been comfortable offering whatever the Eagles offered to change Kelly’s mind.