One man's trash is another man's head coach. Or something. Only a month or so after being fired by the Philadelphia Eagles, Chip Kelly is back in the NFL. The San Francisco 49ers announced Kelly's hiring as the franchise's next head coach on Wednesday.
Kelly, 26-21 in his two-plus seasons with the Eagles, has been hailed as an innovator since his entry into the league in 2013. He turned a four-win Philadelphia team into a 10-win, first place finisher in the NFC East in his first season on the job. The Eagles lost to the New Orleans Saints in a hard-fought, back-and-forth NFC wildcard game that year.
Kelly followed that promising effort with another 10-win season that saw the Eagles finish second in the division and miss out on the playoffs. This year, after major offseason changes, including the acquisition of quarterback Sam Bradford and running back DeMarco Murray, the Eagles never seemed able to gel and it seemed a struggle for the group to win even six games despite a mountain of preseason hype.
With the Niners, Kelly looks to be taking over a team bereft of talent, but almost perfectly suited to his preferences. Reviled quarterback Colin Kaepernick should be jumping for joy wherever he's at right now - Kelly has found a way to win with quarterbacks like Nick Foles, Mark Sanchez and Bradford, despite spotty track records and in Foles' case, a serious dropoff in production once he'd unintentionally flown the nest.
The Niners also has a strong base of talent for a base 3-4 defense, Kelly's preferred alignment because of the extra athleticism in the form of linebackers both on defense and special teams.
It may not be an overnight fix to right the ship in San Francisco and Kelly may need to revamp some of his approach after the league seemed to adjust to his tempo-based program, but if there's a coach that can take the talent in San Francisco and make it work, it's likely Kelly.
